Band 7, Arts Psychotherapist, Bristol

Job overview

Do you understand the clinical needs of people with a Learning Disability and Autistic People? Do you bring passion and commitment to delivering high quality care?

We are looking for an exceptional Art, Drama or Music Psychotherapist to join our new specialist acute inpatient service for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

This role will provide a rare and exciting career opportunity to be instrumental in contributing to the design, implementation and ongoing evaluation of Arts Psychotherapy within a highly specialist inpatient setting. You will be expected to have excellent team working and groupwork skills, and an ability to deliver individual and group interventions within an inpatient environment.

In addition to shaping and delivering direct assessment, formulation and intervention, you will contribute to wider service development and pathways, including training, consultation, reflective practice and staff wellbeing.

You will be expected to contribute to service improvement, audit and research as appropriate, working with colleagues and linking with relevant partner organisations such as academic institutions, to help us realise our vision of being a centre of excellence.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will deliver high-quality, evidence-based assessment, formulation and intervention within the inpatient service. This will include the delivery of specialist individual, group and systemic intervention, as well as providing consultation, interventions and training for carers and staff.

They will be expected to provide supervision to other members of the team as appropriate.

They will also contribute to service design, audit and research. The service has close working relationships with local Universities.

Individualised support will be provided to develop your knowledge and skills, as part of the expanding expertise in learning disabilities and neurodiversity within AWP.

If you would like further information we would be very pleased to have a conversation with you in person or virtually, prior to you submitting your application. Please contact: Dr Cathy Randle-Phillips, Consultant Clinical Psychologist: [email protected]

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide a specialist arts psychotherapy service including assessment and treatment, using advanced levels of skill, for individual and group shorter and longer-term art psychotherapy and to advise teams in relation to service users complex needs and the range of interventions  available.

To carry out assessments and consultation to inform and enable comprehensive information gathering to establish diagnosis, re service users who present with unclear symptoms and complex mental health difficulties.

Regularly review and evaluate the therapy including levels of risk as part of the CPA process.

Communicate with empathy and sensitivity with service users and carers with an awareness and understanding of their problems and often complex issues.

To be responsible for own specialist caseload working within Trust policies, protocols and guidelines.

To record service user’s progress in RIO patient records, write reports and input statistical date.

To engage in reflective practice and clinical supervision and to offer clinical supervision to arts psychotherapy staff and other colleagues, as required. To arrange and attend professional, team and specialist clinical supervision as appropriate to caseload.

Please see attached detailed job description and key local information regarding this post.