Trustee with lead for counselling and trauma

What will you be doing?

This role is important because trauma sits at the heart of many people’s experience of addiction, relapse, isolation and exclusion. Many of Rehabit’s clients are not simply struggling with drugs or alcohol in isolation. They may also be carrying the effects of childhood adversity, abuse, neglect, bereavement, domestic violence, homelessness, mental ill health or repeated contact with services that have not been able to meet their needs.

For a small charity offering counselling and peer support, it is essential that the board has someone who can help trustees understand trauma at a strategic level. This does not mean turning the board into a clinical team. It means ensuring that decisions about service design, risk, safeguarding, boundaries, referrals, client suitability and outcomes are informed by a proper understanding of trauma and its impact.

A trustee with experience in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology or trauma-informed practice would help Rehabit protect the quality, safety and integrity of its counselling offer. They would bring professional insight into how clients present, why engagement can be difficult, why trust may take time, and why recovery is rarely a simple or linear process. This is particularly important for a charity working with people who may have fallen through the cracks, struggled to engage with larger services, or felt judged, misunderstood or moved on too quickly.

The role also strengthens governance. Trustees are collectively responsible for the charity’s direction, effectiveness and duty of care. Having a board lead for counselling and trauma gives the board a clearer route for oversight of clinical themes, service development and ethical practice, while maintaining the right boundary between governance and day-to-day delivery.

As Rehabit grows, this role will help ensure that expansion does not dilute what makes the charity distinctive: a personal, compassionate, abstinence-based service rooted in lived experience, professional care and patience. It will also help demonstrate to funders, partners and referral agencies that Rehabit takes trauma, counselling quality and client safety seriously.

Most importantly, the role helps keep vulnerable clients at the centre of board thinking. It brings a trauma-informed lens to strategic decisions and helps the charity remain true to its purpose: offering timely, careful and human support to people who may otherwise be left without the help they need.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for someone with professional experience in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology, trauma-informed practice, addiction, mental health or a closely related field. The ideal person will understand how trauma can affect trust, relationships, motivation, emotional regulation and a person’s ability to engage with support.

They do not need to have worked in a charity trustee role before, although previous governance, supervision, service leadership or safeguarding experience would be helpful. What matters most is that they can bring sound judgement, professional insight and a thoughtful understanding of vulnerable clients to board discussions.

The trustee should be able to think strategically rather than clinically. This is not a therapy role and would not involve direct client work. Instead, the person should be able to help the board ask the right questions about service quality, boundaries, client suitability, referral pathways, counselling provision and risk.

We are looking for someone who is compassionate but clear-headed, and who can balance empathy with appropriate professional boundaries. They should be comfortable working as part of a small board, contributing constructively, listening to others and helping the charity make careful decisions.

Useful experience would include working with people affected by addiction, trauma, homelessness, domestic abuse, bereavement, mental health difficulty, offending, family breakdown or social exclusion. Experience of abstinence-based recovery would be welcome, but it is not essential.

The person should have a strong commitment to Rehabit’s purpose: helping people who have limited funds and may otherwise struggle to access the right counselling and support. They should believe in the value of a personal, patient and non-judgemental service, while also understanding the need for safe practice, accountability and good governance.

Above all, we are looking for someone with integrity, emotional intelligence, good judgement and the confidence to bring their professional perspective into board-level decision-making.

What difference will you make?

This role will help Rehabit strengthen the quality, confidence and credibility of its counselling service as the charity develops.

Rehabit already has a distinctive position: it offers free, personal and abstinence-based support to people who often have limited options elsewhere. A trustee with trauma and counselling experience would help the board protect that distinctive approach while making sure the service remains safe, thoughtful and well governed.

The role would give the board a clearer specialist voice when discussing counselling provision, client need, risk, safeguarding, referral decisions and service development. This would be especially valuable as Rehabit works with people who may present with complex histories, mental health difficulties, unstable housing, relationship breakdown or repeated disappointment with other services.

The trustee would also help Rehabit describe its work more confidently to funders and partners. Many grant-makers want to see not only strong need, but also evidence that a charity understands the complexity of its client group and has the right safeguards and expertise in place. Having a board lead for counselling and trauma would help demonstrate that Rehabit is serious about service quality, client safety and responsible growth.

Internally, the role would support better conversations between trustees, the CEO, counsellors and advisers. It would help the board ask the right questions, spot gaps earlier and make informed decisions without becoming involved in day-to-day clinical practice. This is particularly important for a small charity where trustees often need to be more engaged and practical.

As Rehabit grows, the role would help ensure that counselling remains central to the charity’s identity and that any future development is grounded in the real needs of clients. It would add professional depth to the board, strengthen oversight, and help Rehabit continue to offer a careful, human and effective service to people who may otherwise struggle to find the right support.

Additional information

You can download the following documents:

Before you apply

There will be an initial conversation with the CEO, following by meetings with Chair of Trustees and at least one other trustee.