Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

Trauma Informed Approaches look to recognise and acknowledge the impact of adverse childhood events and how these can cause or contribute to the development of mental health problems in adults, including how we are able to seek and use help when offered.

It understands trauma in a broad sense that includes the impact of discrimination and marginalisation on both staff and those who use our services.

HPFT is committed to developing policies and practises to reflect this trauma awareness, ensuring that the key message of 'what has happened to you' rather than 'what is wrong with you' runs through everything we do.

On the wards and in our crisis services we seek to create conditions that promote emotional safety and reduce harm through our interactions that recognise safety, empowerment, collaboration, choice and trustworthiness.

• be a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist


• have strong post qualification experience in mental health, preferably with experience of working in acute settings or of specialist experience of working with individuals with a SMI


• have a solid understanding of recovery principles


• work flexibly and in collaboration as part of a multidisciplinary team


• be willing to work in community settings


• will also be joining a wider group of strong and established psychological therapists offering services within adult mental health


• hold a full valid driving licence and access to a car to use regularly for business purposes - including business insurance - is essential (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010), Good honours degree in psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS).


• 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.


• Strong post-registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.


• Full registration with Health Professions Council


• Related academic qualifications to masters or doctorate level.


• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.


• Experience and or training in neuropsychological assessment


• Specific Training in Family/Systemic Interventions, CBT-P, DBT, MBT, EMDR, ASD/ADHD assessment/intervention., Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults of working age with a wide range of presentations of varying severity.


• Experience of working with moderate to severe mental health problems, including: medically unexplained symptoms, physical health problems, and personality difficulties.


• Demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training, through a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist


• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment.


• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision, including supervision of clinical psychology trainee(s).


• Experience working within a multidisciplinary therapy service.


• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of older age psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology.


• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology.


• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management with clients with complex problems, including specialised psychological interventions for difficult to treat groups (eg multiple mental health and/or physical health problems). Ability to demonstrate an area of special interest/skill in assessment, therapeutic intervention or research/evaluation.


• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HPC.


• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively and well, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, caress and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.


• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.


• Able to plan own workload; and coordinate with other relevant staff in the delivery of clinical service


• Able to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to verbal and sometimes physical aggression.


• Full UK driving licence (subject to Disability Discrimination legislation)


• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.


• Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to older people


• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.


• Experience of working within a multi cultural framework.


• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnoses, people with co-morbid conditions: physical health, social complexity, psychologically complex histories)


• Good presentation and teaching skills and ability to use multi-media materials for formal presentations to large groups.


• Familiarity with computing technology, including keyboard skills, and use of wordprocessing, e-mail, and internet software.


Desirable criteria


• Experience of working within crisis or acute services


• Experience of having published in either peer reviewed academic or professional journals and/or booksExperience of having published in either peer reviewed academic or professional journals and/or books


• Skilled in appropriate and up to date disengagement techniques., You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
  
  Are you interested in working with an outstanding NHS Trust to develop and deliver community treatment in mental health?


If yes, we would love to hear from you to work in the friendly Acute Crisis Team!

The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Service meet the needs of individual's living in Hertfordshire who are experiencing a crisis in relation to their mental health.

Through an extensive expansion of our psychology provision, we are in a period of skill development with the wider workforce and embedding trauma informed approaches.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Our staff survey results tell a story of highly engaged, motivated, passionate people working at HPFT. The survey has shown that staff overwhelmingly believe that their role makes a difference to service users, to the extent that HPFT had the best score nationally for this question., Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission.

Our family of over 4,000 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is rated by the Care Quality Commission as an Outstanding provider of mental health and learning disability services. In 2021, we won the prestigious Health Service Journal award for Mental Health Trust of the Year, with the judges saying they were "blown away" by our people's achievements and that everything they saw "sings and hums". This year, our staff rated us the 4^th best mental health and learning disability trust to work for out of all 52 trusts in the country. Our staff tell us that they are proud to be part of the HPFT team, proud of the standard of care we provide and proud that service users are our top priority. Our people tell us they feel supported though a great development, wellbeing and work-life balance offer and a highly compassionate, values-driven culture. We are equally proud of our staff, who live our values of being welcoming, kind, positive, respectful and professional

In return we can offer:

• regular opportunities for ongoing professional development


• leadership and management training


• on top of basic salary, high cost allowance supplement £2,011 per annum pro rata


• 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service) plus bank holidays (pro rata where applicable)


• One of the UK's best pension schemes


• Special leave for family and personal reasons


• NHS Car Lease Scheme (for substantive staff)


• Employee Assistance Programme