Bridging the Gap between Education and Lived Experience
Practicum Students & Student Placements at A Positive Start CIC
At A Positive Start CIC, we believe meaningful therapeutic practice grows through relationship, reflection, compassion, accountability, and lived understanding.
We are a trauma-informed, person-centred Community Interest Company committed to creating safe, non-judgmental environments where individuals feel acknowledged, understood, and supported throughout their healing journey. These values shape not only the support we offer within our community, but also the practicum learning environment we create for student counsellors.
As demand for mental health support continues to increase across the UK, affordable counselling and high-quality practicum opportunities remain limited. Our placement model has been developed to help respond to both challenges by providing supported counselling placements for students alongside affordable emotional wellbeing support for adults within the community.
Our Practicum Placement Model
A Positive Start CIC offers online and in-person practicum opportunities where location and organisational capacity allow.
Our placements are designed to provide students with meaningful clinical experience within a supportive trauma-informed setting whilst helping increase access to affordable counselling support within the community.
Clients working with placement students contribute between £10–£25 per session. Clients working with qualified practitioners contribute between £35–£55 depending on practitioner experience and client circumstances.
Student counsellors are not paid for placement client hours as these hours form part of their professional training requirements. Client contributions support the infrastructure required to deliver safe and ethical placements including systems, insurance, safeguarding, administration, placement coordination, room provision, and organisational sustainability.
Unlike some practicum models internationally, A Positive Start CIC does not charge students placement fees to gain client hours.
A Structured & Supportive Learning Environment
We aim to create a placement culture that feels relational, supportive, professionally developmental, and grounded in real-world practice.
All prospective students undertake a one-to-one placement discussion prior to acceptance. This allows us to explore placement suitability, readiness, availability, support needs, safeguarding considerations, and organisational expectations before placement begins.
Students accepted onto placement receive:
• One-to-one onboarding support
• Individual #MyClientHub training sessions until confidence and competency are achieved
• Guidance in secure online counselling systems and processes
• Access to Google Classroom resources and placement materials
• Access to shared operational calendars and scheduling systems
• Peer connection through our student WhatsApp community
• Ongoing placement guidance and organisational support
• Opportunities for reflective learning, workshops, and psychoeducation
Students are required to maintain their own external supervision, student insurance, and PVG/DBS requirements in line with their training provider's expectations.
Placement availability and timelines
Due to the level of support, onboarding, and organisational infrastructure involved within our practicum model, placement applications are reviewed carefully and offers are made in line with organisational capacity.
From initial application to placement commencement, the process may take up to 12 weeks depending on intake periods, onboarding requirements, and current placement availability.
Students are encouraged to plan placement hours proactively and may wish to secure both online and face-to-face placements to support continuity of clinical hours during training.
As our wellbeing community continues to grow at Harestanes Tower and across online delivery spaces, placement students become part of a wider relational environment focused on prevention, psychoeducation, accessibility, nervous system awareness, and community wellbeing.
Clinical Boundaries & Client Allocation
A Positive Start CIC is not a crisis intervention service.
Clients are carefully assessed and allocated to ensure suitability for placement work and to support safe, ethical practice within student competency levels.
Students may work with up to five clients per week depending on placement stage, availability, readiness, and organisational capacity.
We understand that not every client will feel clinically appropriate for every student. Students are always supported to discuss concerns regarding competency, safety, therapeutic fit, or confidence.
However, students who repeatedly decline clinically appropriate referrals without clear rationale may not be prioritised for further client allocation later within placement. This helps ensure fairness across the student team, continuity for clients, and sustainability within the service.
Students are encouraged to communicate availability clearly and to remain active and engaged throughout their placement journey.
A Trauma-Informed & Lived Experience Informed Culture
A Positive Start CIC is strongly informed by lived experience alongside formal education and professional training.
As part of placement, students are invited to engage with aspects of the wider learning culture of the organisation including:
• Deb-On-Air lived experience conversations
• TRUST™ framework
• STAND: Parents as Protectors safeguarding programme in partnership with Safeguarding Fundamentals
• Reconnect & Regulate psychoeducation
• Trauma-informed nervous system awareness
• Partner workshops and safeguarding initiatives including River Room Songbook, MBIMB and Safeguarding Fundamentals
Students are not expected to become “clones” of the organisation or adopt every framework presented. Rather, we encourage curiosity, reflection, compassionate discussion, critical thinking, and openness to learning from lived experience insight alongside formal academic training.
Students remain responsible for developing their own professional identity, theoretical orientation, and ethical understanding throughout their training journey.
Community Participation & Professional Contribution
Placement at A Positive Start CIC is viewed as more than simply collecting hours.
Students are welcomed as part of a wider trauma-informed wellbeing community and may have opportunities to contribute positively through:
• Reflective blog writing
• Psychoeducational content contributions
• Workshop participation
• Community wellbeing initiatives
• Awareness and safeguarding projects
• Supportive peer engagement
• Organisational events and learning opportunities
All students are warmly invited to attend community events where possible including Open Days, wellbeing events, and annual Christmas gatherings.
We value authenticity over perfection and compassion over performance. Students are not expected to engage in performative positivity or self-promotion. However, while undertaking placement with A Positive Start CIC, students are expected to represent the organisation respectfully, professionally, ethically, and in alignment with our trauma-informed values.
Working within secure practice systems during placement
Placement students at A Positive Start CIC work within our secure client management system #MyClientHub, which supports safe and professional counselling practice throughout placement.
Students receive induction guidance in how to:
schedule and manage appointments
send confirmations and reminders
hold secure online counselling sessions
maintain confidential session records
record sessions (with appropriate consent) to support training requirements
prepare transcripts for college coursework
manage payments where appropriate
Working within an integrated clinical system helps students develop confidence in the practical responsibilities of professional practice alongside their therapeutic learning.
Preparing for professional practice beyond placement
Students will also become familiar with #MyClientPlatform, an enhanced version of our client management system designed for counsellors, therapists, coaches, and third-sector organisations.
The platform brings together appointments, secure notes, online sessions, communication, and practice administration within one environment, supporting practitioners as they move into independent or organisational roles after qualification.
Graduating placement students may be eligible for a reduced subscription rate should they later choose to continue using the platform in their own developing practice.
Placement Partnerships with Universities, Colleges & Training Providers
