Highly Specialist Clinical Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for motivated and creative individuals, who are looking to develop specialist skills in an innovative and expanding service :

Band 8a Highly Specialist Clinical / Counselling Psychologist in the Tri-Borough Perinatal Service (0.6wte)

This is an innovative award winning service delivering new models of specialist care within in West London NHS Trust. Perinatal Mental Health services benefited from significant national funding with the largest expansion of posts being within psychological therapies. This is in recognition of the choices and preference for psychological interventions of women accessing perinatal mental health services.

The role will be based in Hammersmith and Fulham with the need to flexibly / attend meetings at the other team locations across the Trust. The successful candidate will need to be able to have Thursdays as one of their working days.

This would be an ideal opportunity for an excellent clinician who has experience at Band 7 in Perinatal Mental Health or a similar or someone with experience at Band 8a who is looking to work in a new area. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to gain exposure and enhance their knowledge and skills with the support of a highly specialised team which will help the post holder to develop their own specialist skills in Perinatal Mental Health.

Main duties of the job

Provide assessments of patients referred to the Perinatal Service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.

To provide a comprehensive psychological therapy service to patients within the perinatal service who may have a wide range of psychological needs. This will include the provision of evidence-based treatments for trauma (Trauma focussed CBT or EMDR)

To provide evidence based interventions to women, couples and families, where appropriate, considering the specific needs of families who are pregnant or have a young baby.

Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both the evidence base, theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes which have shaped the individual, family or group.

To be responsible for implementing a range of time-limited psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, grounded in the principles and techniques of a range of theoretical approaches.

Provide specialist expertise, advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to women’s formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

To provide supervision to more junior psychology colleagues including assistant and trainee psychologists.

Working for our organisation

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.

The Trust is rated as ‘Good’ overall by the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as ‘Outstanding’.

The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached

The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Post-graduate doctoral level training (or its equivalent) in Clinical Psychology OR Counselling Psychology
• Eligibility for Chartered Status by the British Psychological Society
• HCPC registered or, for those outside the UK, eligible and will be registered by the time of taking up post.

Desirable criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Knoweldge

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria