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Counselling Tutor Podcast

Counselling Tutor Podcast

By: Ken Kelly and Rory Lees-Oakes
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Summary
 CPD, supervision and specialist training for counsellors Education
Episodes
  • 391 – Choosing Your Clinical Will Executor

    391 – Choosing Your Clinical Will Executor
    Nov 14 2026
    Online and Telephone Placements - Is It Something I Did? In Episode 391 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week's three topics: Firstly, in 'Ethical, Sustainable Practice', they explore choosing your clinical will executor - who is suitable for the role and where a clinical will can fail. Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Dee Phillips-Duncan about online and telephone placement requirements - and whether they reflect what the public and students actually need. And finally, in 'Student Services', Rory and Ken discuss the self-doubt that surfaces when a client does not return - the familiar question of 'is it something I did?' Choosing Your Clinical Will Executor [starts at 03:48 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken explore choosing your clinical will executor - who is suitable for the role - and the common points where a clinical will can fail. Key points discussed include: A clinical will lets a trusted therapist, rather than a grieving family member, compassionately contact clients if the practitioner becomes seriously unwell or dies. The executor should be an experienced counsellor or psychotherapist who understands the practitioner's confidentiality agreement and can hold client distress, not a student or novice. Options include an experienced colleague, a clinical supervisor, a professional outside the practice, or a practice organisation, each carrying its own strengths and weaknesses around impartiality, capacity and access to information. A clinical will is an ethical document rather than a legal one, so it needs no set template and should be tailored to the practitioner's own clients, modality and boundaries. Common failure points include storing client data on personal devices that fail or are replaced, changed passwords, outdated software, and the executor never being told the will needs activating. The role involves real work and should be discussed, agreed and reasonably paid for in advance, with the will revisited annually to check everything is still current. Online and Telephone Placements [starts at 36:12 mins] In this week's 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Dee Phillips-Duncan about whether current placement requirements reflect what clients and students actually need. Key points from this conversation include: Personal Bridge is a non-profit counselling charity in Bradford offering pay-what-you-can-afford counselling, with face-to-face work locally and remote counselling across the UK. Current requirements let adult placement students complete up to 49% of their 100 hours online or by telephone, with the remaining hours face-to-face, while work with children and young people must be face-to-face. Dee's informal survey of Facebook groups found students struggling emotionally, financially and practically, with some holding hundreds of supervised hours yet unable to qualify because of the face-to-face split. She highlights an accessibility concern, including a visually impaired student unable to drive who spent two years trying to find a reachable placement, raising questions under the Equality Act. Her service saw 26 of 30 enquiries over eight weeks request online counselling, reflecting a growing public preference for remote therapy as other services such as GP appointments also move online. Dee calls on professional bodies to review whether current rules unintentionally create barriers, stressing this is about accessibility and shared responsibility, not lowering standards. Is It Something I Did? Managing Self-Doubt When a Client Does Not Return [starts at 55:52 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken discuss the self-doubt that arises when a placement client does not attend or does not return after a first session. Key points include: The worry of 'is it me?' is common for students and persists for many therapists throughout their careers, and is closely linked to imposter syndrome. Supervision is the ideal place to take these feelings, and the client who did not return is exactly the one worth bringing rather than quietly dropping. Therapy is the client's journey, and respecting client autonomy means accepting their right not to return, for reasons that are theirs and often nothing to do with the therapist. Clients may simply not be a fit, may have found therapy different from what they expected, or may have taken what they needed from a single session and moved on. Honest, reflective self-examination has value, but it should not tip into self-criticism that becomes self-destructive or makes someone want to give up. Practitioners should learn their agency's processes around a did-not-attend, including who is responsible for following up and how many contact attempts are made before a client is classed as not returning. Links and Resources Counselling Skills Academy Advanced Certificate in Counselling Supervision Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide Counsellor CPD Counselling Study Resource Counselling Theory...
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  • 390 – Counselling CPD: Why Current Ethical Standards Matter

    390 – Counselling CPD: Why Current Ethical Standards Matter
    Nov 7 2026
    Understanding the Accredited Register - When Client Attendance Doesn't Go to Plan In Episode 390 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week's three topics: Firstly, in ‘Ethical, Sustainable Practice’, they explore counselling CPD - why current ethical standards matter, and why training and professional standards can no longer be separated. Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Meg Moss about the accredited register - what it is, who oversees it, and why it matters to the public. And finally, in 'Student Services', Rory and Ken discuss what to do when client attendance doesn't go to plan - managing no-shows and the feelings they bring up. Counselling CPD: Why Current Ethical Standards Matter [starts at 02:36 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken explore counselling CPD - why current ethical standards matter and now sit at the heart of professional development, and how they should be woven into training rather than treated as a separate add-on. Key points discussed include: Ethical frameworks have shifted from being documents of reference to documents of action, with the latest BACP framework asking practitioners to actively do something rather than simply read guidance. Collaboration is now central to ethical practice, which means clients should be within decision-making wherever possible and the six-question model of ethical problem solving is likely to be used across the profession. CPD is no longer a box-ticking exercise to evidence a set number of hours, but a way to enrich practice, work at a deeper level, and bring the latest research, law, and guidance into the room. Training providers carry a responsibility to bake current ethical standards, legislation, up-to-date research, and clear competence frameworks into their courses rather than bolting ethics on separately. Good training should be honest about the limitations of a qualification and should encourage critical thinking, reflection, and the development of professional judgment, sometimes known as wisdom. Ultimately the responsibility sits with the individual practitioner, and Rory's free handout includes an 'Is My Training Up to Date?' checklist and five questions to ask before enrolling on any course. Understanding the Accredited Register [starts at 25:50 mins] In this week's 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Meg Moss about what a PSA accredited register is, how it protects the public, and why the quality mark matters when clients are choosing a therapist. Key points from this conversation include: The Accredited Register programme began in 2012 and is a form of right-touch, voluntary regulation covering health and care roles, including counselling, that are not statutorily regulated. The PSA accredits the register or organisation rather than the individual, so bodies like the NCPS must meet standards on conduct, competence, and complaints to hold the quality mark. A key public protection feature is that someone removed from one accredited register cannot simply hop to another, closing a loophole that once allowed people to move between bodies. Being on an accredited register signals that a practitioner's training has been checked, with a minimum of two years of study, at least 100 hours of placement, ongoing supervision, 30 hours of annual CPD, and valid insurance. From July 2026 the standards for accredited registers and statutory regulators became fully aligned, so the two now work to the same requirements. The NHS now recognises the PSA accredited register, meaning NCPS membership and other accredited bodies are acceptable for NHS counselling and psychotherapy roles where a single body was once specified. When Client Attendance Doesn't Go to Plan [starts at 55:24 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken discuss the reality of no-shows and did-not-attends in placement, why they happen, and how students can manage both their hours and their feelings. Key points include: Missed appointments are a normal part of practice rather than a personal failing, and they tend to be more common in free or low-cost placement settings where clients have less invested. Rory describes how a practice manager cut referrals by half by introducing a two-week wait before allocating a counsellor, which left those who still wanted therapy more likely to attend. Much of what stops clients attending sits outside the room, which Rory links to Michael Lambert's common factors and the large share attributed to client extra-therapeutic factors. Students can use unexpected gaps constructively by writing assignments, reading, reviewing lectures, doing CPD, or listening to the podcast rather than sitting idle. A compassionate stance helps, since reaching out and attending can be genuinely difficult for clients facing anxiety, transport, childcare, cost, or ill health. No-shows are valuable personal development material, worth noticing, sitting with, and bringing to professional discussion rather than ...
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  • 389 – Clinical Supervision and Line Management

    389 – Clinical Supervision and Line Management
    Oct 31 2026
    Working with Sex and Porn Addiction - Making Sense of PD Groups In Episode 389 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week's three topics: Firstly, in ‘Ethical, Sustainable Practice’, they explore clinical supervision and line management - the separation of the two under the new BACP Ethical Framework 2026, and whether it could create more demand for clinical supervisors. Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Dr. Paula Hall about working with sex and porn addiction - and how therapists can understand and respond to compulsive sexual behaviour. And finally, in 'Student Services', Rory and Ken discuss making sense of personal development groups - what they are for and why they matter in training. Clinical Supervision and Line Management [starts at 02:58 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken explore clinical supervision and line management under the new BACP Ethical Framework 2026. They look at how it separates supervision from case management, and what this might mean for the demand for independent supervisors. Key points discussed include: The new BACP Ethical Framework, which becomes mandatory on 3 November 2026, separates clinical supervision more clearly from line management and case management. For many years, counsellors in organisations have sometimes received clinical supervision from the same person who manages their performance, allocates their clients and handles disciplinary matters. External or independent supervision allows a practitioner to speak frankly and with candour about their work, their clients and the organisation itself. Clinical supervision, line management and case management are distinct functions, and expecting one person to hold all three is a substantial and potentially conflicting workload. Section 4.3 of the framework requires supervision to be appropriate to the supervisee's work and aligned with the BACP Supervision Competence Framework. The hosts suggest the change could create fresh demand and opportunities for qualified, competent clinical supervisors, including through online and telephone working. Working with Sex and Porn Addiction [starts at 23:08 mins] In this week's 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Dr. Paula Hall about working with compulsive sexual behaviour, sometimes referred to as sex and porn addiction, and how counsellors can respond to it. Key points from this conversation include: The World Health Organization now uses the term compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD), although the diagnosis is still evolving and not yet settled. Paula Hall suggests working with the client's distress rather than the label, meeting them in their own frame of reference and using the language they bring. She notes that around 70,000 people in the UK search online each month for help with sex or porn addiction, compared with very few who search for CSBD. Compulsive sexual behaviour is usually about emotional regulation rather than appetite or sex drive, which is why she likens it more to disordered eating than to classic addiction. A client whose distress is largely moral or shame-based may not meet the clinical criteria, and counsellors should be ready to refer on where specialist work is needed. Her CHOICE recovery model focuses on positive sexuality and well-being rather than abstinence, works at the client's own pace, and her forthcoming edition includes a chapter on neurodivergent clients. Making Sense of PD Groups [starts at 50:53 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken discuss what personal development groups are, how they differ from therapy, and why they can be such a powerful part of training. Key points include: A personal development group is a space where students on the same course can process the changes their training brings up, often acting like a decompression chamber at the end of a session. Rory frames the PD group as a form of encounter group, drawing on Carl Rogers's later work, where members meet and are real about how they experience one another. It is not therapy or group therapy, even though it can feel therapeutic, and its purpose is personal development rather than fixing or advising others. Ken highlights that challenging feelings in the group belong to the individual, since emotions originate internally and offer an opportunity for self-reflection. The group is also a place to practise active listening, to sit with silence, and to notice the urge to fix or rescue others. Both hosts reflect that PD groups can produce powerful, lasting personal shifts and are often deeply missed once training ends. Links and Resources Counselling Skills Academy Advanced Certificate in Counselling Supervision Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide Counsellor CPD Counselling Study Resource Counselling Theory in Practice: A Student Guide Counselling Tutor Training and CPD Facebook group Website Online and Telephone Counselling: A Practitioner’s Guide Online and Telephone Counselling Course
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