Volunteer Therapeutic Group Leader

Volunteer Therapeutic Group Leader

Ongoing role
J104092
At a glance

Skills

  • Mentoring / Coaching
  • Social care / Counselling

Where

Bath, BA1 2FJ
Remote opportunity

Time

Either in or out of office hours Estimate of time needed:
1-3 hours / week
We require a minimum of a 12-month commitment to the service. Group leaders will run a weekly group which lasts up to 1.5 hours as well as some admin.

Deadline

10 Oct 2025

Visitors from Fifth Day

Welcome to Reach Volunteering. We are a community and registered charity that connects people, skills and good causes.

To apply for this role, and any other on our platform, you need to be based in the UK, have at least three years of experience using the skills you wish to volunteer in a professional capacity or have lived experience (for trustee roles). Read more about our criteria.

At TOP UK we run a network of online groups that support people suffering from OCD and Phobias to overcome their anxieties. 

What will you be doing?

Therapeutic Responsibilities

  • Co-facilitate therapeutic guided self-help groups every week.
  • Interact with relevant service users to arrange their initial attendance at therapeutic groups.
  • Consistently work within the scope of your training and recognise the limits of your practice.
  • Liaise closely with the organisation's Clinical Director to discuss challenging cases and clinical concerns.
  • Inform the Clinical Director of any expected instances of absence two weeks before the event. 
  • Administrative Responsibilities
  • Record service users' attendance every week.
  • Maintain service user attendance databases to the highest possible standards of accuracy and detail.
  • Disseminate psychometric measures to service users by the organisation's evaluation strategy
  • Promote a culture of evaluation amongst service users attending your groups to enhance the amount of individualised feedback available to them.
  • Respond to service user enquiries, and organisational communications, in an appropriately timely manner.
  • Actively engage in the initial training workshops that are provided by the organisation.
  • Maintain a commitment to continual personal development and engage in additional training opportunities when provided.
  • Actively engage in organised peer reflective practices
  • Make use of the organisation-wide digital communication channels to share and learn therapeutic practices. 

 Safeguarding - It is every volunteer's responsibility to safeguard and protect adults and children from abuse, regardless of the setting in which your care takes place. It is the volunteer's responsibility to be aware of the charity's policies and procedures and proactively maintain safeguarding procedural knowledge.

Additional Responsibilities

  • Adhere to all organisational policies and procedures.
  • Support the organisation's promotion of a positive approach to diversity and inclusion, treating others with dignity and respect.
  • Develop and maintain positive relationships with colleagues, taking account of their age, religion or belief, ethnicity, sex, marital or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or maternity status and any disability.
  • Maintain an approachable nature ensuring that your conduct towards colleagues is open and honest, dealing with differences in opinion, in ways which avoid offence.

What are we looking for?

As a group leader, your primary responsibility is to assist in the delivery of the organisation’s therapeutic services through co-facilitating weekly guided self-help groups. We use a gold-standard therapeutic model based on Exposure-Response Therapy and CBT which gradually encourages group members to understand their conditions and guides them into recovery. You will provide compassionate care to our service users that is based on empathy, kindness, respect, dignity, and psychologically-informed evidence-based approaches.

As a volunteer, you will be trained in how to co-facilitate a group. You do need to be warm, empathetic and compassionate and lived experience of anxiety, OCD or a phobia is helpful but not essential. You will feel confident to facilitate a group alongside another trained volunteer and will be able to commit to 2 hours a week minimum for 12 months or more.

To ensure the best possible support for our members, we’re looking for volunteers who have at least 3 years of experience working in a mental health setting. This experience could come from a variety of roles, such as:

  • Counsellors or therapists
  • Professionals working in health and social care roles that directly support individuals with mental health conditions

If you have a passion for mental health and want to help others in a meaningful way, we’d love to hear from you.

What difference will you make?

We work with people aged 16 and up, many of the members at TOP UK have never had a safe and constant space of continued support for their OCD or phobia. We provide unique support that allows members to be part of group support for up to 3 years. This type of long-term support has a profound impact on helping people recover and live a full life with OCD or phobias. 

You will be part of a team that has access to monthly reflective practice space, extra training and support as well as the knowing that you are having a positive impact on those you are working with. 

Before you apply

Please contact us for an application form. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to interview. 

Causes
  • Mental health
  • Organisation type: 
    Charity

    At TOP UK we run a network of online groups that support people suffering from OCD and Phobias to overcome their anxieties. We use a gold-standard therapeutic model based on Exposure-Response...