Life as a counsellor involves providing counselling support to individuals on probation to support their rehabilitation and prevent reoffending. All service users who benefit from this counselling service are subject to probation supervision and will have been sentenced by the courts.
You will be responsible for providing counselling interventions to PBNI service users who are experiencing addiction/substance misuse appropriate to the area of work you are assigned to. For example, you may be working with service users who are part of our Aspire project where we supervise young men who are at risk of becoming involved or further involved in criminal behaviours. Many of these service users have experienced adverse childhood experiences and trauma and you will be required to deliver a rapid response to service users who need immediate access into drug and alcohol counselling as a result of assessed need or relapse.
You will also be required to deliver addictions counselling to service users involved with the Substance Misuse Court. Engagement with the Substance Misuse Court typically may last up to nine months and will involve addictions counselling and relapse prevention work. Provision of a rapid response service will typically last 12 weeks.
You will be responsible for carrying out initial and ongoing risk assessments. The role is incredibly varied and offers different challenges each day as you work to support people and help them to change their lives.