Practicum@iash.sg

This resource is for all practicum students joining us as an intern counsellor :)

First off, thanks for your passion and interest in pursuing counselling and using your time to help Singaporeans in need of mental health support. Here at iash.sg we warmly welcome fellow passionate counsellors! Importantly, in entering this endeavour together let's take some time to align and familiarise yourself with our guidelines for practice and work processes!

There are 5 main steps in your Intern Counsellors journey with IASH

Onboarding and iash.sg - Access card and documents
New Client - First contact etiquette
Payment and Cancellation policy - important!
Practicum Tracking Log
End of Practicum (less than 10 hours left) - don't abandon clients please!

1. Onboarding

About our Practicum program:

We use this practicum program as a way to train potential resident counsellors to take on part-time or full-time with us as Resident Counsellors. To be considered as a resident counsellor, you'll need to demonstrate:

Your ability through this practicum to uphold to ethical standards
Maintain good communication with our team, and demonstrate good team work and willingness to work together too.
And importantly, passion to be involved in our community events demonstrated through your own initiative and curiousity!

Intern counsellors who demonstrate all three during their practicum time with us will only then be considered for resident counsellor positions okay?

A. Onboarding documents:

Before joining us as an intern counsellor, we require you to have your own clinical supervisor arranged. When you have that done, please complete and submit the IASH intake form to our email itallstartshearsg@gmail.com.

IASH Intake Form

B. Counselling Group Chat:

Once you’ve sent us the form, we will add you into our WhatsApp referral group. This is where we will flag new cases, and you can also find access to our counselling room booking sheet :)

C. Arrange for Centre Orientation!

For the last step, we will meet you at our centre to give you an orientation, as well as your access card. Please note that the preferred timing for this orientation would be on Wednesdays, between 11 - 6pm!

2. Reaching out to Clients

Client Case Descriptions

You will receive client details either directly if the client has selected you, or after you claim cases from our group chats.

Please only claim cases that you are comfortable with
Cases on group chats will be awarded on a first-come-first-serve basis
Please keep client details safe and confidential

Receiving the Client's Personal Details

Here's a general guideline that reflects the best practice in reaching out to clients:

1. Introduce yourself, your name, and that you're a counsellor from IASH:

"Hi there, this is Song :) I am a counsellor from iash.sg and I received your request to speak 🙏🏻"

2. Give some form of empathy in the first message based on presenting issues:

"Understand that you've been going through a difficult time and have been experiencing anxiety due to your relationships and work. I think it's really admirable that you're trying to find a way forward too".

3. Arrange the session and provide date and various timing:

"Happy to arrange a session for you. Based on your preferred timing, wondering if Tues 23rd June 430pm or 6pm works for you?

4. Let them ask questions if needed:

"Let me know if any questions too?"

Planning follow-up sessions

After accepting a referral, we leave it in your trusty hands to arrange the sessions with the client directly. Below are some basic guidelines on how to do so.

Checking with the client at end of intake session on the expected frequency (weekly, monthly etc).
If then client wishes to set a time at that point in time, you may do so :)
Otherwise, ask client to inform you directly when they want a follow-up session.

3. Payment Details and Cancellation Policy

We hope that through your practicum with us, you get the experience of running your own little "private practice" :) This means that you will not only be honing your counselling skills, but also other important skills counsellors need like administration, and out-of-session client communication.

Our recommendation is that you learn to collect payment prior to the session - this will help you in the future as a private practitioner to create a flow in your process as well as ensure clients won't be a "no-show".

A. Request payment on behalf of IASH

We charge a $20 fee for online sessions and a $30 fee for in-person sessions

Request payment from the client BEFORE each session. You may send your client this link https://www.iash.sg/payment-guide
This mimics reality where we do need clients to pay prior to the session too - otherwise, we as counsellors will have time wasted on no-shows or clients messing up our practice schedules.

B. Room booking Etiquette:

We currently only have 3 rooms to share so we do ask that we all be considerate when booking rooms. If your booking frees up or if there is a client cancellation - please inform the group chat at your earliest convenience - someone else could use the room!

C. Cancellation Policy

***For Peak hour in-person sessions, cancellation policy always applies***:

Our peak hours are Weekdays after 6pm and all-day Saturdays
You are required to confirm with the client at least 24 hours before the session for such timings.
If client cancels within the 24 hour window - clients are required to pay the FULL amount of the session ($30) to cover the room opportunity cost.
Admin team will follow up with you on cancellation policy matters - of course PLEASE self-report as that would be preferred 🙏🏻

In the event of cancellation for non-peak hour timings, each counsellor has discretion over implementing the late cancellation payment with the following exceptions:

If rescheduling / cancelation occurs within two hours prior to the session,
If session is booked during our peak hours - weekdays 6pm onwards and on weekends. Full fee is charged if canceled within 24 hours.

As mentioned above, we need your help to share in the group chat regarding any cancellations:

if an in-person session has been canceled or rescheduled, as soon as you're notified of this cancelation or reschedule
Do help comply with this so we can make sure rooms are properly utilized, and that your time as well as our space isn't going to waste!
Also, our admin side does refer to room booking timings esp during peak hours to organise entry for our volunteers to run events - so need your help to share here if there are any last minute on the day changes

D. Dismissal of intern counsellors

FYI, below are some of the reasons where we have had to dismiss intern counsellors in the past:

Slow coordination with client / improper communication :(
Failure to collect payment
Failure to update on cancellations, room availability, or in following the cancellation policy
Lastly, any forms of entitled behaviour to our clients, admin team and so forth - drop those egos please! We're trying to impact something greater here!

We try to be forgiving but on repeated reminders, we will have to ask the intern counsellor to leave the program okay?

4. Practicum Tracking

After being onboarded, our admin team will give you access to the Intern Practicum Tracking sheet, and you are required to log your hours at the end of each month.

Personal Log Sheet

For your personal tracking, kindly create your personal log sheet, and you may decide on how much detail you wish to put in (E.g. name, date, hours of session etc.)

Lastly, kindly upload your personal log sheet into the shared folder:)

5. End of Practicum (less than 10 hours left)

Please update our admin team when you have less than 10 hours left so that they can brief you on exit matters :)

It’s also a good idea to start letting your clients know that your practicum is coming to an end. Giving them some notice allows them to process the upcoming change, and gives you both time to work towards a good sense of closure together, or to arrange for a case handover.

A general recommendation is to let clients know about end of practicum or possible termination / referral at least 1-2 months in advance!

Additional Resources

Yes, we know there seems to be one thousand forms you need to manage. We hope this makes it easy for you.

1. Informed consent (important)

This is your confidentiality contract between you and the client. You don't need to send this to us nor to your school - but it's an important mutual agreement between counsellor and counsellees.

As counselling can sometimes be done online or you may not have access to a printer, you can use a digital informed consent too (example below - create your own please). Some people will include an indemnity clause in their informed consent if you choose to include too.

Example Digital Informed Consent here (DO NOT use this link for your own consent)

You can view more of the workflows below:

2. Use of ALTERNATIVE intakes form (PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS)

As an example, in the CAE practicum pack, there is an option to use the client intake form that requires clients to fill up history, addresses, next of kind and so forth. We do not recommend using such forms as it is invasive for clients. We have experienced complaints / drop-outs when students have sent such forms too.

Instead, our recommendation is that you do your detailed intake during your first session itself - collect those emergency contact details if needed, check in with them through informed consent if there are any potential confidentiality or breakage of confidentiality too.

If you insist on using such intakes forms, then unforuntely we advise you to seek practicum elsewhere k?

3. Practicum log

There are two recommended ways of record-keeping and getting sign-off for your hours through our referrals:

Send the client your practicum sheet to sign off directly. This is the simplest and most hassle-free way.
Get our site placement supervisors to sign off on your practice sheet during and at the end of your practicum - of course we tie this in with your practicum logsheet with us too

4. Lastly, end of practicum documents.

When you are completing your practicum, please contact us on our whatsapp admin account. We will update you on the documents you need our sign off to finish up okay!

Reminder: Practice Ethically!

Enough said!

At this stage you have a pretty good understanding of ethical codes of practice. However, some things are worth repeating:

Know the limits of confidentiality - harm to self, others, crime, law.
Don't abandon a client - if you have difficult with a case, let our placement supervisors know and they can refer.
Crisis Management: do check in early with your clinical supervisor on their preferred mitigation / crisis procedures should you find yourself with a client at risk.

If ever in doubt, do feel free to bring up client concerns in the group, or to your own clinical supervisors, or to the placement supervisors privately if you wish.

You're encouraged to join other parts of IASH :)

There are various ongoing community activities we welcome you to join if you're interested in:

1. Monthly volunteer catchups at the IASH resident counselling clinic - just to get to know each other and talk about cases, etc. It's a friendly catchup!

2. Empathy circles and community events - definitely join and help out if you'd like to be considered for resident counsellor position

3. Peer supervision sessions - let's learn from one another in a safe space!

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