Job overview
We are inviting applications from psychological therapists from a core professional background (e.g. Psychiatric nurses, Social workers, OT's) to join our Personality Disorder Pathway in the North West of Hertfordshire. The post holder will be based in Hemel Hempstead.
Working closely with the local DBT leads, this post offers an exciting opportunity to join an established group of therapists who provide a local DBT service, as well as joining the wider network of therapists, locally and across the trust.
The post holder will provide specialist psychological assessment and treatment to clients with a diagnosis of personality disorder within the service and provide specialist support, guidance and consultation to colleagues, carers and other agencies regarding the psychological care of clients.
There will be many opportunities for close working with local and quadrant-wide psychological therapy teams and other psychological therapy colleagues.
The post holder will act as a resource on positive risk-taking and the management of people with personality disorder, for staff within the community hubs, and work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedure.
Main duties of the job
To have good working relationships with multi-disciplinary colleagues in the community mental health team setting
To maintain close working relationships with psychological therapy colleagues both locally and quadrant-wide
To promote and maintain good working relationships with colleagues in the local Hub and beyond and with GPs and other stakeholders in the service.
To work closely with both psychological therapies staff and other non-psychological therapy colleague
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedure
To utilise research skills for audit, teaching, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service
To provide specialist psychological assessment and treatment including a range of evidence-based group and individual psychological interventions
To provide specialist support, guidance, and consultation relevant to personality disorders on clients’ psychological care to other multi-disciplinary professional
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self- report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients' care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, 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 setting
To be responsible for implementing psychological interventions from within your area of specialty for individuals, carers, families, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining the psychological formulation according to the evolving clinical scenario.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plan
For full details of the role and responsibilities for this vacancy please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification documents attached.
Person specification
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Essential
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- Ability to communicate 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
- Ability to work and communicate therapeutically with clients and their families consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating
- Ability to work and communicate as a responsible participating member of a multi- disciplinary team and the ability to respect and value other members’ contributions and to encourage participation of all involved
- Ability to keep accurate and complete records of activities and communications consistent with legislation, policies and procedures.
- Ability to alert line manager / team when direction, policies and strategies are adversely affecting users of services or the public
- Ability to time manage effectively and to work under pressure and to prioritise a clinical workload
- Positive problem solving approach
- Ability to critically evaluate and review developments made by others to determine if and how they could be applied within own area of work
AREAS OF EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Essential
- Experience of assessment and treatment of clients across a full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, adult mental health and in patient settings
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, including adults with personality disorders. Experience across the whole life span 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
- Knowledge of whole life span development and the impact on emotional, psychological and mental well-being
- Experience of multi-disciplinary team working and inter-agency collaboration
- Ability to take the appropriate action to address any issues or risks
- Awareness of Child and Adult Safeguarding Procedures
- Awareness of current NHS initiatives and Developments
- Knowledge and awareness of specific clinical practices and issues relating to clients with mental health problems
- Ability to work autonomously as well as part of a team
- Experience of working in a community mental health setting
Desirable
- Experience of teaching, training and/or offering supervision
KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
- Qualification and continuing registration* in one of the core mental health professions (e.g. psychiatric nursing, social work, occupational therapy).
- *Continuing registration with body overseeing practice of core mental health profession (e.g. NMC, HCPC).
- Completion of DBT Training or willingness and aptitude to train – if the opportunity arises, to undertake the PGDiploma in DBT
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for DBT Therapist with Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust in Hatfield, East of England, England. It is listed as a Band 6 Mental health professionals role. The advertised salary is £41,957 - £50,387 per annum, pro rata (5% HCAS Included). The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 01 Jul 2026.
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