Senior Counsellor

Job overview

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North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust are seeking a Highly Specialised Senior Psychological Therapist. You will provide advanced psychological therapies within your accredited modality to clients with complex presentations, and offer clinical leadership, supervision, and support across a multidisciplinary team.

You will help shape therapy pathways, drive quality improvement, and ensure services meet Talking Therapies standards, NICE guidance, and national competency frameworks. This role offers the opportunity to influence service development, contribute to research and audit, and lead a team committed to compassionate, inclusive care.

We are looking for an experienced therapist with professional registration (e.g., BABCP, HCPC, BACP, UKCP), excellent clinical skills, and a passion for leadership and service excellence.

This role offers the opportunity to influence service direction and the future of psychological therapy in North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, maintain clinical excellence, and provide visible leadership across our geographical footprint. If you are an innovative, reflective, and values-driven senior therapist ready to shape the future of psychological therapy delivery, we would welcome your application.

Main duties of the job

You will:

• Deliver highly specialised, evidence-based psychological therapy to clients with complex common mental health presentations within NHS Talking Therapies criteria
• Provide clinical leadership and supervision across multidisciplinary teams (PWPs, counsellors, CBT therapists, and psychological therapists)
• Shape and develop therapy pathways in line with NICE guidance, national competency frameworks, and Talking Therapies standards
• Lead on clinical governance, quality improvement, workforce development, and service innovation
• Contribute to research, audit, and service evaluation
• Work collaboratively within a senior leadership team to ensure delivery of KPIs, productivity and high-quality patient care

We are looking for a clinician who:

• Holds professional accreditation/registration (e.g. BABCP, HCPC, BACP, UKCP or equivalent)
• Has substantial post-qualification experience within NHS Talking Therapies
• Demonstrates advanced formulation skills and the ability to manage complex risk
• Has experience of providing clinical supervision and leadership
• Is passionate about evidence-based practice, service development and workforce support

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide clinical leadership on (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy / Counselling & Relational Psychotherapies / Low intensity therapies / Long Term Conditions) and associated consultation, training and clinical supervision to other team members.

• Provide evidence based psychological therapy within your specified modality to a more complex clinical population that cannot be met in a standard IAPT pathway but still meet the ‘top end’ criteria for NHS Talking Therapies.
• To provide clinical leadership to the service and operate within the senior leadership team
• Ensure services meet the national competency frameworks, ensuring workforce compliance with NICE approved therapies and relevant psychological therapy / supervision competency frameworks (e.g Roth & Pilling).
• With the clinical lead, provide a quality feedback framework, by inputting to incident report reviews, critical incidents and serious incident reports, providing feedback and supporting staff, whilst assisting in identifying themes for improvements.
• Contribute to the implementation of specialist area pathways and provide ongoing monitoring.
• Engage in research activity within the services, providing a point of contact and a conduit to research colleagues.

Further information on attached Job Description.