Placements & Training
Supporting you from trainee to full accreditation
Lee Armitage, MBACP
Placement Manager & Senior Practitioner
At Insight Youth, we’re passionate about providing the best possible experience for those who access our service and helping nurture and support the training of future therapists. A quality placement is fundamental to the development of any capable therapist. We work hard to ensure that our placement opportunities offer an unrivalled experience designed to promote and encourage both professional and personal development in a supportive, inspiring, and ethically robust environment.
Why choose a placement with us...
Specialising in counselling children and younger adults
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Trusted and respected BACP registered provider of young person's psychotherapeutic services
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Robust safeguarding protocols and a strong therapist support system
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Comprehensive induction and initial service training
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Dedicated placement manager and ongoing support from a wider team of qualified therapists
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Regular team gatherings and peer-to-peer supervision opportunities
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Ongoing in-house training on a wide range of topics, from new approaches and neurodivergence to self-care and best practices
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High-quality facilities and access to a wide range of materials, tools, and resources to complement your practice and training
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Opportunity to work with a range of presenting difficulties
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Access to a variety of CPD opportunities
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Post qualification support with paid opportunities
Are we right for you?..
We seek exceptional individuals and embrace diversity
As a specialist counselling provider for young people, a placement with us is the ideal opportunity to complement your training with face-to-face experience in counselling younger clients. We provide opportunities to work with individuals under 16 and between the ages of 16 and 25. Our robust safeguarding protocols and strong therapist support system promote safety and good ethics while enabling optimal therapeutic autonomy for the therapist and client.
We seek out exceptional individuals who are passionate about working with children and young adults. We embrace diversity and promote the uniqueness of every individual on our team, learning from each other in an ongoing process of shared practice and reflection. As a team member, your input, thoughts, and analysis are crucial to our continual development as a responsive service committed to promoting the client’s wellbeing.
We partner with your training provider and clinical supervisor in an ongoing dialogue to support your journey to full qualification. As a BACP member organisation, you can be confident in our ethics and compliance with the latest industry standards. Beyond our established relationships with training providers across Scotland and the North of England, we are always keen to engage with new organisations and welcome enquiries from all students who meet our minimum requirements.
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A respected and trusted provider of psychological services, our network of referring partners includes GPs, CAMHS, AMHS, education, social work, and other third-sector organisations such as Children 1st and Interest Link. Our established flow of incoming referrals allows you the opportunity to work with various presenting difficulties, carefully assessed to match your requirements while remaining within your developing competence.
Beyond initial qualification, our support for placement students extends to full accreditation, covering the post-qualifying years to assist newly qualified therapists in achieving BACP-accredited status as per the latest SCoPEd requirements. We also provide post-qualifying opportunities for private client referrals, discounted room hire, contracted work within our trading arm, and support in setting up their private practice.
Entry and eligibility requirements
Making sure your course is the right fit...
​To be on placement at Insight Youth, we have certain minimum requirements you must satisfy. You should ensure you meet all these requirements before applying for a placement, as failure to do so may result in the rejection of your application. Before applying, make sure:​
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You are currently taking a BACP-accredited or equivalent core practitioner training course in counselling or psychotherapy.
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Your course includes at least 70% face-to-face classroom-based training.
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Your course requires an integral, supervised placement of at least 100 hours
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You are either a current student member of the BACP or are eligible for student membership.
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If you are unsure whether you or your course meet our entry and eligibility requirements or would like to discuss any of the above further, please make an initial enquiry.
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Upcoming intake dates
Don't miss the deadline
We currently have two placement intakes per year, one in the spring and one in the autumn. If you do not otherwise specify, we will assume your application is for the next available intake date.
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October 2024
Closing date for applications:
March 2025
Closing date for applications:
Closed for applications
Now Closed
Open for applications
12 noon 26th February 2025
October 2025
Closing date for applications:
Open for applications
12 noon 26th September 2025
Things for further consideration
Making sure we are the right placement for you
We advise you to consider the following before making your application. It is important to give careful thought to whether we are the right choice for you. As with any placement, joining our team is a substantial commitment. As such, you must be ready and able to take this next step with us.
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We are based in rural Scotland and operate three regional clinical bases in Kelso, Tweedbank, and Hawick. Do you have reliable transport to travel to, from, and between these locations?
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Although the timeframe of how long you have to complete your 100 client hours will vary depending on your course, it will inevitably require you to have several clients at any one time. Do you have adequate time to work with multiple clients on top of your academic, work, and family commitments?
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While we understand that some students may take on multiple placements, we ask that one with us be your primary placement.
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If you are confident you meet our course requirements and that a placement with Insight Youth is right for you, the next step is to complete our online application form by clicking below…
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Our ethics and regulation
BACP British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy
Internationally recognised, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is a professional association for members of the counselling professions whose register of members is accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). As an organisational member of the BACP (Organisational Member No. 276300), Insight Youth has committed to providing safe, ethical, and professional counselling and psychotherapy services. Additionally, all our therapists have individual membership of the BACP, and as such, have pledged to work in accordance with the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.
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Lee Armitage
Placement Manager & Senior Practitioner
How do you know a client will be suitable for me?
We work hard to ensure that placement students get clients matched to their ability, experience, and clinical scope. Our comprehensive assessment process involves a wide-ranging evaluation of a referred individual’s current situation, history, and presenting difficulties. Combined with psychometric testing, our assessing therapists use this information to determine each case's suitability. As students progress in their placement and course, we aim to match their evolving competence with the cases they are assigned. Ongoing dialogue between a student’s college, supervisor and Insight Youth is combined with feedback from peer supervision, team training, and regular well-being checks to help facilitate this process. This flexible approach helps ensure a placement at Insight Youth is not only rewarding and educative but also ethically robust, responsible, and principled. Despite the skill of an assessing therapist, there is, however, always the possibility that an individual who presents as mild to moderate at assessment goes on to disclose more serious levels of distress after counselling has begun. In such circumstances, our support and safeguarding processes ensure that students and clients are appropriately aided. Such support may include advice and guidance, additional supervision, or a counsellor change to one of more suitable experience and competence.
Will I ever be on my own?
The answer depends on what you mean by ‘on my own’. In short, as a rural service provider, there may occasionally be times when you and the client are the only people physically in one of our clinics. However, lone working, as it’s otherwise described, is something we try to keep to a minimum, particularly for placement students, for whom it would typically only be the exception. Even so, all team members, whether fully qualified or on placement, are rigorously trained in lone working policy and procedures. We also have well-established safeguarding protocols, on-call safeguarding officers, instant message professional group chats, and, crucially, our VATIX protector system of personal panic alarms and session-by-session monitored emergency support. We know that different course providers can have different rules and expectations about lone working, so if your course provider is new to us, please encourage them to get in touch with any queries they may have. Ultimately, the 4-way agreement will provide for each placement individually. However, most importantly, it is key that you, as the trainee therapist, are happy with how our service operates and any expectations placed upon you. If you would like to enquire further, please get in touch.
​Find out more about the protector app here:
What records do I have to keep?
Whether working as a sole practitioner in your own private practice or as part of a wider team within a larger organisation, good record keeping is an essential element of safe, ethical practice. As part of your pre-placement induction training, you will be thoroughly familiarised with the records you must keep for each client you have. Depending on the specifics of each client, the records you require to keep might vary, but for all clients, you will be required to maintain notes for each session, complete a small summary report at the end of your work with a client, and ensure their personal details are always kept up to date. You will, however, be helped through this process by the placement manager and wider team at Insight Youth. Furthermore, we hold regular refresher training for all team members and engage in an ongoing refinement process to ensure that record keeping remains effective and purposeful without becoming unnecessarily burdensome.
Will I be able to record my sessions?
We know that depending on your course, some students are required to record their sessions for review at supervision. For this reason, where appropriate, we seek consent from referred individuals at assessment to help us allocate new cases accordingly. As such, those students who require recorded sessions should only receive clients who have provided express consent for their sessions to be recorded for training and supervision. It is important, however, to note that a referred individual is made aware at assessment that they have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, for any reason, should they no longer wish to have their sessions recorded. Despite this, we have found in our experience that most referred individuals are happy to continue to consent to be recorded, understanding that this is an essential element in the training of future therapists.
What training do I receive from Insight Youth?
As a modern, dynamic service, training, reflective practice, and continuing professional development (CPD) are fundamentally engineered into everything we do. As a placement student, you will be required to attend pre-placement induction training, where you will familiarise yourself with all aspects of our organisation and the service we provide. Initially held over video call, these culminate in a final face-to-face session at one of our clinics. Following this and as part of the wider team at Insight Youth, you will be encouraged to participate in ongoing in-house training, organised peer-to-peer supervision, and regular team meetings. You will also have access to our specialist membership journals and a wide range of tools and academic resources to draw upon. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to obtain additional external CPD in areas such as child protection and first aid.