For advanced UKCP trainees
A counselling placement that pays.
Hora offers paid counselling and psychotherapy placements to trainees in advanced UKCP-accredited clinical training. Almost every placement in this country is unpaid, and we are not aware of another UK placement paying the Real Living Wage. You are employed as a worker, with holiday and sick pay. Clients are assessed before they reach you and choose their own therapist, with clinical governance and a proper structure around you.
Why we pay
Are counselling placements usually unpaid?
Most counselling placements advertised in this country are unpaid volunteer roles. That is the norm, and it is the thing we are trying to change. Psychotherapy training is long, rigorous and expensive. Years of postgraduate study, personal therapy and supervision, most of it unpaid. That cost quietly decides who can afford to qualify, and a profession drawn from a narrower group is a narrower profession for everyone who comes to it for help.
Employing our trainees as workers, on at least the Real Living Wage, with holiday and sick pay, is how we help lower that barrier, so that training isn’t only for those who can afford to work for free.
“Affordable therapy shouldn’t be built on unpaid labour, and neither should the next generation of therapists.”
What a Hora placement gives you
How does a placement at Hora work?
£15.07 a session
That is £13.45, the UK Real Living Wage, plus 12.07% rolled-up holiday pay of £1.62. Employed as a worker and paid monthly through payroll, with tax and National Insurance handled for you.
Clients assessed for you
Every client is assessed and screened for risk first. Clients then choose their therapist from our profiles, so you meet someone who chose you.
A structure around you
Clinical governance, a clear risk protocol and a Clinical Lead, so you’re never holding a difficult situation alone.
Online & flexible
Work from your own space, UK-wide, building a caseload that counts toward your training hours.
Holiday and sick pay
Real worker rights, paid annual leave and statutory sick pay. You’re still free to work elsewhere; Hora handles the admin.
Optional CPD community
Occasional optional group CPD alongside other Hora trainees, a bit of company in what can be solitary work.
Train as a paid clinical assessor
After a year with us you can train as one of our clinical assessors, paid £60 an hour: extra income that can carry on well beyond graduation, into your own private practice.
A path that grows with you
As you move toward private practice, there’s a considered route for established clients to continue with you, agreed with your primary supervisor, your training organisation and our Clinical Lead.
A caseload you can count on
We support you to reach and hold your agreed caseload, so your supervised hours keep building steadily toward qualification.
Who it’s for
Who can apply?
Hora placements are for trainees a good way into a UKCP psychotherapy training, ready to see clients under supervision. We work only with UKCP trainings, so Level 4 counselling diplomas and other entry-level counselling courses are not eligible. It is a long and demanding route, and that depth is exactly what Hora exists to support and to see properly valued.
That includes trainees whose training organisation has already signed them off to see clients independently. If you are at that stage, there is no placement approval to arrange with your institution. You come to us as an experienced trainee therapist, on the same pay and the same terms, and your supervisor arrangements stay as they are.
- Current UKCP trainee membership, in good standing
- A minimum of 100 supervised client hours and your training organisation’s confirmation you’re ready
- Or, if your training organisation has already signed you off to see clients independently, confirmation of that instead
- Your own approved, UKCP-registered primary supervisor
- Your own UKCP-registered personal therapist, and a minimum of 60 hours of personal therapy completed
- Your own professional indemnity insurance
- An enhanced DBS check
- The right to work in the UK
The essentials
Placement questions, answered.
A counselling placement is the supervised clinical work a counselling or psychotherapy trainee does with real clients as part of their training. UKCP-accredited courses require a set number of supervised client hours before you can qualify, and a placement is where those hours come from. You see clients regularly, work with your own primary supervisor, and your training organisation oversees the arrangement. Hora placements are online, so you can be based anywhere in the UK.
Hora placements are online, so you can be based anywhere in the UK.
Employed. You join Hora as a worker, not self-employed, paid at least the Real Living Wage, with paid holiday and statutory sick pay, and tax and National Insurance handled for you through PAYE.
£15.07 a session. That is £13.45, the UK Real Living Wage, plus 12.07% rolled-up holiday pay of £1.62. Statutory Sick Pay is separate and additional. Paid monthly through payroll.
No: you arrange and fund your own clinical supervision with your own approved, UKCP-registered primary supervisor, as your training requires. We work to the UKCP minimum supervision ratio as a floor, and occasionally offer optional group CPD (which doesn’t replace your supervision).
It’s shared. Your primary supervisor leads on clinical matters; Hora’s Clinical Lead owns the organisational response to risk, with a clear Risk Protocol everyone follows. You’re never holding a risk situation on your own.
Every client is assessed by Hora first. Suitable clients then choose you from our list of profiles, based on your mutual availability. Anyone whose needs or level of risk call for more specialist care than a placement can safely offer is signposted elsewhere, not allocated to you.
Current UKCP trainee membership in good standing, at least 100 supervised client hours behind you, your training organisation’s confirmation that you’re ready, your own UKCP-registered primary supervisor and personal therapist, your own indemnity insurance, an enhanced DBS, and the right to work in the UK. We’ll go through the checklist with you.
At least four hours a week, a minimum of twelve months, and eight weeks’ notice if you leave. The commitment is not there to keep you unnecessarily: it is there so that every client gets a proper ending of at least eight weeks, rather than an abrupt one.
Yes: you’re free to work elsewhere; we just ask you to declare it.
A private, confidential space in the UK, a laptop or desktop (or a large-enough tablet) with a working camera and microphone, and a stable connection. We ask you to appear against your real background, no blur or virtual backgrounds, so clients meet the real you.
Then it is simpler. There is nothing for your training organisation to approve and no placement reports for us to file. Everything else is the same: you join as a worker on the same pay and the same terms, and you keep your own primary supervisor, personal therapist, indemnity insurance and enhanced DBS. Being signed off does not mean working with us on a self-employed basis; Hora employs its therapists either way.
If you are on placement, it is a tripartite arrangement between you, Hora and your training organisation (plus your primary supervisor), and needs their approval. If your course needs to approve us as a placement provider, we do that for you: name your training organisation on the form, tick the box, and we write to them with more information. We complete the placement reports, sign-offs and confirmations of hours your course requires, and return them within 15 working days of a complete request. If your training organisation has already signed you off to see clients independently, none of that applies: there is nothing for them to approve and nothing for us to file.
The full terms are shared in the placement agreement when we talk.
Ready to apply?
Tell us a little about your training, your availability, and we’ll take it from there.