Want to join the team and work at Spiral?
See below for more information about working here in private practice or on placement.
Spiral was founded in 1995 as a healing and therapeutic space for both clients and therapists. We are committed to open dialogue, consultation and participation, and to maintaining high standards. Our aim is to make therapy widely available to the public and we hold the clients’ needs as the central focus.
The therapists at Spiral share a vision of the interconnected nature of mind, body, heart and spirit. We have a commitment to keeping the energy flowing through mindful attention to our environment and to each other. Spiral therapists and clients come from diverse and multicultural backgrounds.
Working in private practice at Spiral
Working in private practice Spiral
Many of the therapists who join Spiral on a placement stay on afterwards offering counselling and psychotherapy in private practice.
We also welcome applications to join the team from experienced counsellors, psychotherapists and complementary therapists who have considerable depth of experience, practice from a holistic and empowering perspective, and who resonate with Spiral’s aims and ethos. Therapists working at Spiral in private practice are also expected to make a commitment to attending our 4 yearly community days.
If you are interested in joining the team please email us with a cv and covering letter saying why you would like to join us. If we are interested in discussing your application further we will send you further details about the process.
ROOMS
We have four beautiful second/third floor consulting rooms consisting of a counselling/bodywork room which can also be used as a group room for up to 10 people, and 3 smaller therapy rooms. We also have a larger ground floor group room and garden, for up to 20 people.
COMMUNITY DAYS
Spiral holds 4 community days per year where all therapists come together for workshops, supervision groups and social time. Attending these is an important part of the commitment when joining the Spiral community of therapists.
The dates of the community days in 2025 are: March 2nd, May 25th, September 7th and November 23rd.
You can still apply for a placement if your training dates clash with any of these dates.
Placements
Spiral offers voluntary placements to trainee and qualified therapists on our low cost scheme. Our placements are suitable for those who wish to practise in a holistic and multicultural setting. We especially welcome those from minority groups but others should not be deterred as we carefully consider all good applications. We are looking for people who resonate with the energy of the centre and who can commit to a placement of at least a year, seeing three clients per week in a morning or afternoon (occasional evening slots are open to qualified therapists). Because some of the work is likely to be longer-term, applicants will need to have already experienced deep therapeutic journeys of their own, and be able to work at depth with clients. So this may not be a suitable place to have your first placement unless you already have considerable therapeutic understanding or experience in a therapy-related field.
As a placement therapist you would build up to seeing 3 clients. If you are still in training then this would be Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 5pm. If you are qualified you could work on a Saturday morning or in the evening.
Your placement would be supported by fortnightly individual supervision, which ensures a great depth of holding and learning. Supervision is an individual, 50 minute fortnightly session with one of the Spiral supervisors. The supervision is from an integrative perspective, and therefore if your training is not integrative, e.g. purely person-centred or psychodynamic, you will need to demonstrate that you understand and are willing to work from an integrative frame.
As we receive no external funding, we make a reasonable charge for supervision. Occasionally, for applicants who would otherwise be unable to have their placement at Spiral, we can offer a bursary towards the cost of supervision.
We generally offer a small number of new placements a few times a year.
We are currently reviewing applications that we have already received and expect to fill all available spaces in this process. It is then likely to be at least 6 months before new spaces become available. Please check here again or contact us after the new year (2027) for an update on availability.
PLACEMENT REQUIREMENTS:
- Considerable depth of personal development
- Commitment to at least a year on placement
- Membership of BACP, UKCP or equivalent (This can take some time so you may want to apply straight away to avoid your placement start being delayed)
- Professional insurance
- Commitment to regular counselling or psychotherapy for the duration of the placement
- Commitment to contributing to the energy of Spiral, including attendance at 4 community days a year at Spiral
- Please note that in order to maintain the diversity of the organisation and to reflect the balance of our client group we will be particularly looking for applications from lesbians and women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but all applications will be considered.
PLACEMENT APPLICATION PROCEDURE:
If you would like to apply, please send an email to info@spiralcentre.org attaching a relevant CV, and a letter of no more than two A4 pages. Please ensure that your name is at the start of the name of all attachments.
The application should cover the following:
- In what way have you personally experienced a deep therapeutic journey, and what have you learned about yourself through it? This part of the application is crucial, we want to know about you and your process and how you might relate your life experiences to your future work as a therapist.
- In what way do you work holistically in the therapeutic setting?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses as a therapist?
- Have you been in a relationship with any of the therapists currently or previously at Spiral? This includes therapeutic, supervisory, friends, and any other relationship. If yes, can you tell us your thoughts about being in dual relationship.
- Do you have any physical or learning needs for access with which we can support you?
- How many client hours have you done to date?
- What times are you available for a three hour slot, Mondays to Fridays between 9.30am – 5pm (and evenings and Saturdays if qualified)?
- What times are you available for fortnightly 50 minute supervision? We cannot guarantee that this will be on the same day as a placement slot.
- Does your training require that you have a supervisor who is UKCP registered? (We do have some UKCP registered supervisors.)
