Principal Psychological Professional

Job overview

The Complex Trauma (and Dissociative Disorders) Service is a small specialist team offering support to service users who have experienced complex trauma and present with severe traumatic reactions including dissociative disorders.

The service offers consultation, training and advice to staff and teams across the whole Trust; including specialist services and acute.

You will work in a small team with the Consultant Clinical Psychologist and another Principal Psychological Practitioner / Psychological Therapist to support others in their work with complex service users across Sussex. You will hold a small clinical caseload of people who have experienced severe trauma including those with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

The team is Trust wide and so there will be a need to travel across sites to meet with service users. This role is anticipated to require face to face appointments into bases in East Sussex, including Eastbourne / Uckfield or Hastings to be further confirmed. The role will also provide additional face to face input into others parts of the Trust, depending on where referrals come from. The team official base is in Horsham at New Park House however depending on the applicant there may be some flexibility regarding bases or work from home for admin.

Main duties of the job

Our service users experience severe and enduring mental health difficulties as a result of severe traumatic experiences.

You will offer advice and consultation to staff and teams across Sussex Partnership Trust.

You will know about and be guided by the clinical guidelines available for this population in order to offer the best advice and clinical care possible.

You will have experience and an interest in developing knowledge in the area of dissociative disorders and DID, including knowledge of assessments and relevant treatment approaches.

Training other staff to work with severe trauma reactions and dissociative disorders will also be part of the role. As well as developing new and bespoke training packages.

You will be required to work with service users over long-term treatment empowering them to recover and work towards goals. Hold clinically important boundaries whilst being flexible enough to gain trust and using a relational approach along with evidence based techniques.

Training and experience of supervising others will be a key part of the role.

EMDR Consultant Status or working towards this would be an advantage. As would training in other specialist trauma therapies and experience of work with a range of complex trauma populations and comorbidity with challenging presentations.

Experience of providing clinical leadership across developing pathways and systems is also part of the role.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We are looking for someone with excellent clinical skills and confidence in their abilities to provide containment and advice to other professionals working with complexity and to support service users with significant dissociative presentations.

You will be well supported by the Consultant Clinical Psychologist, other Principal Psychological Professional colleague and the excellent Team administrator.

We would value a strong commitment to recovery, multi-disciplinary working, service user involvement, and equality. Your ideas and innovations will be welcome, as the team continues to develop in this interesting area of clinical practice.