Psychology Clinic

Gateway Health Psychology Clinic

Gateway Health is a not-for-profit community health provider. We provide health and welfare services to individuals, families and communities across North East Victoria and parts of Southern New South Wales.

The Gateway Health Psychology Clinic seeks to provide a quality experience for provisionally registered psychologists who need to complete a supervised vocational placement to fulfil postgraduate academic course requirements.

We offer training experiences for postgraduate students at different levels of their psychology careers. This includes approximately 7 to 9 placement psychologist spaces each year and one clinical registrar each third year. The registrar is generally recruited through the placement program with the application following Gateway Health’s recruitment and employment processes.

If you are a Masters or Doctoral candidate studying relevant counselling, clinical, professional, neuropsychology or educational psychology courses you can apply to do a vocational placement with us.

About our placements

Placement psychologists are based at Gateway Health in Wangaratta. The clinic aims to support the health and wellbeing of rural and remote communities whilst providing placement psychologists with mental health training opportunities in a regional area.

Vocational placements run for 5 to 10 months from February to November. We consider candidates wishing to complete a one-semester vocational placement (5 months) and those applicants who are able to commit to 2 semesters (10 months). One-semester vocational placements correspond with university semesters - February to June and June to November. If your university has a different placement schedule we are happy to accommodate that.

What to expect

The Gateway Health Psychology Clinic offers a nurturing and professionally stimulating vocational placement experience for our placement psychologists. Supervisors are an experienced team of psychologists and clinical psychologists. Placement psychologists are an integral part of our team.

Service delivery is via face-to-face and telehealth. Clients can be from a range of service streams including our GPs, Alcohol and Other Drugs service, Head to Health, allied health services, headspace, and aged care services. Clients are also referred by external agencies such as Upper Murray Family Care and Northeast Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

We see clients from across all age groups. They can present with a wide range of symptoms and family, social, behavioural, and relationship issues. While not all clients meet DSM criteria for a clinical diagnosis, there is a very high clinical component of presenting issues related to mental health.

Working in rural services also offers unique insights into collaborative work with other service providers and the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the continuum of care.

Training experiences include:

• offering short and intermediate-term individual therapy
• participating in running therapeutic or support groups on issues such as anxiety management, motivation, and distress tolerance
• involvement in projects and counselling service initiatives
• engaging in individual and group supervision
• working with psychologists with various orientations in counselling and psychology.

Placement psychologists are expected to participate in a minimum of 2 days a week at the Psychology Clinic (16 hours) and attend weekly individual and peer supervision. Peer supervision occurs on Wednesdays from 1pm to 2:30pm.

To support placements accommodation is provided free of charge and there is some flexibility with working hours to accommodate travel.

Client contact

The Gateway Health Psychology Clinic endeavours to provide an appropriate level of client hours to allow placement psychologists to achieve course requirements.

We manage the workload so that placement psychologists also have adequate time for case notes, follow-up, and planning during the working day.

At the beginning of the placement, placement psychologists are provided with an orientation to the service and technology. They negotiate with their supervisor on when they can begin seeing their own clients - This typically occurs within the first week or 2 of placement.

The minimum number of clients we expect our placement psychologists to see each day is 3. This may increase to 4 or 5 clients per day as the placement psychologist gains confidence.

We inform our clients that they have an appointment with a provisional psychologist.

Supervision, support and group meetings

Experienced psychologists provide comprehensive supervision and support in the service.

Placement psychologists have a weekly one-hour supervision meeting with their supervisor. They also have a backup supervisor who will meet with them regularly.

Placement psychologists attend weekly peer supervision. This is a one and half hour group supervision session run by a rotating member of our supervision team. This provides valuable peer support, networking and information-sharing opportunities.

Besides the discussion of case material and other pertinent issues, Gateway Health psychologists and other allied health staff present on specialist topics chosen in consultation with our placement psychologists.

Placement psychologists have access to their supervisor, backup supervisor, or another Gateway Health psychologist, outside the formal supervision hour for consultations regarding clients as required.

Placement location

Wangaratta is a regional town, situated northeast of Melbourne. It is a well-known historical area with plenty to see and do within walking distance.

If you love the outdoors there are many exciting possibilities including bike riding (or mountain bike riding if you like a bit more adrenaline), swimming and kayaking, chasing waterfalls and secret waterholes, and walking (from short strolls to multi-day bushwalking adventures).

We are close to world-class award-winning wineries from regions such as the King Valley, Glenrowan, Milawa, and Beechworth. Regional produce is celebrated both within our restaurants and throughout farm gates nestled around the region.

Wangaratta is only 2 and a half hours away from Melbourne along the Hume freeway. There are daily rail services between Melbourne and Sydney stopping at the Wangaratta station.

Eligibility

To apply for a vocational placement at the Gateway Health Psychology Clinic you must:

• be currently enrolled in a postgraduate psychology training program
• have a current Working with Children Check
• have had at least one clinical or counselling vocational placement and/or equivalent clinical or counselling work experience.

How to apply

We accept applications throughout the year. Placements start dates are generally February and June but other options can be discussed.

Apply online at Careers – Student Psychology Clinic.

The application and selection process consists of 5 main stages:

1. Submit your online application – This should include your CV/resume with your referees listed and a cover letter stating:

• your reasons for applying for a placement in the Gateway Health Psychology Clinic
• whether you are applying for the full 10-month placement or one semester - If the latter, which semester
• your area of specialisation e.g. Clinical, Professional, Counselling, Neuropsychology, Educational Psychology, etc.

1. Pre-screening - The clinic's recruitment team screens all applications and suitable candidates are placed on a shortlist.
2. Interview - If you are short-listed for a placement position you will be asked to attend a 30-minute interview via Zoom or in person, dependent on your location. Ideally candidates are interviewed by their potential supervisor.
3. Offer letter - If you are selected following the interview you will receive an email with your placement offer.
4. Your tertiary Institution enters your accepted placement and safety screening requirements into PlaceRight.

Contact us

For more information contact Gateway Health Senior Psychologist Consultant, Kim Haebich by email at kim.haebich@gatewayhealth.org.au.

If you are a Vocational Placement Coordinator from a Masters or Doctoral program we are happy to meet with you to discuss our program in more detail and to answer any questions you may have.

Please reach out to Kim Haebich or Alana Pund, General Manager Mental Health and Wellbeing by email at Alana.Pund@gatewayhealth.org.au.