Starting the academic year strong: Reflections for trainees and newly qualified practitioners

06 October 2026

David is the lead tutor on Place2Be’s Level 6 Counselling Supervision Certificate.

The start of the academic year often marks the beginning of a new chapter. Across schools, universities and counselling services, trainees and newly qualified practitioners are taking their next steps into the profession, with many starting placements, training programmes or new clinical roles. While these opportunities are exciting, they also bring new challenges and questions. We spoke to Dave Exall, lead tutor on Place2Be’s Level 6 Counselling Supervision Certificate, about the advice he would give to those beginning the academic year and the habits that support professional growth.

Re-entering a school environment

For many trainees and newly qualified practitioners, the start of a placement brings a familiar set of concerns. Will I know what to say? What if a safeguarding issue comes up? What if I get something wrong?

But when Dave looked back on the beginning of his own career over 20 years ago, the first thing he remembered wasn’t about risk assessments, counselling models or theory; it was the experience of walking back into a school.

"One of the things when I first started working in schools was the incredible punch of going back into the school environment. The smells and sights tend to evoke things from the past... I didn't have a bad experience in secondary school, but secondary evoked things that I'd kind of forgotten about curiously enough. That reactivation of childhood is definitely something to think carefully about."

It's an insight that may resonate with many trainees starting placements or working in a school setting for the first time. Counselling training encourages reflection, but there is something distinct about re-entering an environment similar to the ones where much of our own stories unfolded. Often times, these places can reconnect us with experiences, relationships and emotions we have not thought about for years. Rather than seeing those reactions as a problem or an issue, Dave encourages practitioners to stop and notice them.

Understanding our own competency

This ability to stop and reflect on our reactions is closely connected to another theme that Dave highlighted: recognising the limits of our own competency. Dave reflected on a period when he was working with adolescents at a time when his own children were a similar age.

“The scenario I often discuss when I'm teaching about working with children and young people is the difficulties of working with adolescents when my own children were adolescents. And I think I did good work, but it reached a stage where I took a step back from it. I was working with 16-year-olds who were too close in theme to my own children. It required a bit of time off and recognising those limits of competency, which I don't see as a failure. I think it's an important strength, actually.”

For newly qualified practitioners, this can be a reassuring message. Training can sometimes leave people feeling that competence means being able to work with everybody, manage every situation and always know the right thing to do. Dave's perspective is quite different. Good practice is often about recognising when something feels too close, when you need more support, or when somebody else may be better placed to help.

The importance of professional support

For Dave, this is one reason supervision matters so much. While safeguarding concerns are understandably high on the list of worries for many new practitioners, he believes one of the most important things to remember is that counsellors are not expected to carry everything alone.

"Trust your supervision, trust the school project managers and the team around you... you're not alone in the work and that's really important. Once you step beyond that fear, then you can really focus on valuing and appreciating the time with the people you're working with."

His reflections feel particularly relevant for trainees who are often surrounded by peers and tutors while studying, but who may find themselves feeling much more isolated after qualification. Building a professional network isn’t just about career progression; it can be an important source of support, challenge, encouragement and belonging.

Navigating self-awareness

Underlying all of this is a nuanced understanding of self-awareness. Dave believes that one of the biggest challenges for trainees is finding a middle ground between avoiding self-reflection and becoming overly self-critical.

"Having some form of self-awareness means stopping and critically reflecting on yourself, but without the other end of the spectrum, which is being hyper self-critical. Lots of our students, and I was the same myself, go through a bit of a dance between not being self-aware and then being too self-critical. Somewhere in the middle is the goal. A level of self-awareness without being self-destructive."

That idea also shapes how Dave thinks about progression. For students wondering whether they are ready for the next step, his advice is often to slow down rather than speed up.

“Whenever I meet any student who is tumbling forward, I'm always going, just give that another six months. You can do it next year. You can do it a little bit later. It's okay, give it the space. A tutor said exactly the same thing to me years ago. I didn't like hearing it, but they were right. Taking your time in that kind of way is really important, even if you're an older student.”

Final reflection

One of the final messages for those beginning a placement, training programme or new role this academic year comes from Dave's belief that there is no final stage of development.

"There's no endpoint of going, 'I've conquered my self-awareness now.' Every year or week or minute brings more things that unfold. And that's a good thing. It keeps us on our toes."

For trainees and newly qualified practitioners, that may be one of the most reassuring lessons of all. You do not need to have everything figured out. What matters is staying curious, making use of support, continuing to reflect, and giving yourself permission to grow at your own pace.

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