Gay rights campaigners are celebrating “a watershed moment” after doctors said so-called “conversion therapy” designed to change sexual orientation was discredited and harmful.

More than two-thirds of doctors at the British Medical Association’s annual meeting in Brighton approved a motion backing a call for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and other mental health standards bodies to reject such treatments and ban their use in their codes of practice.

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MAP exists to provide counselling services for men experiencing domestic abuse. MAP accepts applications for volunteer counsellors who have an Advanced Diploma in Counselling, or DipHE (level 5), or are working towards this and in the second year of study. An application form is available from www.mapni.co.uk.

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Psychotherapy.net have published an excellent article by Keely Kolmes, PsyD on the use of social networking sites Facebook and Twitter by counsellors and psychotherapists.

If you are new to online social networking, the article gives a good introduction and goes on to examine the pros and cons of using this medium to promote your services.

The full article is available here.

Holywood Family Trust wish to recruit a Counselling Project Manager/Team Leader, based in the Community & Family Centre, 108 High Street, Holywood

The part-time post is to manage all aspects of counselling including client care, service level agreements, volunteering/staffing and professional supervision.

A job description and application form can be obtained by contacting Sally Moore via email at: holywoodft@btconnect.com.

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The Western Health & Social Care Trust is running a FREE two-day training course on Understanding Groups.  It will be held at the Omagh Youth Centre on 13th & 14th October 2010.

The aim of this course is to promote effective work with groups based on the theoretical and practical understanding of what happens in them.

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UKCP’s Diversity Equalities and Social Responsibility Committee (DESRC) has set up a workgroup to look into start up support groups for psychotherapists from minority communities. We are initially looking at:

Support groups for black and asian therapists and support groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender therapists:

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Due to additional funding recently secured, NICAS have two exciting opportunities for Social Workers to work as part of our award-winning Substance Misuse Service for Older People. This service is delivered primarily in the clients’ own home and provides counselling and support to older people and their families affected by substance misuse.

2x Counsellors/Social Workers
(23 hours a week) Ref: 04/10

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Quality Training UK have still some places available on the Post-Qualifying Diploma in Counselling Children & Young People running in September in Belfast.

The course is designed to encourage participants who have successfully undertaken a Diploma in Counselling, (minimum of 450 hours of training) and can show evidence of working in a professional capacity in the community, particularly with children or adolescents, to continue their professional and personal development in the field of counselling.

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The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has published the ‘Strategy for the development of psychological therapy services’.  The strategy has the overarching aim of improving the health and social wellbeing of the population of the Northern Ireland by improving access to psychological therapies and by being more responsive to service user’s needs.

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Due to popular demand, Nexus have added an additional date to their list of introductory workshops focusing on working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse.  The workshop will be held on Friday 3rd September 2010 at 10am.

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