Psycho-Social Counselor

The Afghan Women Skills Development Center (AWSDC) is a national non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been relentlessly working towards the promotion and protection of women's rights in Afghanistan since its inception in 1999. With its key thematic focus areas of livelihoods, WASH, child/women protection, social cohesion, and humanitarian response, AWSDC has made a remarkable impact across several provinces of the country. The organization has provided humanitarian assistance to almost 65,000 COVID-19-affected individuals within its geographical areas since the onset of the pandemic. AWSDC is also a crucial humanitarian actor in Afghanistan, providing child/women protection, WASH and emergency shelter, and non-food items to vulnerable Afghan communities across the country.

In response to the current humanitarian crisis, AWSDC is scaled up its interventions in serving more people by providing life-saving assistance, protection, Livelihoods, WASH, and food/non-food items. The aligned strategic priorities will enable our target groups in addressing their acute deficits of humanitarian response, early recovery through the provision of Emergency Response (Protection, WASH, Food/NFIs) and early recovery and development interventions (Protection Services, WASH, Livelihoods and health).  

AWSDC is in the process to recruit PSS Counselors for its Projects based in Kabul and Kunduz.

The Psychosocial Counsellor will be responsible for the overall planning and provision of psychosocial support to affected women and girls that are visiting AWSDC Family Resource Center (FRC) and Community based Center (CBC) in Kabul. Provide individual or group psychological support for targeted beneficiaries. The staff will be placed in established FRC in Kunduz city and in Kabul CBC to provide PSS services to the client received at the center.

• Consult with other professionals to discuss therapies, treatments, counselling resources, or techniques, and to share occupational information.
• Conduct psychosocial assessments to understand the emotional and psychological needs of clients received in the FRC & CBC.
• Provide individual and group counseling sessions to address trauma, stress, and other mental health issues
• Help clients to cope better and enhance their resilience in their everyday life.
• Help beneficiaries to resume their normal lives and mental well-being.
• Develop personalized psychosocial support plans and coping strategies.
• Providing quality and appropriate counseling services to clients referred by clusters, communities and identified by project team.
• Support and follow-up of the referred cases.
• Refer clients to specialists or to other institutions/ organizations for non-counselling treatment of problems and refer them to other service providers in case of severe cases of violence.
• Analyze data such as interview notes, test results, and reference manuals in order to identify symptoms, and to diagnose the nature of clients' problems.
• Counsel individuals, groups, or families to help them understand problems, define goals, and develop realistic action plans.
• Develop therapeutic and treatment plans based on clients' interests, abilities, and needs.
• Evaluate the results of counselling methods to determine the reliability and validity of treatments.
• Assess and evaluate individuals' problems through the use of case history, interview, and observation
• Work with individuals, groups and communities to improve mental health of the victims of violence
• Provide PSS support for Persons of Concern including those referred by protection monitors, information counselors, PSN staff, community member etc. or self-referred.
• Work with families of victims to provide safe environment for them
• Engaging in discussion with clients and making them feel comfortable.
• Actively listen to clients and pay full attention to hear their problems
• To understand and apply survivor centered approach while receiving clients for PSS counselling.
• Keep track of number of clients provided with the individual and group counselling and sharing the data with project manager for reporting purposes.
• Maintain records, with adherence to data protection policy and confidentiality principles, of clients’ information.
• Uphold ethical principles in all aspects of work, including maintaining and adhering to the recommended treatment protocol, maintain and processing of persona data, confidentiality, and obtaining of consent for any data transfer ( on the need to know basis) 
• To ensure confidentiality including all client records are safe and secure for individual as well as for group session.
• To assist target clients in designing a Safety Plan for life threatening situations.
• Any other tasks assigned by the FRC/CBC Supervisor.

Required profile:

• Bachelor’s in psychology, social work, clinical psychiatry, or trained by MOPH , or received accredited  training by IPSO
• Accredited training certificate in psychosocial counseling or health social counselling is highly desirable 
• Minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in Psychosocial counselling with national and INGOs in Afghanistan- familiarity of the target district is the added value. 
• Strong practice of workplace diversity and inclusiveness
• Knowledge of case management and protection interventions
• Strong communications skills. Fluency in written and spoken English; spoken in Pashto and Dari is an advantage.
• Good computer skills both Word and Excel necessary
• Excellent organizational and multi-tasking skills
• willingness and ability to travel to and work in rural areas
• Fluent in both Pashto and Dari
• Reporting writing skills in particularly in English

Interested applicants should send their CVs to the below email address no later than 05 April 2026, with the subject line PSS Counselor AWSDC/VA/2026/002 to hr@awsdc.org.af   

 Note 1: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Applicants not following submission guideline their application will be rejected.