Art Psychotherapist- HMP Downview OPD Service | Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust; Sutton Green; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare organization in Sutton Green is seeking an Arts Psychotherapist to join the Offender Personality Disorder Team. The role involves delivering therapy, assessing patient suitability, and contributing to a multidisciplinary team. Applicants should have relevant clinical expertise and experience with personality disorders. This position offers networking opportunities and career progression within mental health services. The advert closes on Sunday, January 4, 2026.

Benefits

Free use of onsite leisure facilities

Free parking for staff

Career progression support

Qualifications

• Experience working with personality disorder clients required.
• Expertise in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is desirable.
• Ability to work within a multidisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Deliver Modified Forensic Dialectic Behavioural Therapy.
• Assess patients' suitability for arts psychotherapy.
• Contribute to joint assessments and clinical reviews.
• Maintain accurate patient records.

Skills

Experience in multi-agency settings

Individual and Group treatment expertise

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills

Risk assessment skills

Strong communication skills

Education

Relevant qualification in psychotherapy

Job description

Are you interested in working with personality disorder and assisting teams to support women with complex needs? We are seeking an Arts Psychotherapist to join our ‘Options’ Offender Personality Disorder Team at HMP Downview (a female prison based in Sutton, Surrey). Options is a treatment and support service running primarily modified forensic DBT programmes, offering treatment for service users who have been identified on the PD Pathway. Additionally, we offer stability outreach work for those in crisis, social creative groups and 1:1 trauma processing therapy. To staff we offer training, consultation and formulation services primarily to our probation and prison colleagues who work alongside us to support and progress women safely through their sentence plan, in preparation for their move into the community.

You will have experience in working within teams, within multi‑agency settings. Individual and/or Group treatment expertise within the field of Personality Disorder or other complex need is essential. Expertise in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is desirable (DBT training can be provided). You will be joining an enthusiastic and committed team. The service is part of the national Offender Personality Disorder pathway and supports access to local and national training and networking. We are closely linked to our local mental health team and the post holder would be linked in with the Health & Justice Lead Arts Psychotherapist and other Arts therapists within CNWL.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner and works in partnership to provide responsive and dependable primary care, mental health, intellectual disability and substance misuse services to the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.

By joining CNWL’s Health & Justice Directorate you will be joining a large department of psychologists and psychological therapists that provide a variety of mental health and OPD services across prisons, the youth estate, secure hospitals and the community. Our staff are dynamic and welcoming and the networking and CPD opportunities are central to our services ethos. We have active research forums and promote our services and work through academic and clinical forums. All staff receive regular supervision and are supported with career aspirations and progression. All of our sites in Surrey offer free use of the onsite leisure facilities and free parking for staff.

1. To deliver Modified Forensic Dialectic Behavioural Therapy to women screened into the OPD pathway, this will include individual and group based treatment. To attend and take part in weekly DBT consultation meetings and adhere to DBT principles.
2. To support and deliver in the development of therapy within the Options service and co‑facilitate social creative sessions, gender specific specialist arts psychotherapies service for adults, adapting your approach to ensure inclusion of those who are hard to engage owing to complex needs such as current risk or self‑harm and/or violence, cognitive difficulties, emotional withdrawal and psychological disturbance.
3. To assess each patient’s suitability for arts psychotherapy and to ascertain from the ongoing evaluation / review their ego strength and tolerance of self and others, while working towards the agreed aims of therapy.
4. To assess risk, manage and adopt appropriate measures to maintain a safe and therapeutically sensitive environment for all when faced with challenging behaviour, for example verbal abuse, deliberate self‑harm, violence, aggression or threatening behaviour. To contribute to the overall team risk assessment.
5. To provide a service to the women within the OPD service to help them adapt to their environment and minimise distress, deterioration and actual and / or perceived threat they pose to themselves and others around them.
6. To contribute specialist knowledge from arts psychotherapy assessment and treatment to the overall formulation and care plans for each patient through contribution to formulation meetings, reviews, clinical meetings and by providing written summaries.
7. To develop and facilitate a range of individual sessions and therapeutic groups within the Options treatment and outreach model.
8. To work with patients to understand the content and context of their communication using the arts as a focus.
9. To contribute to training and support for custodial colleagues.
10. To support and participate fully in the work of the multidisciplinary team, including attending team meetings and reflective practice.
11. To maintain accurate patient records on SystmOne including clinical record keeping, specialist reports, data‑collection and CPA in accordance with relevant national and trust policies.
12. To undertake ongoing evaluation of patients’ progress and to manage therapy endings and follow up.
13. To contribute to joint assessments and clinical reviews on patients with members of the multidisciplinary team. To write reports and contribute to the writing of reports as required by MDT processes, including as required reviews, Safeguarding meetings and Public Protection meetings.
14. To actively contribute to a culture of reflective practice within the team and beyond, taking a lead in modelling self‑reflection and self‑awareness in emotionally challenging situations. This could be through co‑facilitation of groups or in staff development forums.
15. To support team members from other disciplines in processing the emotional impact of the work through applying skills and knowledge from own personal psychotherapy and drawing on clinical experience and theoretical knowledge to highlight and not collude with potentially destructive mechanisms of defence.
16. To maintain a high degree of professionalism at all times particularly as the clinical work will frequently involve working alone with service users for substantial periods in intimate and emotionally intense therapy sessions, where behaviour might be uninhibited and self‑care poor.
17. To use sound judgement and interpretative skills to work with the client to understand the content of their engagement and communications and to assess risk.
18. To respond appropriately to situations when there is a threat of physical violence to self or others including florid psychotic symptoms, self‑harm and aggressive or threatening behaviour.
19. To carry out this work under the supervision and guidance of a senior clinician of the same discipline, working closely with therapeutically trained professionals and other team members.
20. To ensure own ethical practice by working within one’s Professional Association’s code of ethics and guidelines for clinical practice and abiding by the Health Care Professions Council’s standards of proficiency and conduct and the Trust’s Confidentiality policies.

This advert closes on Sunday 4 Jan 2026.