Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/CBT therapist

Job overview

We have an exciting preceptorship development position for either a newly qualified Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/CBT therapist looking for a post with potential career progression, OR for an experienced Band 7/8A ready to apply directly for an 8A post.

The successful candidate will join our friendly community mental health team, in the Greenwich Early Intervention in Psychosis Service.

You will be part of an MDT helping the EIP service support the needs of people experiencing a range of psychosis related difficulties.

WE WOULD WELCOME APPLICATIONS FROM CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS WHO ARE IN THEIR FINAL YEAR OF DOCTORAL TRAINING, and those who are looking for the opportunity for career development and wish to build the specialist skills and experience in line with the roles set out below.

There will be very close working with the other psychological therapists across EIP, and there will be lots of opportunity for additional support. For those applying for the preceptorship development post, following successful completion of a preceptorship programme (formal log of competencies), usually over a period of 18 -36 months, the Band 7 position will lead to a Band 8a.

If you are interested in this position or have any questions, we would welcome and encourage you to contact us for an informal discussion and/or to meet the team.

Main duties of the job

As part of the therapy team, you will be providing individual and group interventions, as well as working with families.

You will be supporting the wider MDT with psychological perspectives into individuals and families support and care needs. You will also have the opportunity to develop your supervision skills through supervising Trainee Clinical Psychologists, and Assistant Psychologists.

You will work with people from a range of different backgrounds and ages, and will ideally be passionate about equal opportunities and client-centred care.  Working with clients within a secondary care team, you will have an opportunity to develop experience and skills and specialist skills in psychological interventions in working with this client group.  You will have the opportunity to train further in NICE concordant interventions for psychosis such as CBTp and FiP, in addition to the option of being involved in our psychosis family therapy service, and accessing training in trauma therapies such as EMDR.

You will hold a clinical case load and be supervised by the ICMP Lead Psychologist. You will also have the opportunity to attend specialist supervision in CBTp, FiP, and other therapy modalities (e.g. ACT, EMDR).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the EIP Mental Health Service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological 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 psychological 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 proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

• To deliver NICE approved CBTp and Family Interventions for Psychosis.

• To facilitate groups for clients and carers.

• 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 psychologically based care plans.

• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

• To ensure that all members of the treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.

• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, including responsibilities within the policies and clinical duties to safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.

• To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care. This will require being able to  convey this to clients, families and colleagues with a range of understanding and knowledge so will require the ability to be flexible, adaptive and simple but yet retain a sophisticated understanding and approach.

• To provide expertise, advice, and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment team.