School counsellors and therapists have been described as the cacti of the counselling profession, able to survive on a minimum amount of nutrients. Certainly, most counsellors work on their own with clients, but a school counsellor is usually the only counselling professional in a school and this brings a special type of isolation. The opportunities for team working, clinical discussion and sharing ideas is improbable if not impossible.

Let’s Get Together is a series of zoom seminars aimed at breaking that isolation and allowing school counsellors and therapists to meet up and share best practice, joys, challenges of client work and extra-curricular programmes like peer support and parenting education.

Although school counselling has been in existence since 1963, there has never been a more exciting time to be involved in this rewarding and dynamic work. It could even be said that school counselling has come of age. Identified as the most prevalent form of mental health provision for young people in the UK, counselling and therapy in schools is a lifeline for many young people –  it offers easy access, a normal, everyday setting and a popular resource with little if any stigma. For younger children, experiencing adverse childhood experiences and developmental trauma, school counselling can offer a continuity of care that follows them throughout their school life.

The Iron Mill College is prioritising counselling with children and young people in its training programmes and is delighted to be convening this event with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union. The PCU is working with BACP and CUK to raise the issue of not only more funding for counsellors in schools, but more attention to ensuring professional rates of pay and secure contracts of employment for the profession. 

It’s time. Let’s get together and share our narratives of counselling and therapy in schools.

Register for our first meeting on eventbrite