Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Principal Psychological Therapist / Adult Psychotherapist to join the Lighthouse Recovery Service leadership team in Brighton & Hove for 4 days a week. The Lighthouse is a specialist personality disorder service which offers an intensive day programme for individuals who have complex emotional & relational needs. The service is run jointly by Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, Southdown Housing and MIND. The Lighthouse offers a 7-day service with the clinical NHS team operating Monday- Friday.
Transforming services in Brighton & Hove:
As part of our transformation of clinical pathways for people presenting with complexity, we have developed a Complex Emotional & Relational Needs (CERN) team in B&H. We aim to grow our pathways across all the tiers of mental healthcare, from primary care to secondary care and specialist services. The tier 1/primary care focus for CERN will be for us to work closely with the PCN & primary care/wellbeing networks, by providing consultation & assessment into primary care systems; to develop a Service User Network (SUN) across B&H city; and to support the training and development of existing pathways in B&H in tier 2 (Assessment and Treatment Services - ATS) and tier 3 services (Lighthouse).
Main duties of the job
We are seeking someone with extensive experience and skills in working with people with personality disorder and complexity. This includes the supervision and training of teams who work with this client group. You will need a robust understanding of group work processes and be able to support psychotherapeutic practice in the Tier 3 Lighthouse team through staff reflective groups. You will have excellent communication and leadership skills, ensuring high quality clinical governance and supporting the team to thrive.
The post holder will contribute to the Personality Disorders Pathway (Complex Emotional & Relational Needs) and will be a member of the Trust-wide Complex Emotional Difficulty Clinical Academic Group (CAG) to ensure excellent evidence base and governance of interventions for people with personality disorder within Brighton and Hove.
You will work as a member of the Lighthouse team in a leadership role, providing a high quality, specialist psychotherapeutically orientated service to clients where there are highly complex presentations including significant trauma histories. You will also support local services who work with this client group through consultation, supervision, formulation and training. As part of your overarching supervisory role, you will oversee the clinical placements and supervision for trainee doctoral clinical and counselling psychologists, adult psychotherapists, junior psychiatry colleagues and creative therapists.
About us
The Trust provides mental health and learning disability care for all ages across Sussex and for children and young people in Hampshire.
Living & Working in Brighton:
- Be spoilt for choice with Brighton's iconic seafront, vibrant lanes and array of shops and attractions
- Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns on your doorstep
- Embrace the outstanding natural beauty spots including the renowned Devils Dyke and South Downs National Park
We'd love you to join our Trust, rated 'good' overall and 'outstanding' for caring by the CQC. Our staff agree, recent staff survey results told us that 82% recognise that care for patients is our top priority.
Key staff survey results include:
- 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
- 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work in their team
- 77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles
Covid-19 full vaccination may be a condition of employment for this role, unless an exemption applies. The successful applicant may have contact with vulnerable service users and we will therefore seek proof of being fully vaccinated during the recruitment process.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Requirements:
- You will have an approved post graduate diploma, Masters or Doctoral qualification (or equivalent) in a recognised psychological therapy, leading to professional accreditation, in Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy or Group Analysis (BPC, UKCP, BAP, BACP). This may be in addition to a core training as a mental health professional (practitioner psychologist, nursing, OT, social work, Arts Psychotherapy or a creative therapy such as psychodrama)
- Professionally registered as an adult psychotherapist or psychological therapist with relevant registration body.
- Post-qualification training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological/psychotherapeutic practice to include group work, but it would be desirable to be a recognised MBT practitioner. It would be desirable to have an understanding and working knowledge of evidence-based treatments such as SCM, DBT, STEPPS, CAT, schema-informed CBT, as well as SUN and PICT.
- Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training, supervision and/or other fields of psychotherapy & psychological therapy.
Job outline:
- To work as a member of the Lighthouse clinical service/ team in a leadership role, providing a high quality, specialist psychotherapeutically orientated service to clients, their families or carers, where there are highly complex presentations. In addition to be responsible for the supervision and governance of psychologists and psychological therapists at Lighthouse and to support psychotherapeutic practice within the team and other agencies through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.
- To contribute and lead on ongoing service developments, including the development of the intensive day programme with staff and members, and supporting and developing other local pathway developments.
- To contribute to the Personality Disorders Pathway (Complex Emotional Difficulties) in Brighton & Hove in consultation, workshop and education events and to develop constructive working relationships with all stakeholders for this service, for example acute & urgent care, community mental health teams, social care & third sector organisations including formal partners.
- To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by Lighthouse.
- To lead on agreed parts of the clinical and social care governance framework within Lighthouse. To be responsible for the systematic governance of psychological and psychotherapeutic practice within Lighthouse.
- To work autonomously within professional guidelines, and collaboratively with other professional leads within the Personality Disorders Pathway. To supervise and support the psychotherapeutic and psychological assessment and practice provided by other psychologists, psychotherapists and psychological therapists and other clinical members of the service who provide psychologically based psychotherapeutic care and treatment and to provide clinical and professional leadership to appropriate clinical staff.
- To manage a complex caseload of individuals and groups.
- To plan, organise and contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological, psychotherapeutic and/or organisational matters need addressing.
As the clinical lead for Lighthouse, you will focus on the safe and effective delivery of an intensive treatment programme, but you will also work with other senior leads across the pathways of care to further the development of quality interventions and improved recovery outcomes for those who use our services. Our priorities include pathways for young people and dual diagnosis, as well as integrated partnership working.
What does Complex Emotional & Relational Needs mean?
Our team works with people with Complex Emotional and Relational Needs, including those with a diagnosis of Personality Disorder. Central to the needs of our patient/client/service user/ group is managing relationships with both themselves and those around them. We know that most people do not fit into a neat diagnostic framework and acknowledge significant overlaps in presenting issues including histories of trauma and/or neurodiversity.
What is our pathway in B&H?
The Brighton & Hove CERN clinical pathway is a partnership between:
- Experts by Experience
- VCSE partnerships (led by Southdown & MIND for this pathway)
- Tier 1 - Primary Care Networks, IAPT & Primary Care & Wellbeing Services
- Tier 2 - Secondary Community Mental Health Teams - (ATS)
- Tier 3 - Lighthouse
- Tier 4 - in-patient services
- Tiers 5 & 6 - forensic services
- CAMHS and Young People's Services
- Social Care
The pathway offers a range of supportive and treatment services, using a bio-psycho-social understanding of people's difficulties, that is intended to help manage difficulties such as self-harm and suicidal despair, overwhelming emotional difficulties, and problematic interpersonal relationships. The pathway offers a range of evidence-based treatment which includes:
- Emotion skills management (DBT groups, STEPPS and STEPPS-EI) to help people gain control over their self-harm or impulsive behaviours
- Structured Clinical Management to help stabilise people coming into secondary mental health services, learn about their difficulties & discover new ways to manage
- Mentalisation Based Therapy Groups to help manage the way we think about ourselves and others at times when we are experiencing distress
- Intensive therapeutic group treatment for people who need a whole-team approach around them as part of their recovery needs
- A range of individual and group psychotherapies including cognitive analytic therapy, psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy, inter-personal therapy, arts-based and other creative therapies, schema informed cognitive behavioural therapy
- Service User Networks led through the partnership of experts by experience and experts by training
- Urgent care & out-of-hours services
We are a service that is transforming the pathway of care for this group of people, across the whole of the Brighton & Hove system. Although you will focus on treatments relating to the Tier 3 intensive day programme, you will also need to understand the whole pathway of care, both statutory and non-statutory. It would therefore be desirable if you have experience, training or a good working knowledge of SUN and PICT as well as MBT, SCM, STEPPS & DBT.
You will be expected to take a lead in the monitoring and evaluation of the service, and able to represent Lighthouse at clinical commissioning meetings. We would want you to be confident in research skills and able to support research, audit and quality improvement within the service, to really embed learning, growth and quality improvement as part of the Lighthouse culture. You will link in with other personality disorder services both locally & nationally, to share and expand the evidence base in this area.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Requirements:
- You will have an approved post graduate diploma, Masters or Doctoral qualification (or equivalent) in a recognised psychological therapy, leading to professional accreditation, in Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy or Group Analysis (BPC, UKCP, BAP, BACP). This may be in addition to a core training as a mental health professional (practitioner psychologist, nursing, OT, social work, Arts Psychotherapy or a creative therapy such as psychodrama)
- Professionally registered as an adult psychotherapist or psychological therapist with relevant registration body.
- Post-qualification training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological/psychotherapeutic practice to include group work, but it would be desirable to be a recognised MBT practitioner. It would be desirable to have an understanding and working knowledge of evidence-based treatments such as SCM, DBT, STEPPS, CAT, schema-informed CBT, as well as SUN and PICT.
- Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training, supervision and/or other fields of psychotherapy & psychological therapy.
Job outline:
- To work as a member of the Lighthouse clinical service/ team in a leadership role, providing a high quality, specialist psychotherapeutically orientated service to clients, their families or carers, where there are highly complex presentations. In addition to be responsible for the supervision and governance of psychologists and psychological therapists at Lighthouse and to support psychotherapeutic practice within the team and other agencies through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.
- To contribute and lead on ongoing service developments, including the development of the intensive day programme with staff and members, and supporting and developing other local pathway developments.
- To contribute to the Personality Disorders Pathway (Complex Emotional Difficulties) in Brighton & Hove in consultation, workshop and education events and to develop constructive working relationships with all stakeholders for this service, for example acute & urgent care, community mental health teams, social care & third sector organisations including formal partners.
- To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by Lighthouse.
- To lead on agreed parts of the clinical and social care governance framework within Lighthouse. To be responsible for the systematic governance of psychological and psychotherapeutic practice within Lighthouse.
- To work autonomously within professional guidelines, and collaboratively with other professional leads within the Personality Disorders Pathway. To supervise and support the psychotherapeutic and psychological assessment and practice provided by other psychologists, psychotherapists and psychological therapists and other clinical members of the service who provide psychologically based psychotherapeutic care and treatment and to provide clinical and professional leadership to appropriate clinical staff.
- To manage a complex caseload of individuals and groups.
- To plan, organise and contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological, psychotherapeutic and/or organisational matters need addressing.
As the clinical lead for Lighthouse, you will focus on the safe and effective delivery of an intensive treatment programme, but you will also work with other senior leads across the pathways of care to further the development of quality interventions and improved recovery outcomes for those who use our services. Our priorities include pathways for young people and dual diagnosis, as well as integrated partnership working.
What does Complex Emotional & Relational Needs mean?
Our team works with people with Complex Emotional and Relational Needs, including those with a diagnosis of Personality Disorder. Central to the needs of our patient/client/service user/ group is managing relationships with both themselves and those around them. We know that most people do not fit into a neat diagnostic framework and acknowledge significant overlaps in presenting issues including histories of trauma and/or neurodiversity.
What is our pathway in B&H?
The Brighton & Hove CERN clinical pathway is a partnership between:
- Experts by Experience
- VCSE partnerships (led by Southdown & MIND for this pathway)
- Tier 1 - Primary Care Networks, IAPT & Primary Care & Wellbeing Services
- Tier 2 - Secondary Community Mental Health Teams - (ATS)
- Tier 3 - Lighthouse
- Tier 4 - in-patient services
- Tiers 5 & 6 - forensic services
- CAMHS and Young People's Services
- Social Care
The pathway offers a range of supportive and treatment services, using a bio-psycho-social understanding of people's difficulties, that is intended to help manage difficulties such as self-harm and suicidal despair, overwhelming emotional difficulties, and problematic interpersonal relationships. The pathway offers a range of evidence-based treatment which includes:
- Emotion skills management (DBT groups, STEPPS and STEPPS-EI) to help people gain control over their self-harm or impulsive behaviours
- Structured Clinical Management to help stabilise people coming into secondary mental health services, learn about their difficulties & discover new ways to manage
- Mentalisation Based Therapy Groups to help manage the way we think about ourselves and others at times when we are experiencing distress
- Intensive therapeutic group treatment for people who need a whole-team approach around them as part of their recovery needs
- A range of individual and group psychotherapies including cognitive analytic therapy, psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy, inter-personal therapy, arts-based and other creative therapies, schema informed cognitive behavioural therapy
- Service User Networks led through the partnership of experts by experience and experts by training
- Urgent care & out-of-hours services
We are a service that is transforming the pathway of care for this group of people, across the whole of the Brighton & Hove system. Although you will focus on treatments relating to the Tier 3 intensive day programme, you will also need to understand the whole pathway of care, both statutory and non-statutory. It would therefore be desirable if you have experience, training or a good working knowledge of SUN and PICT as well as MBT, SCM, STEPPS & DBT.
You will be expected to take a lead in the monitoring and evaluation of the service, and able to represent Lighthouse at clinical commissioning meetings. We would want you to be confident in research skills and able to support research, audit and quality improvement within the service, to really embed learning, growth and quality improvement as part of the Lighthouse culture. You will link in with other personality disorder services both locally & nationally, to share and expand the evidence base in this area.
Person Specification
- Qualifications
Essential
- An approved post graduate diploma, Masters or Doctorate qualification (or equivalent) in a recognised psychological therapy, leading to recognised professional accreditation in Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy or Group Analysis (BPC, UKCP, BAP, BACP), Arts Psychotherapy (HCPC), or Psychotherapeutic Counselling (BACP or UKCP)
- Professionally registered as an adult psychotherapist or psychological therapist with relevant registration body
- Evidence of relevant continuing professional development as required by the registration body
- Evidence of post-qualification training in clinical supervision
Knowledge/Experience
Essential
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic concepts, systemic and organisational dynamics and related applied psychotherapies.
- Significant assessed experience of working as a qualified adult psychotherapist
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings 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
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological & psychotherapeutic care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and in the context of an MDT care plan.
Person Specification
- Qualifications
Essential
- An approved post graduate diploma, Masters or Doctorate qualification (or equivalent) in a recognised psychological therapy, leading to recognised professional accreditation in Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy or Group Analysis (BPC, UKCP, BAP, BACP), Arts Psychotherapy (HCPC), or Psychotherapeutic Counselling (BACP or UKCP)
- Professionally registered as an adult psychotherapist or psychological therapist with relevant registration body
- Evidence of relevant continuing professional development as required by the registration body
- Evidence of post-qualification training in clinical supervision
Knowledge/Experience
Essential
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic concepts, systemic and organisational dynamics and related applied psychotherapies.
- Significant assessed experience of working as a qualified adult psychotherapist
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings 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
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological & psychotherapeutic care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and in the context of an MDT care plan.
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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).
