Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

Job responsibilities

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist psychology service within acute care pathway. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; evidence based short term psychological interventions, and contribute to the ward based therapeutic group work program and to provide individual and group supervision within multi-disciplinary teams.
• The post-holder will be responsible for providing psychological formulation and consultation to contribute to the care plans and management of service users currently being treated on the ward or in CRHTT.
• As a team member both of the psychological therapies acute care team and the ward MDT, the post-holder will be expected to work collaboratively, and with MDT members including the provision of joint assessments with Consultant Psychiatrists and joint working with other members of the team.
• The post-holder will provide specialist psychological assessment, treatment and consultation on clients psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to non-professional carers working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the services policies and procedures.
• The post-holder will supervise psychological assessment and therapy provided by attached doctoral trainees and supervise psychologically driven treatment interventions by other members of the MDT.
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.
• The post-holder will utilize skills for research and audit and contribute to policy and service development, in relation to the Psychological Therapies provision and in collaboration with the borough specific acute care services.

Qualification and Registration

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS.
• Eligibility for Chartered Status with BPS
• Registered with HCPC as a psychologist.

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology or equivalent

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• oSkills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• oCompetency in neuropsychological assessments.
• oWell-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• oSkills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• oAn ability to use and demonstrate psychological model-based formulations as part of clinical and care management planning

Desirable

• oKnowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. PTSD, psychosis, personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• oHigh level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• oKnowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• oExperience, including in the NHS, of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community/teams, primary care and in patient and day settings.
• oExperience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• oExperience of working as a fully integrated MD team member
• oMulti-disciplinary team working and involvement in developing Risk management plans and supporting care of service users.
• oDoctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.

Desirable

• oExperience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• oExperience of working systemically with MDT to promote quality and better outcomes for service users.
• oExperience of running a range of groups/workshops /courses for service users with psychosis and their carers.
• oExperience of supporting reflective practice
• oExperience of participating in or supporting post-incident support

Personal Qualities

Essential

• oAn enthusiasm and commitment to the psychological treatment of those in the acute care pathway
• oAbility to work independently, reliably, and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals.
• oAbility to maintain professional boundaries and form positive therapeutic relationship with service users and carers
• oAbility to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to "hold" the stress of others
• oAbility to demonstrate Trust Values

Desirable

• oA commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit

Other requirements

Essential

• oAbility to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• oAbility to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• oIT skills including e-mail, word processing and basic data base.

Desirable

• oPersonal experience of mental health problems.
• oExperience of working within a multicultural framework.
• oAbility to support MDT members in the provision of psychologically driven interventions
• oInterest and ability to contribute to service development

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).