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 offers a supportive, high-quality placement experience with broad clinical exposure, structured supervision, and meaningful community impact.
Placement psychologists work with diverse client presentations, across the life span, collaborating within a multidisciplinary community health setting, and build confidence in rural and regional practice.
Placement snapshot
- 20+ week placement options aligned with university semesters
- Minimum 2 days per week, generally 16 hours
- Weekly individual and peer supervision
- Face-to-face and telehealth service delivery
- Clients from across lifespan experience
- Diverse client presentations and referral pathways
- Multidisciplinary collaboration in a community health setting
- Rural and regional practice experience
- Accommodation support may be available, subject to eligibility
We offer 7 to 9 psychologist placement spaces each semester, as well as opportunities for interns and registrars.
If you are a Masters or Doctoral candidate studying relevant clinical, professional, neuropsychology, educational, or counselling psychology courses, you can apply to do a vocational placement with us.
About our placements
Vocational placements run from February to December. We consider candidates wishing to complete a one-semester vocational placement (20+ weeks). Vocational placements correspond with university semesters - February to June and July to December. If your university has a different placement schedule, we are happy to accommodate that.
What to expect
The Gateway Health Psychology Clinic provides a professionally supportive placement experience. Placement psychologists are valued members of the team and are supervised by experienced psychologists and clinical psychologists.
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/or 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 10am till 11:30am.
To support placements, accommodation is provided free of charge through going rural health (eligibility criteria apply) 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.
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 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.
Supervision, support and group meetings
Experienced psychologists provide regular supervision, backup support, and consultation as needed.
Placement psychologists attend weekly one-hour individual supervision and weekly peer supervision. Peer supervision is a 1.5-hour group session facilitated by a rotating member of the supervision team.
These sessions provide case discussion, peer support, networking, and opportunities to learn from Gateway Health psychologists and allied health staff on specialist topics.
Placement location
Wangaratta is a regional town in North East Victoria, approximately 2.5 hours from Melbourne by road and accessible by daily rail services.
The region offers a strong lifestyle appeal, including walking and cycling trails, waterways, wineries, local produce, and nearby towns such as Milawa, Beechworth, Rutherglen, the King Valley and Glenrowan.
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
How to apply
We accept applications throughout the year. Placements start dates are generally February and July, but other options can be discussed.
Apply online on our Careers page.
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 semester 1 or 2 placement
- your area of specialisation e.g. Clinical, Professional, Counselling
2. Pre-screening - The clinic's recruitment team screens all applications and suitable candidates are placed on a shortlist.
3. Interview - If you are short-listed for a placement position you will be asked to attend a 30-minute interview via Teams or in person, dependent on your location.
4. Offer letter - If you are selected following the interview you will receive an email with your placement offer.
5. Your tertiary Institution enters your accepted placement and safety screening requirements into PlaceRight.
Contact us
For more information contact Kim Haebich, Psychology Clinic Lead – Adult by email at [email protected] and/or [email protected].
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.
