Psychologist or Psychotherapist

Job responsibilities

What ELFT service users and carers say is important to them:

Being listened to and treated as equals

Nothing about us, without us: recognise that we are experts in our own experience and involve us in care planning and decision-making

A truly inclusive service in which diverse identities are accepted and celebrated, and we're treated without fear of bias or prejudice

A truly accessible service which adapts to meet our needs rather than the other way round

Being treated with respect, patience and kindness

A service which shows compassionate curiosity: a genuine care and desire to support and understand us

Focusing on what matters to us, and what recovery means to us.

The post holder will be part of an established psychology provision which includes senior Psychologists and eight Clinical Associate Psychologists, who have been developing an innovative psychology provision to bridge the gap between primary and secondary care specialist services. The post will also be well linked with the Specialist Psychotherapy Service (SPS) and receive specialist supervision and CPD opportunities, as appropriate

This emerging model of care is flexible to peoples changing needs, with care stepping up and stepping down and interventions provided according to the complexity of someones needs at a given time.

Education

Essential

• Postgraduate Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS or appropriate Psychotherapy qualification.
• Registration with the Health Professionals Council or other appropriate regulatory body.
• Relevant specialist training or qualifications. E.g. Brief Interventions, CBT, DIT, CAT, Psychodynamic Approaches, Narrative Therapy, DBT, MBT, Systemic Psychotherapy, Neuropsychological assessment skills. Health Psychology.

Desirable

• Additional relevant clinical and/or managerial knowledge and skills acquired through formal training, long or short courses, formal supervision (individual and/or group), structured self-study or experience (or a combination of these) to an appropriate level approved by the Lead of Psychological Services and demonstrated by certification, documented supervision logs, management appraisal documentation and/or assessment at interview

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with people who experience psychosis, personality disorder and complex depression and anxiety at a graduate or postgraduate level.
• Experience of working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience of providing a clinical service to a multicultural population.
• Demonstrable experience of working within a recovery orientated and socially inclusive framework
• Understanding of the supervisory process.
• Able to deliver teaching and training events.
• Able to contribute a psychological perspective in work with other professionals

Desirable

• Experience of working with couples, families and groups
• Experience of consulting to individuals or groups.
• Experience of working in a health setting with using heath psychology approaches
• Experience of providing Community Psychology or Population Health based interventions.

Knowledge

Essential

• Able to provide & receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a range of relationships and settings.
• Able to use highly specialist skills of empathy to overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance.
• Able to build good working relationships with other professionals
• Committed to reflective practice.
• Able to draw upon a broad theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of highly complex facts or situations to arrive at appropriate formulations.
• Able to compare and select from a range of intervention options, (minimum of two therapeutic orientations) based on formulation.
• Able to provide brief therapeutic interventions. Able to understand the complexity involved in working with people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties.
• Awareness of government frameworks and guidelines relating to mental health, e.g. NHS Long Term Plan.
• Able to plan, organise, prioritise and manage own complex workload.
• Competent in use of basic IT packages - word processing, e-mail and internet.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis.
• Up to date knowledge of psychological research and national guidance relevant to the client group.
• Experience of research projects in relation to this client group or other relevant research.
• Understanding of audit and clinical effectiveness issues
• Understanding and awareness of the potential impact of racism, discrimination & disadvantage on the mental health of Black and ethnic minority people.

Desirable

• Experience in facilitating/leading group/team discussions.
• Active research interests. Record of published research. Technical skills in advanced computer packages and internet use.
• Able to provide a cultural competent service. Fluent in relevant languages, e.g. Urdu, Punjabi, Gujerati, French, Arabic or Swahili.

Other

Essential

• Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
• Able to manage effectively verbal aggression from service users, families, etc and the risk of physical aggression.
• Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
• Must be capable of accountability for own work, of autonomous clinical practice, of being guided by precedent and of working towards defined results.
• Commitment to working with people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties in hospital and community settings.
• Commitment to working as part of an MDT and within the framework of the secondary care psychology service.

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).