Clinical or Counselling Psychologist

Job summary
We are currently seeking an experienced Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or CBT Therapist, at Band 8a work for our Adult Community Services, based in Hemel Hempstead. You will be joining our Staffing Team within HPFT - Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

The post holder will ensure the provision of a specialist psychology service to clients with severe and enduring mental health difficulties within the quadrant, and provide expertise, advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to other members of the team. You will work closely with the local psychology team and the range of psychological therapy colleagues within the service setting and work effectively as a member of the multi-disciplinary team.

We are particularly keen in hearing from people with training in psychological interventions for psychosis and bipolar disorder or a willingness and interest in training in these approaches. You will be asked to provide supervision to band 7 Psychologists and trainee Psychologists.

HPFT provides services for service users with mental health, learning disability and children's and adolescent mental health problems. Applicants should have some experience of working in a healthcare setting. HPFT has a range of healthcare settings across the County and therefore access to a car would be beneficial unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 which prevents you from driving.

Main duties of the job

• Undertake specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults with complex mental health difficulties
• Provide expertise in a specialist clinical or research area and to offer advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to other members of the teams in relation to the area of expertise
• Work closely with the local psychologist teams, and the range of psychological therapy colleagues within the service setting
• Work effectively as a member of multi-disciplinary teams
• Work autonomously within professional practice guidelines and Trust policies and procedures
• Propose and implement policy and service development, undertake research, service evaluation and audit for own team/service and to contribute to the training of clinical/counselling psychologists and others
• Ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of trainee psychologists, more junior psychologists and other staff within the services for which the post-holder has designated professional / supervisory responsibility

Essential criteria

• At least two years full-time post-registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Full registration
• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, or fully completed training as a Counselling Psychologist.
• Experience of working with severe mental health problems, including: medically unexplained symptoms, physical health problems, and personality difficulties.
• Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults of working age with a wide range of presentations of varying severity. Typically this would involve a minimum of 2 years at specialist level, or its equivalent demonstrated through application and interview.
• Experience working within a multi-disciplinary therapy service.
• Car Driver

Desirable skills

• Experience in neuropsychological assessment
• Undertaking specialist autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment to investigate possible diagnoses; to undertake additional training for this if needed and work as part of the autism assessment group within the Trust
• Training in psychological interventions for psychosis and bipolar disorder or a willingness and interest in training in these approaches

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.

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

Contact
Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr Helen Eracleous, helen.eracleous@nhs.net, 07584999120