SECTION ONE: ABOUT YOU
Full name and pronouns
Email
Phone
What are your formal qualifications? Please include the institution and year you graduated.
Rough Patch requires our counsellors to have completed a clinical counselling placement during their training. Who/what organisation did you complete your clinical placement hours with?
How many face-to-face counselling hours did you complete?
Which professional registrations do you hold and what level of membership do you hold? (e.g., PACFA, ACA, AHPRA, APS, etc)
How long have you been practising as a counsellor?
SECTION TWO: THERAPEUTIC APPROACH, COHORT AND COMPETENCIES
What is your therapeutic stance?
Do you have any specialty areas or client populations you prefer to work with?
Are there any clients you couldn’t or wouldn’t work with, either due to skill, experience or personal/moral reasons?
In your own words, what is intersectionality and how does it relate to counselling?
One of our Community of Practice values is non-defensiveness. This means being open to learning; being open to receiving feedback from clients, peers and supervisors; being reflective about yourself and your practices and assumptions; participating in group supervision and group learning; being willing to understand different points of view or psychological theories; and challenging the traditional, commonly-held beliefs about counselling and psychology norms, especially in relation to race, culture, gender, sexuality, neurodiversity and body liberation.
Can you tell us if/how you practise self-reflection and non-defensiveness in your work, and how you manage receiving feedback? Please give an example.
Another of our Community of Practice values is anti-oppressive practice. In addition to having non-defensive conversations, we aim to examine our biases and privileges; create a space that is as safe as possible for clients from varied experiences, backgrounds and intersections; consider the ongoing impacts of colonisation and imperialism in the mental health space; and are committed to ongoing learning about the harms caused by traditional therapy approaches.
Please note that we understand this is an ongoing learning process for all of us, and don't expect counsellors to know about ALL of the following subjects. However, special training or experience in some of the following areas is highly valued, and a willingness to continue to learn about these things is necessary. Rough Patch supports our counsellors by offering recommendations for training, self-directed learning, books, and other resources to support learning about the following subjects. You can view a list of RP endorsed resources here:
Have you completed training or self-directed learning in relation to anti-racism, cultural competency and anti-oppressive practice? If yes, please give brief details.
Have you completed training or self-directed learning in relation to anti-homophobia, LGBTQIA+ literacy and anti-oppressive practice? If yes, please give brief details.
Have you completed training or self-directed learning in relation to anti-transphobia, gender literacy and anti-oppressive practice? If yes, please give brief details.
Have you completed training or self-directed learning in relation to anti-ableism, physical and mental disability literacy, and anti-oppressive practice? If yes, please give brief details.
Have you completed training or self-directed learning in relation to anti-fatphobia, body liberation, and anti-oppressive practice and accessibility for diverse bodies? If yes, please give brief details.
Have you completed training or self-directed learning in relation to sex work, sex workers and anti-oppressive practice? If yes, please give brief details.
Have you worked in NGO’s or non-profit counselling practices before?
Have you worked in private practice before?
Do you have experience with FaCS/DCJ reports, family court matters, court appearances, report writing for court, subpoenas and subpoena redactions? Do you feel comfortable managing FaCS reports, requests for subpoenas, or court reports if Rough Patch management are not urgently available to support you with this?
SECTION THREE: ADMINISTRATION, MARKETING AND PRIVATE PRACTICE
Part of the non-clinical work in any private practice is marketing and promotion. While Rough Patch attracts client referrals via our website, all of our counsellors also need to spend time on marketing and community engagement activities to build referral pathways and community awareness. Rough Patch management will help you develop a marketing and promotion plan that utilises your strengths and experience - do you feel comfortable and confident executing a marketing plan with our support?
Another important part of the Rough Patch marketing approach is social media and online directory profiles. You are not expected to run your own social media page, but from time to time we feature our counsellors on our social channels and encourage you to have online directory profiles to maximise referral pathways. Are you comfortable with this?
Given how much remote work we do, and that all of our counsellors have other jobs, the Rough Patch team uses several online tools such as Slack, Trello, Google Drive, and Zoom to communicate with each other, access documents and complete reporting. We don’t use email very much. Are you comfortable and confident using online communication services, and if not, are you willing to learn with self-directed learning such as video tutorials, etc?
Another very important part of our model is the peer support we receive from our peers in our Community of Practice. It's important that anyone joining RP as a counsellor understands that this is a symbiotic relationship - we gain support and give support within our community, which in turn makes us all better therapists. It is a contractual obligation for all counsellors to attend 6 meetings per year, but we strongly encourage you to attend as many you can. Are you able to commit to a monthly meeting (Wednesday evenings 6.15pm-8.30pm) which includes peer group supervision, if you join our Community of Practice?
We ask all counsellors to commit to a minimum of 2 x 3-hour shifts per week (6 hours total) for the first 12 months. If you were to join our Community of Practice, how many 3 hour blocks per week would you hope to work?
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