Assistant Counselor
Job Description
Assistant Counselor
Closing date: 18 Jun 2025
Tushinde Children Trust was founded in March 2010. It was set up after Megan Wright, a British woman living in Kenya, visited a project working in the Mathare Slums of Nairobi. The conditions people living in are bad; Shanty towns of thousands of one roomed shacks squashed between poorly built high-rise flats. As many as ten people would live in these huts made of wood, mud and roofed with corrugated iron. No sanitation or legal electricity, and limited access to running water. Babies and children would play in the dirt beside open sewers. Children often had to be abandoned at home whilst their parents or carers went to look for money and food. Megan realised that the challenges keeping some children from school in the informal settlements in Nairobi were the same challenges that some children faced in the UK; a family in crisis after a bereavement or a carer with mental health problems leading to a child being neglected. Yet, here in Mathare there wasn’t the safety net of social care and interventions. Megan and the Tushinde team decided to start a family support programme that looked at the whole family to help find lasting solutions.
The Counselling Assistant reports directly to the Tushinde Children’s Trust Family Counsellor with the support of the Social Work Manager.
S/he will work closely with an external Counselor, who will provide supervision, to develop and grow the counselling service. Clinical supervision sessions must be conducted at least monthly for personal support and assistance with difficult cases.
The Counselling Assistant will provide immediate psychological and emotional care to individuals in significant distress to stabilize their condition, minimize potential trauma from an acute life event, and as appropriate, transition them to other mental health support as required. In addition, they will lead support group sessions for beneficiaries (adults and children).
**Key responsibilities**
Assistant Counselor works to ensure that :
* S/he supports the Lead counselor to develop and grow the counseling service in line with needs in developing referral criteria, appropriate assessment tools and interventions ( individual group and family.) as well as consent forms.
* Assist in developing a case management system in line with the existing system .
* Provide psychosocial support to referred cases of high and low risk and cases in need of psychosocial support or mental health interventions to the Tushinde Children’s Trust caregivers, youths and children.
* Providing psychological first aid to referred cases of high risk or cases in need of specialized psychological support then linking them to specialized service providers for further support and interventions. These cases include :
1. HIV diagnosis and disclosure.
2. Drug and alcohol and other substances abuse.
3. Cases like GBV ,SGBV and other cases of abuse.
4. Psychological First Aid
* Providing adherence counseling to Tushinde Children’s Trust beneficiaries living with HIV .
* Providing technical support to all Tushinde Children’s Trust forums. This includes facilitation during youth and girls forums, holidays camps, children assessments, community days and teachers meetings.
* Assist in developing a case management system in line with the existing system used by Social Workers.
* Providing administrative support to the counseling department.
* Participation in a weekly family support group thus positive parenting support group.
* Providing monthly/quarterly reports to the Family counselor and social work manager.
* Timely and accurate provision of detailed case notes.
* Assisting the family counselor and social work manager to develop appropriate referral pathways to external partners.
* Conduct individual mental health assessments, document case notes, referrals, and interventions, prepare monthly activity reports, and contribute to funder reports, as needed.
* Provide training and supervision to the team (and community based structures) on the techniques and management of children, vulnerable adults and their families with basic psychosocial and mental health concerns.
* Any other duty assigned to them from time to time.
**Requirements**
* Bachelor’s Degree / Diploma in Psychology, Social Work or other social science related field.
* 2-3 years of experience in a similar position.
* Licensed or registered as a psychologist/ counselor with relevant professional bodies will be a plus.
* Proven experience or passion in providing trauma informed therapy and counselling services preferably in settings involving vulnerable populations.
* Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build therapeutic rapport with clients and team members
* Committed to ethical practices, confidentiality and the well being of program participants.
* Fluent in both English and Swahili
* Demonstrated resilience and ability to work and deliver in stressful environments
* Experience in community facilitation and mobilization
* Must have a passion to work with vulnerable children, youths and adults.
* Must be flexible and willing to work in challenging environments i.e. informal settlements.
* Must have a valid certificate of good conduct.
## How to apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV and a tailored cover letter to:**jobs@ke.tushinde.org.uk**