The “placement” is a unique opportunity for the student to experience an “apprentice” style of “clinical work” whilst they are undergoing the four year diploma in Transactional Analysis.

Placement Providers are by definition the providers who position the students the actual placements – they will do the assessments of the clients and if they deem that the clients are suitable for psychotherapy, and fit the developmental level of the Placement student, they will match the “two” together and provide rooms within their organisational structure for the placement to actually take place.

Placement Providers come from the world of Mental Health Services, Probation, Social Work, Charity Counselling and Psychotherapy Services, Psychiatric Services, Family Centres, Doctors and Medical Centres, and numerous smaller organisations within the health settings of the UK.

The Placement Providers are voluntary bodies which provide a valuable service not only in the mental health sector but also in the world of the worried well.

Placement Providers will interview student psychotherapists and counsellors for placements during the period September to March.  More often than not it is more the case that the students who wish to obtain placements need to apply before December/January of the preceding year that they want the placement from, ie if the students wants to have their placement March/April they need to have applied for a placement at least three months beforehand.

Placement Providers usually provide Supervision with regards to the actual placements that they give to the students.

They will sometimes give a contribution towards a student’s supervision and some of the providers may pay in totality for the supervision of the placement.  However, in recent times more often than not the cost of the supervision hour with regards to the placement is passed on to the student themselves.

In terms of the length of the “Placement”, placements are usually between 12 sessions to 6 months. This is negotiated at the time of application to the Placement Provider.

It is important to note that when a student is offered a “Placement” at the Placement Provider’s organisation it will usually mean one to three clients are offered as a “Placement”.