Perinatal and Parent-Infant Outreach Psychotherapist

Job overview

We are seeking an enthusiastic Perinatal Parent Infant Therapist/Adult Psychotherapist/Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist with a passion for perinatal care and infant mental health to join our specialist community perinatal mental health service and support our parent – infant pathway. We are dedicated to high quality, evidence-based practice. We welcome applications from all psychotherapy and psychological professions and those newly qualified with the necessary perinatal/parent-infant experience.

The post holder will have a proven interest in working with parents and infants and knowledge of infant and adult mental health. Training as a parent – infant therapist (including extended parent – infant observation) is desirable but not essential. Appropriate specialist clinical and professional supervision and opportunities for training and development will be made available.

They will be a key member of our parent-infant psychotherapy sub-team and join an experienced and friendly group of psychological therapists and psychotherapists who provide a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for service users under the care of the Perinatal Mental Health Team. A key aspect of this role is to provide highly specialist psychological care to parents (and their infants) experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. An ability to assess and manage risk in this context is crucial.

Main duties of the job

Main duties of the role:

• To provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments and interventions to service users and their infants of the Perinatal mental health service.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for managing an identified caseload of parents and infants with complex psychological problems, including assessment of risk and safeguarding adults and babies
• To enable staff and service users from all backgrounds to flourish by working together to create a psychologically safe and responsive environment, ensuring the team operates from an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory perspective at all times
• To provide consultation as appropriate to other members of the MDT and wider professional networks involved in a family’s care.
• To undertake service evaluation, research and policy development
• To work collaboratively and flexibly as a member of the multi-disciplinary team and contribute to a psychologically informed framework of working across the service.
• To actively contribute to perinatal care plans, providing a psychological perspective, which may require attendance at pre-birth and post-birth planning meetings

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of parent infant dyads in the perinatal mental health service 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 client’s care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychotherapeutic treatment and/or management of difficulties within the parent-infant relationship, 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 psychotherapeutic interventions for parent infant relationship difficulties within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychotherapeutic formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account 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 psychotherapeutic care plans.

To provide specialist psychotherapeutic advice, guidance, consultation and training to other professionals contributing directly to the formulation and treatment plan for difficulties in the parent infant relationship.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users under the care of the team.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and their babies and to provide advice to other professions on psychotherapeutic aspects of risk assessment and risk management. To utilise specific experience of assessing risk to the unborn child as well as to the infant and to make decisions based on care needs which are most supportive of mother and child.

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 both uni and multi-disciplinary care, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.

To work jointly with psychologists & psychotherapists based in community teams, to plan and hand over the psychotherapy assessment and treatment of patients that may continue after discharge from the Perinatal Team.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in job applications

If you have used AI to support the preparation of your application, please briefly indicate how it was used within your supporting statement or application form.

Please remember, your application is your opportunity to tell us about your skills, experience and motivation for the role. We encourage applicants to complete their application and supporting statement in their own words wherever possible. We recognise that AI tools can be helpful in supporting accessibility, and for improving spelling, grammar and structure.

Applications that rely heavily on AI-generated content can become generic and fail to accurately reflect an applicant's individual experience. Applications that clearly demonstrate your own voice, reflections and experiences are often the most effective and help us better understand your suitability for the role.

Please be aware that information provided in your application and supporting statement may be explored further during the selection process. It is important that all applications accurately represent your own knowledge, skills and experience.

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.