Centre Director/Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Grade UE08: £49,559 to £60,907 per annum

CAHSS / School of Health in Social Science / Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences

Full-Time: 35 hours per week

Open-Ended (Permanent)

The Opportunity:

The Masters and Doctoral programmes in Counselling and Psychotherapy educate students to become qualified counsellors and psychotherapists, both in the UK and across the globe. Based in the dialogue between the psychodynamic and person-centred approaches, the programmes provide professionally-accredited education in non-directive, relationship-based therapeutic practice. 

The Hope Park Counselling Centre is a University-based adult public counselling service which also serves as a placement provider for Masters and Doctoral trainees in Counselling and Psychotherapy and as a research resource for staff and students. The Centre is run jointly alongside the Centre for Psychological Therapies, a therapy centre for young people and families, which serves as a placement provider and research resource for Applied Psychology trainees.   

As Director of the Hope Park Counselling Centre, you will provide clinical leadership, training, consultation and guidance to counsellors and psychotherapists in training, and leadership and support to the Centre’s team of Clinical Fellows. You will also provide clinical governance, consultation and guidance to the experienced team of clinical supervisors who supervise the practice of trainee counsellors at the Centre. 

As Centre Director, you will be involved in supporting the development of clinical research within the Centre, including facilitating students and academic colleagues in service-based research activity, whilst having opportunity to develop your own research programme and potentially collaborate on research grant bids. 

Together with the Director of the Centre for Psychological Therapies and the Project and Development Manager, you will contribute to the strategic development of both Centres and their respective services and research programmes. The aim is to achieve integration of core services and research strategies for both centres as one unit of operation. 

In addition to directing the Centre, you will also support Counselling and Psychotherapy students in securing placements in the broader network of community-based services. This placement liaison work involves maintaining a network of community placements, supporting the development of new placements and facilitating communications between placements, students and academic programme staff.   

In your teaching duties, you will contribute to course organisation, curriculum development, teaching and research supervision in the Counselling and Psychotherapy programmes. The Counselling and Psychotherapy programmes are founded on social science and practice-based research and scholarship, including case study and experience-near research paradigms and creative-relational inquiry approaches. You will be supported to develop collaborative research initiatives and independent research outputs in your areas of interest.

You will be joining an enthusiastic, motivated and diverse team where different experiences and skills are valued and contribute to our ability to provide an excellent student experience. You will be offered mentoring and professional development to enhance your leadership, research and teaching, including the opportunity to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. This role is on campus and requires evening work to provide clinical cover for the Centre.

Your skills and attributes for success: 

• Postgraduate qualification in Counselling and Psychotherapy, at Masters or Doctorate level holding professional accreditation with a relevant Counselling and Psychotherapy professional body (COSCA, BACP, UKCP or equivalent) or eligibility to apply for accreditation 
• You will have experience of supporting counselling practice placements and directing counselling services 
• You will have experience in professional education in the field of Counselling and Psychotherapy
• You will have experience in organising courses and contributing to programme development 
• You will be able to take responsibility for organising your own activities and for the management of allocated resources
• You will have the ability to work effectively both independently and as a member of a team as well as able to take responsibility for organising your own activities and for the management of allocated resources.

Click to view a copy of the full job description (opens new browser tab) 

Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:

• CV
• Cover letter

As a valued member of our team you can expect: 

• A competitive salary of £49,559 to £60,907 per annum  
• An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. 
• To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community
• To develop management clinical lead skills and professional programme teaching skills in a well- supported team recognising your contribution and rewarding success
• Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family-friendly initiatives, and flexible work options. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits 

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality. 

Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)

The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role.  This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant

Our offer is subject to membership of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme and a satisfactory PVG check. Once you have accepted our offer, we will write to you separately with information on this. Please note that a delay in completing your PVG application or releasing the result to the University may cause your start date of employment to be postponed.

Key dates to note

The closing date for applications is 21st October 2025

 

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone. 
 

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