Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or CB Psychotherapist

Job overview

We are seeking a passionate and dedicated Clinical / Counselling Psychologist or CBT Therapist to join our highly respected National OCD/BDD Service at Springfield Hospital. This is a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of specialist care for individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).

The National OCD/BDD Inpatient Service at Springfield University Hospital, operated by South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, provides intensive, specialist care for adults experiencing severe and treatment-resistant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). As part of a nationally commissioned specialist consortium, the service plays a vital role in supporting individuals across the UK who have not responded to conventional treatments.

Located on Seacole Ward, a 14-bed mixed-gender facility for adults aged 18 and over (with no upper age limit), the unit offers a structured, evidence-based six-month treatment programme. This programme is delivered by a highly skilled multidisciplinary team, including specialist nursing staff, and is designed to address OCD and BDD alongside complex comorbidities—ensuring a holistic and person-centred approach to recovery.

Main duties of the job

To provide a specialist cognitive behavioural assessment and therapy service to patients referred to the National Service for OCD/BDD. This will include offering advice and consultation on patients' psychological care to other healthcare workers throughout the UK. The post holder will be expected to work within recognised professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Trust's policies and procedures. The post holder is expected to contribute to the training of cognitive behavioural psychotherapists in delivering effective, evidence-based specialist psychological interventions and to utilize their research and training skills for effective audit and service development within the service. An important part of the role will be to offer clinical and professional supervision to cognitive behavioural psychotherapists in the National OCD BDD Service. Finally, jointly with the Consultant Psychiatrist Lead for the service and the team manager the post-holder will lead on strategic service changes and improvements to processes and practice as required.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide a comprehensive specialist assessment and high intensity therapeutic service for adult patients with OCD/BDD. These patients will be referred nationally by other secondary and tertiary services, and most interventions will be based on evidence based cognitive behaviour therapy principles, working within the context of the agreed policies and procedures of the specialist services.
• To identify the nature, severity and complexity of adult patients' mental health problems, and to advise both patients and their referrers on appropriate management of those problems, enabling   referral to other highly specialist services and/or non-statutory services where appropriate.
• To formulate and implement plans for the intensive CBT 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 of intervention that are based upon evidence of treatment efficacy.
• To make appropriate use of specialist assessments of patients' mental health, including structured and semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, rating scales and guided inquiry methods.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other clinicians in Secondary and Primary Care on psychological aspects of risk assessment, including the risk of self-harm.
• 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, couple or family.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the efficiency of all aspects of the service, including assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are within the service remit.
• 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 their treatment within the national service.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are within the service remit.