Complex PTSD Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Thank you for your interest for the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT), it is an exciting time to join us and being part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our Values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
• Ensure that research, Quality Improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.

The North London Way to deliver, Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen up for someone to join our friendly CPTSD team, located within the wider Enfield
Integrated Core Teams. Enfield is a diverse borough, and we take pride in offering specialist, evidence based therapy to clients
presenting with complex PTSD. We are a phase-based service, offering a PTSD Psychoeducation and Symptom Management
group (in various languages) as well as individual trauma-focussed therapies e.g. Trauma-focussed CBT, NET and EMDR. We
would welcome applicants who are trained and experienced in these modalities, and will also support applications for further
training where required. Specialist EMDR and CFT supervision is provided to the team by experienced external supervisors.

We are a friendly team and value supporting one another, reflective practice and continually learning from one another and our clients to offer high quality care and a welcoming place to work.

Main duties of the job

The duties of the post holder will include:

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the provision of a high-quality trauma-informed and trauma-focused assessments and therapies. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; psychoeducation and stabilization groups and evidence based trauma-focused therapies.
• Working closely alongside other CPTSD colleagues; cofacilitating groups, contributing to team meetings and formulations, and offering informal peer support and supervision where appropriate.
• As a team member both of the CPTSD Pathway and the wider Core team, the post-holder will be expected to work collaboratively with our wider colleagues, adding trauma-informed perspectives to team formulations and meetings.
• The post-holder will supervise doctoral trainees, assistant psychologists and other junior staff as appropriate.
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.

Working for our organisation

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

1. We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.

2. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all

3. We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

4. We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.

Why NLFT?
We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities. We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives. NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme . Excellent internal staff network

The postholder will be aligned with our Values:
We Are Kind , We Are Respectful, We Work Together, We Keep Things Simple, We Empower, We Are Proudly Diverse

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

The duties of the post holder will include:

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality trauma-informed and trauma-focused assessments and therapies. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; psychoeducation and stabilization groups and evidence based trauma-focused therapies.

• Working closely alongside other CPTSD pathway colleagues; cofacilitating groups, contributing to team meetings, joining team formulation meetings and offering informal peer support and supervision where appropriate.
• As a team member both of the CPTSD Pathway and the wider Core team, the post-holder will be expected to work collaboratively with our wider colleagues, adding trauma-informed perspectives to team formulations and meetings
• The post-holder will provide specialist psychological assessment, treatment and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to non-professional carers working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures.
• The post-holder will supervise psychological assessment and therapy provided by doctoral trainees, assistant psychologists and other junior staff.
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.
• The post-holder will utilise skills for research and audit and contribute to policy and service development, in relation to the CPTSD Pathway and in collaboration with the wider team

Person specification

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training or equivalent in Clinical or Counselling Psychology including two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Registration with the Health Professions Council as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist (or accreditation pending if you are a trainee clinical or counselling psychologist due for qualification in September 2024).

Desirable criteria

• Training and experience in Trauma focused model of therapy (particularly Trauma focused CBT, EMDR and Narrative Exposure Therapy).
• Speaks of wanting to work in trauma as a deliberate career choice, conveys passion and enthusiasm for the work in their personal statement and evidences in their job choices/thesis etc.

EXPERIENCE

Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including community and inpatient settings and experience of working with complex PTSD.
• 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 working in the Enfield CPTSD Pathway offering trauma focussed therapy with patients with complex PTSD presentations particularly those with adult experience of torture or domestic violence and/or with childhood histories of abuse or neglect.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with refugee and asylum seekers and of providing therapy with the aid of interpreters.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Essential criteria

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.

Desirable criteria

• Able to speak a second language E.g. Turkish speaking.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

OTHER

Essential criteria

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

Desirable criteria

• Personal experience of mental health problems and/or experience of receiving personal therapy
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details.

Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff.

Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first 50 applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust's satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed.

Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Spec (PDF, 256.4KB)
• Functional requirements (PDF, 536.5KB)