Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist OR Psychological Therapist

Job Overview

We are looking for an innovative, motivated and enthusiastic Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to work with us in the Brent Integrated Psychology and Psychotherapy Service (BIPPS).

The post-holder will work across two of the psychological therapies pathways within BIPPS – Complex Mental Health (CMH) and Complex Emotional Needs (CEN) – who support people aged 18+ who are struggling with chronic mood and anxiety disorders, comorbid personality difficulties and complex trauma.

This is an exciting time to join our growing service and contribute to service development and the delivery of psychological services to improve short- and long-term outcomes for service users experiencing problems associated with a range of complex and comorbid psychological difficulties. The post-holder will be expected to provide specialist psychological assessment and effective NICE-recommended interventions (including formulation and care planning where appropriate) and advice, consultation and training on aspects of psychological care to colleagues from other disciplines as well as advice, family interventions and consultation to non-professional carers. This is a developing area of service provision and the post holder will have an opportunity to be involved in shaping and developing the service.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will be expected to take on a range of direct and indirect clinical responsibilities to support the overall psychological well-being of the population we serve.

This will involve offering evidence-based psychological assessments and interventions (individual and group), as well as supervising the psychologically-informed interventions offered as part of the secondary care stepped-care model and the work of trainee clinical/counselling psychologists.

In addition, there are ongoing opportunities for the post-holder to develop their leadership and managerial competencies by leading on various Quality Improvement and service development projects.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Working for our organisation

CNWL is recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ in line with our values, our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries. With us, you will get:

• A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing at its core.
• An opportunity to work for one of the top 10 NHS employers
• Flexible working
  
  

As a Trust we are committed to investing in our staff through a range of initiatives. Psychological professions staff are able to access a range of trust-wide CPD initiatives.

As part of our commitment to address inequalities in healthcare, we are keen to hear from applicants with lived experience relevant to the diverse communities we work with, and from those with particular skills in understanding and promoting anti-discrimination associated with protected characteristics.

The Trust has the following active Staff Networks: BAME Staff Network, Disabled Employees Network (DEN+), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Staff Network (LGBT+), Carers at Work Network, Lived Experience of Mental Health Issues Stigma Transformation (LEMHIST) Network and Women's Network. The post-holder will accordingly be supported to access and contribute to the work of any of these networks as a member or ally.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of patients referred to the psychological therapies service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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 patient’s care. This will include assessing and diagnosing complex mental health problems (including personality disorder), determining suitability for treatment and conducting a thorough risk assessment. To write up the assessment in a timely manner and to communicate a clear treatment and crisis plan to the patient, referrer and the GP.
• To formulate and implement treatment plans based on the evidence-based interventions for complex mental health difficulties (e.g. CBT, CFT, Schema Therapy, and EMDR). To formulate management of a patient’s mental health problems, 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 evaluate and make decisions on therapeutic interventions considering the complexity of patients and the team’s view and ensuring the safety of the therapeutic environment at all times.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions (both individual and group) 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 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, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by psychologically-based standard care plans.
• To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patient’s formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the patient group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual patients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• 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 the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
• To liaise with the relevant community teams to ensure that clients receive regular multi-disciplinary review as needed.
• To work with patients in a sensitive and transparent way during times of crisis or concern.
• To provide and maintain clear, safe and consistent boundaries with patients.
• To be able to manage stress and anxiety as the clinical work will be complex and demanding.
  
  

Teaching, training, and supervision:

• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
• To continue to gain additional specialist experience and skills relevant to the post and service and the amount and nature of such experience to be agreed with the head of specialty.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff’s psychological work, as appropriate.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision of assistant/graduate psychologists/psychological therapists and, as appropriate, to contribute to the supervision of individual cases for trainee clinical/counselling psychologists.
• To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of psychological therapies.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the patient group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
  
  

Management, recruitment, policy and service development:

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
• To manage the workloads of assistant and graduate psychological therapists, and trainees, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures.
• To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant/graduate psychological therapists.
• As negotiated and within time constraints, the post-holder will be expected to attend relevant clinical meetings.
• The post-holder will be required to attend the regular professional meetings as agreed with the service managers.
  
  

Research and service evaluation:

• To use theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with team members.
• To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
• To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.
• To familiarise themselves with, and to comply with, the Trust’s requirements on research governance.
  
  

IT responsibilities (other than those used for research):

• To ensure that all clinical activity is entered into the Trust’s electronic patient information system.
• To participate, as appropriate, in the setting-up and/or organising of computer systems relevant to the running of the service.
• To engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.
• To be responsible for ensuring that those psychologists they are responsible for/supervise engage in relevant computer and IT training as required and will input and maintain appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data.
  
  

Person specification

Training And Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Doctoral-level training in clinical psychology (or equivalent qualification) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Further training relevant to the care of clients with complex mental health difficulties, particularly trauma-focused therapies.
• Professional registration with HCPC.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Post-qualification training in CBT or another evidence-based therapy such as EMDR or DBT.
• Accreditation through BABCP as a CBT Practitioner.
• Training and experience in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
  
  

Experience

Essential criteria

• Post-qualification specialist experience as a psychological therapist, having received a minimum of 50 hours of clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist in the NHS.
• Experience of working in secondary care mental health services with clients presenting with comorbidity, including chronic mood disorders, personality difficulties and trauma.
• Experience of working with clients from socially- and culturally-diverse backgrounds.
• Experience of carrying out psychological assessment, developing theory-driven psychological formulation and delivering evidence-based psychological interventions to clients presenting with complex mental health difficulties.
• Experience of working with clients from socially- and culturally-diverse backgrounds.
• Active participation in service planning and delivery.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Experience of the application of psychology and psychological therapy in different social and cultural contexts.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or providing clinical supervision to other mental health staff or psychological therapists.
• Experience of representing psychological therapies within the context of multidisciplinary care
  
  

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to establish and maintain a psychotherapeutic relationship with clients presenting with complex needs, particularly those with chronic emotional difficulties, complex trauma and comorbid personality difficulties.
• Knowledge and awareness of the trauma-informed care approach
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. psychosis, personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
  
  

Desirable criteria

• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists/psychological therapists.