Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust; City Of London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health organization in London is looking for a clinical/counselling psychologist to join their North East Merton service. The role involves providing specialist psychological assessments and therapies for clients with severe mental health conditions. Opportunities for training in evidence-based therapies and supervision of trainees are provided. The organization values diversity and offers flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Professional development opportunities

Regular CPD and supervision

Qualifications

• Experience in psychological assessment and treatment planning.
• Training in CBT, DBT, and EMDR is preferable.
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a team.

Responsibilities

• Conduct psychological assessments and formulate treatment plans.
• Implement and evaluate psychological interventions.
• Provide supervision to clinical psychology trainees.
• Act as care coordinator and manage client discharge.

Skills

Assessing psychological conditions

Providing evidence-based therapies

Risk assessment and management

Supervision and mentorship

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council

Job description

A Vacancy at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.

We are excited to be recruiting a clinical/counselling psychologist in our North East Merton integrated recovery hub service. Merton adult mental health services are comprised of three multidisciplinary mental health teams. Psychologists are highly valued in the service and you will work closely alongside other Psychologists at the same level and at Principal and Consultant level. You will also work with Psychiatrists, CPNs, Recovery & Support Workers and Specialist Employment Advisors to provide high quality treatment and recovery options for service users with severe mental health conditions, including psychosis & bipolar affective disorder, personality disorder, and severe mood & anxiety disorders.

This post is an established at 8a level but we welcome applications from final year Clinical / Counselling Psychologists Trainee Clinical Psychologists, and from Psychologists with less than 18 months post qualification experience, who could progress from a Band 7 preceptorship to a Band 8a in this post. As a band 7 preceptorship you will have a dedicated CPD budget and encouraged to work half a day in a different service to widen your skills and experience.

The role focuses on providing evidence-based psychological therapies for severe and enduring mental health conditions, including psychosis & bipolar affective disorder, personality disorder, and complex mood, anxiety disorders & PTSD. This post offers a number of opportunities for further training and development.

The Trust supports staff to attend Health Education England funded training in interventions such as CBT for psychosis & bipolar disorder, and Family interventions for psychosis & bipolar disorder. There may also be opportunities to train in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and to co- facilitate DBT Skills Groups and to be trained in EMDR therapy.

The Trust also provides an additional programme of regular CPD covering a wide range of clinical topics. The role includes regular opportunities for individual and group supervision to support your development. At Band 8a, there will be the expectation you will supervise doctoral clinical psychology trainees, through strong links with the University of Surrey Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) Training Scheme.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

Key Responsibilities:

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health needs, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s difficulties, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
7. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
9. To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.
10. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

This advert closes on Sunday 5 Oct 2025