HCPC Registered Lead Art Psychotherapist

Job overview

The Forensic Intensive Recovery Support Team (FIRST) is seeking an experienced Lead Art Psychotherapist to join our multi-disciplinary community team. This role offers an exciting opportunity to enhance creative therapy provision within forensic services and support individuals transitioning from secure care. You will provide specialist assessment, formulation, and evidence-based interventions using art therapy and other trained modalities (e.g. EMDR, MBT, CAT, CBT), delivering individual, group, and family work across FIRST and the wider Forensic Directorate. Your work will focus on improving psychological wellbeing, supporting risk management, and enabling timely discharge, particularly for those who may struggle to engage with traditional therapies. As a senior clinician, you will lead on the development of creative therapies, contributing to training, supervision, and service improvement in collaboration with professional leads. You will also play a key role within the MDT, contributing to care planning, risk assessment, and reviews, with occasional involvement in out-of-area assessments and on-call duties. This role is ideal for an HCPC-registered Art Psychotherapist passionate about innovation, inclusion, and improving outcomes within forensic mental health services.

Main duties of the job

• Deliver specialist assessment, formulation, and art psychotherapy interventions (individual, group, and family), including use of additional modalities (e.g. EMDR, MBT, CAT) for individuals with complex needs and risk.  2.    Develop and apply psychologically informed formulations to guide intervention and care planning.  3.    Undertake risk assessments and contribute to psychologically informed risk management, advising the MDT on complex cases.  4.    Provide consultation, supervision, training, and clinical support to staff across FIRST and the wider Forensic Directorate.  5.    Support engagement for service users who may struggle with traditional therapies, including those involved in serious offending and/or presenting with high risk behaviours.  6.    Contribute to MDT processes including referrals, assessments, reviews, and care coordination where appropriate.  7.    Prepare professional reports and maintain clear clinical documentation.  8.    Lead and support the development of creative therapies, service innovation, and quality improvement initiatives.  9.    Promote psychologically informed practice across the service through teaching, modelling, and collaborative working.  10.    Participate in audit, research, and evidence-based practice development.  11.    Support staff development, student learning, and multidisciplinary training.  12.    Engage in team meetings, service development activities, and leadership responsibilities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide assessment, art psychotherapy and other trained psychotherapeutic/psychological interventions (e.g. EMDR, MBT, CAT etc.) on an individual and/or group basis for people with complex mental health difficulties and risk of harmful behaviour. People may have had difficultly in engaging in other forms of psychological treatment. 2.    Develops complex formulations of the client’s difficulties, drawing upon the findings of highly specialised psychological/art psychotherapy assessments, relevant aspects of the case history and relevant psychological models, concepts and theory. 3.    Undertakes risk assessments from a psychological/art psychotherapy perspective and provides psychologically based programmes of risk management for service users and provides advice for other colleagues on the psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.