BAND 7 Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

Job Title: Clinical / Counselling Psychologist (PCRS)

Team: Merton Primary Care Recovery Service (part of Merton Uplift)

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (1wte)

Job type: Permanent

Base: Wilson Hospital, Cranmer Road, Mitcham, Surrey CT4 4TP

The post holder may be required to work in locations within the area served by the Trust.

About the Team:

Merton Uplift is the South West London & St. George's Mental Health NHS (SWLSTG) Trust's innovative primary care mental health service for the residents of Merton.

Merton Uplift incorporates three services: 1) Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service, 2) a Wellbeing Service with Employment Specialists and Wellbeing Practitioners, and 3) a Primary Care Recovery Service (PCRS).

Merton Uplift is professionally managed by a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and operationally managed by a Service Manager.

The high performing IAPT team provide evidence-based psychological treatments (CBT, IPT, DIT, BCT, EMDR) to people with common mental health problems including depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD and eating disorders within a stepped-care model.

The Merton Primary Care Service (PCRS) offers a range of evidence-based psychological treatments to adult clients presenting with complex or chronic depression and anxiety disorders, PTSD and eating disorders (i.e. patients in care clusters 5-7).

Main duties of the job

We are looking for an enthusiastic clinical or counselling psychologist to join the PCRS psychology team. You will be providing assessment and evidence-based treatment to people aged 18 and over presenting with depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD and eating disorders.

Psychological treatments offered by the postholder will primarily include cognitive behavioural interventions, including third wave evidence-based therapies - such as ACT or CFT - as well as trauma-based therapy models such as TF-CBT and EMDR.

Experience and formal training in any of the above-mentioned treatment modalities will be an advantage. We also welcome applications from clinicians who may have additional experience with the Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy model. There will be opportunities to contribute to the clinical supervision of recovery support workers and/or trainee psychologists.

The service also offers recovery and step-down interventions, together with a Wellbeing service, for clients with a diagnosis of stable psychosis (cluster 11). The PCRS are a small, friendly, multidisciplinary team consisting of clinical/counselling psychologists, psychotherapists, CPNs, recovery support workers, and a consultant psychiatrist.

Treatments offered within PCRS will include CBT and third-wave cognitive behavioural therapies, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and compassion-focused Therapy (CFT), EMDR and relational therapies including Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT).

About us

Benefits:

SWLSTG Trust offer a number of excellent staff benefits and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance. Some of our benefits are highlighted here:

• Generous pay, pensions and leave, we offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package which is dependent on the role and length of service.
• Work life balance, we support a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working, job sharing, term-time working, compressed hours and working from home.
• Career development, there are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes
• Subsidised car parking - You can park at any of our sites at a reduced rate of £20/month.
• NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands though Health Service Discounts website.

Other benefits include:

• Eye examinations
• Looking after your health
• Cycle to work scheme
• Car lease scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Childcare vouchers
• Staff restaurants

Job description Job responsibilities

The clinical team includes qualified IAPT High Intensity CBT Therapists, Clinical and Counselling Psychologists, and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners.

This is an exciting opportunity for a psychologist to join an established team of psychologists and psychotherapists offering specialist support to people with complex and severe depression and anxiety disorders. High quality supervision and CPD are a priority for the team.

You will receive regular individual clinical supervision from a Band 8a or 8b Clinical/Counselling Psychologist working within the service. You will also have the opportunity to attend clinical training sessions facilitated by lead clinicians from across the SWLSTG Trust and to attend CBT training workshops led by highly respected clinicians in their field, for example, we have previously welcomed Andrew Beck, Anke Ehlers and Martina Mueller.

Existing members of the Psychology team have been supported to undertake and work towards accreditation in further treatment approaches, e.g. DIT, DIT-CC, EMDR. Additional specialist supervision can be made available for these approaches. We have also recently started developing secondment opportunities for clinicians interested in working in other teams in the Trust which has been positively received.

In light of the Covid pandemic, the service is currently offering the opportunity to work in a hybrid model of working from the team base and remotely, with an expectation that everyone is currently in the office between 40-60% of the time. It is likely that agile working will continue to be part of the job role moving forward.

In addition to flexible working, we have recently introduced a number of wellbeing initiatives to support our teams. Staff are supported through monthly line management supervision and our newly established active staff wellness groups organise weekly staff wellbeing events including reflective groups and yoga classes.

About the Location:

Merton Uplift currently has bases located in The Generator Business Centre, Cricket Green Medical Centre and The Wilson Hospital in Mitcham. The PCRS team base is the Wilson Hospital.

Person Specification Training and Qualifications Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS
• HPC registration as a practitioner psychologist under the relevant domain

Desirable

• Eligible for accreditation for as a CBT therapist with BABCP and prepared to seek accreditation. This would include evidence of formal training in CBT such as a Post graduate Diploma/Masters in CBT
• BABCP Accreditation as CBT practitioner

Experience Essential

• Experience of assessment and treatment of people with common mental health problems, of varying severity and complexity, using evidence based psychological therapies, particularly CBT
• Experience with routine outcome monitoring
• Experience in establishing diagnosis/psychological formulation

Desirable

• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Post-qualification experience of working in primary care settings
• Experience of mental health problems and the capacity to use that experience to the benefit of patient care
• Experience of meeting agreed/specified service targets
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

294-COMM-0704-KT