Clinical or Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the leading providers of services for the LGBTQI+ communities including our gender dysphoria clinic ‘TransPlus’ and trans sexual health service ‘56T’. Our Trans services are recognised for their inclusivity & diversity, and recently won a Nursing Times Award for ‘Enhancing Patient Dignity’. Our ambition is to be the leading healthcare provider for Trans and non-binary service users in the UK, building on the specialist expertise and knowledge of our clinical teams.

This is a pivotal role with the post holder providing a specialist psychology service to clients with gender dysphoria at TransPlus, and to provide specialist psychological therapy to TransPlus project participants around any aspect of their mental or sexual health connected to their diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

The post holder will ensure the interests of the Trust are represented in a professional manner, and is a suitable ambassador at all times.

The successful candidate will be expected to work across all sites but will be primarily based within our 56 Dean Street sexual health service.

Main duties of the job

The role will be to provide a specialist psychology service to clients with gender dysphoria at TransPlus, a national gender identity clinic. This role will include providing psychological therapy to TransPlus patients, around any aspect of their mental or sexual health connected to their diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The post holder will offer advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers or external agencies, and will offer supervision to other qualified psychology staff members. Key to the role is to work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.

Please see attached job description and person specification to this advert for further details.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical

• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems and psychological aspects of physical morbidity, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups; adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account queer and trans affirmative models and considering the impact of wider systems on that persons experience of gender dysphoria
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, and to support other members of the MDT in risk management.
• To contribute to multi-disciplinary team meetings; to communicate and reflect using a psychologically based framework.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
• To act as a named designated professional for clients within the service.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of gender services within the trust, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
• To supervise other professionals, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures.
• To provide dedicated support to the Gender Affirmation Surgery service to meet the psychological needs of service users, and to provide a psychological perspective to the GAS MDT.

Research and service evaluation

• To initiate high quality research projects including carrying out literature searches, preparing scientific reviews of key areas, designing research studies, preparing and submitting grant applications to potential external funders, preparing, submitting and managing ethics committee submissions and preparing and submitting project registration documents.
• To present the results of research studies to appropriate audiences within the Trust and externally including national and international conferences and meetings as required by the lead nurse and clinical supervisor.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
• To provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
• To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service as necessary, to help develop service provision.
• To familiarise themselves with, and to comply with, the Trust’s requirements on research governance.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.