High Intensity Counsellor

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust; Uxbridge; Hybrid; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A health service provider in Uxbridge seeks a High Intensity Counsellor to join a supportive team. This role requires accreditation and involves providing therapy in a flexible environment that includes both face-to-face and virtual sessions. Responsibilities include managing a caseload and providing support for a diverse range of clients. The position offers competitive annual salary from £53,751 to £60,651, with opportunities for further training and professional development.

Qualifications

• Experience as a qualified counsellor with post-qualification experience in NHS.
• Experience of managing an independent caseload and conducting assessments.
• Qualification in specialist brief psychotherapy or Talking Therapies modality.

Responsibilities

• Provide up to 10 sessions of generic counselling or 16 sessions in specialist modalities.
• Work with a diverse team to deliver face-to-face or video sessions.
• Conduct assessments and manage risks in mental health patients.

Skills

Emotional resilience

Decision-making in patient care

Professional supervision skills

Ability to manage a caseload

Education

Counselling Diploma approved by the BACP or equivalent

Accredited with UKCP, BACP, BPC, HCPC or PSA

Qualified/Registered Mental Health Professional

Job description

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

High Intensity Counsellor

The closing date is 01 January 2026

Applicants must be fully accredited and on the Accredited register of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). This covers Accredited Counsellors / Counselling Psychologists registered with the UKCP, BPC, HCPC or an equivalent professional bodies and/or Accredited with the BACP. Please provide correct details of registration to confirm Accreditation by search of number and not name, on the PSA or BACP "Find an Accredited Therapist", for shortlisting.

Are you an accredited, experienced counsellor or psychotherapist, looking to work with committed and friendly colleagues in the NHS at Hillingdon Talking Therapies? The entry requirement is for accreditation and a further role requirement is to undertake a further post‑qualifying Talking Therapies modality training to become a qualified practitioner in either Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy, Person‑Centred Counselling for Depression or Couple Therapy for Depression.

Applications are welcome from both qualified modality practitioners or those requiring this additional training which is fully funded, subject to availability for course capacity allocated to each service.

Main duties of the job

Our counselling service works to a brief model, offering between 8 and 10 sessions of generic counselling or around 16 sessions for therapy within one of the specialist relational modalities. Clinicians offer 5 sessions within each working day of 7.5 hours, with adjustments to accommodate service meetings, paid CPD and training and generous paid holiday leave. Our post‑holders work between 3 days (22.5 hrs) and 5 days (37.5 hrs) a week, one day of which must be a Tuesday. Individual supervision is provided fortnightly with additional supervision for modality clinical work.

Staff currently work to a mix of home‑ and site‑working in order to meet the demand for face‑to‑face work and for team cohesion and wellbeing.

Clinicians currently offer either video or face‑to‑face sessions, dependent on patient choice and clinical need. Service hours are between 8am and 6pm and clinicians are expected to provide some later working hours within their week. Our primary hub is at Beaufort House in central Uxbridge. There is no on‑site parking. CNWL offers flexible working to meet staff wellbeing for a health work‑life balance.

You will join a friendly, highly experienced and diverse team of clinicians and have opportunities to work in innovative areas of the service including our perinatal and Long Term Conditions provisions.

About us

The Hillingdon Talking Therapies Service is an innovative and progressive Talking Therapies service provided by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. We work in close partnership with our local GP Confederation within North West London, with other mental health services, with CNWL Community physical healthcare teams and with voluntary sector and other specialist services delivering primary care support and treatment, including the primary care eating disorders team STRIDES, services for Young Adults, outreach initiatives supporting those suffering healthcare and economic inequalities and building relationships with community connectors.

We are a supportive, friendly and experience group of clinicians with core training in psychodynamic or integrative counselling models, working within a busy and creative service.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Job responsibilities

Accredited Counsellors without modality training enter preceptorship positions at band 6 including outer London weighting, to undertake funded training for a further year in one of the relational modality trainings with advancement to band 7. Those qualified as practitioners in a Talking Therapies modality join at band 7 with outer London weighting.

Person Specification

Education and qualifications

• A Counselling Diploma approved by the BACP or equivalent.
• Accredited with the UKCP, BACP, BPC, HCPC or PSA equivalent professional accreditation.
• Critical understanding of the relevance of studies of human development, psychopathology, psychology, social issues and evidence‑based practice.
• Supervisor qualification from a substantial Counselling and/or IAPT modality supervision course, as a supervisor for Counselling, CfD, DIT, IPT, Couples Therapy, EMDR or CBT.
• Additional training in specialist areas related to primary care mental health eg LTC, Perinatal, CBT principles, clinical risk assessment.
• Qualified/Registered Mental Health Professional.

Previous Experience

• Experience of working as a qualified counsellor with specialist post‑qualification experience in the NHS, including substantial post‑qualification experience within primary care.
• Experience of professional management and supervision of qualified and pre‑qualified counsellors in the NHS in a primary care setting.
• Experience of working with a wide range of clients over the age of 18 years and including older adults presenting with mild to moderate degrees of severity of mental illness.
• Experience of working in the NHS or an IAPT service or other primary care setting, providing specialist expertise in the field of brief Counselling interventions.
• Experience of assessing clinical risk in the context of common mental health problems.
• Specialist experience acquired through having conducted 450 hours of supervised assessment and Counselling therapy during training.
• Specialist psychotherapeutic working experience.
• Experience of the application of psychotherapy in difference cultural and diversity contexts.
• Experience of working within a primary care/community setting.
• Experience of managing an independent and specialist caseload.
• Research skills and knowledge and aptitude.

Skills and Knowledge

• Qualification as practitioner in a specialist brief model of psychotherapy a Talking Therapies modality.
• Ability to work independently and manage a caseload, with freedom to act and take decisions about patient care, under supervision.
• Skills in providing professional and clinical supervision, management and training to qualified and pre‑qualified counsellors.
• Experience of carrying a high patient caseload.

Other

• To demonstrate emotional resilience and stability. Ability to establish and maintain working relationships under pressure.

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.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

£53,751 to £60,651 a year per annum inc HCAS (pro rata P/T)