Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job summary
A great opportunity for a clinical or counselling psychologist to provide psychology input to the Kingston Hospital Psychiatric Liaison Service. This is a varied role with opportunities to use your skills in direct assessments and interventions with service users, as well as indirect work to support the whole team in gaining a psychological perspective when formulating and planning interventions.

You will have a wide breadth of work, including working with people presenting to hospital due to mental health crisis, as well as supporting other hospital inpatients who have co-occurring mental health difficulties.

You will work alongside other professionals including psychiatrists and nurses, helping to develop the whole team approach to managing their cases. You will have strong links with the SWLSGT Acute & Urgent Care Psychology team.
Main duties of the job

• Direct work with service users. Assessments, formulations, crisis planning and care planning, providing recommendations for treatment. Providing brief psychological interventions to address difficulties, such as work on emotion regulation, relapse prevention etc.
• Indirect work with service users: Contribution to team meetings to communicate psychology perspective in planning their care. Engaging with other stakeholders to establish treatment needs when discharged from Liaison team.
• Clinical work will include supporting people presenting in A&E with mental health crisis including helping to establish pathways for frequent attenders. You will also work with people across the range of physical health wards in the hospital who have comorbid mental health difficulties.
• Team work: Supporting the team more generally through provision of regular reflective practice, teaching and case formulations.
• Opportunity for supervision of clinical psychology trainee.

Training & Qualifications
Essential

• Doctorate level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or its' equivalent, including two or more distinct psychological therapies as accredited by the HCPC
• Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the HCPC under the appropriate domain specific title (Clinical Psychologist)
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC
• Post qualification training in clinical supervision of trainee psychologists

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• BABCP accredited CBT practitioner or eligibility for provisional registration of the BABCP as a CBT therapist
• Qualifications in other forms of psychotherapy

Experience
Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Experience of delivering NICE adherent interventions especially CBT for psychological problems
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical / counselling psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology

Desirable

• Experience of working in Liaison Psychiatry or other acute physical healthcare settings
• Experience in working in acute and crisis mental health settings, such as Crisis Home Treatment Teams or acute psychiatric wards
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

Details
Band: Band 8a
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Salary: £63,665 to £70,887 a year pro rata per annum inclusive of Inner London HCAs
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 294-AAUC-8378636-AZ
Location: Kingston Hospital, Galsworthy Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7QB

Closing date: 02 November 2026

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

For questions about the job, contact:
Clinical Service Lead Caroline Lekuru, Caroline.Lekuru@swlstg.nhs.uk, 02035131654

Unless expressly stated in the job advert this role is not subject to sponsorship, please be advised that all offers of employment are subject to evidence of right to work in the UK. We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist.