Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist

Hampshire And Isle Of Wight Healthcare Nhs Foundation Trust; Basingstoke; On-site; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist to join the Community CAMHS Eating Disorders Service in Basingstoke. You will deliver highly specialist systemic assessments, formulations and therapies to children, young people and families within a multidisciplinary team.

The role involves leading systemic interventions, contributing to assessment, treatment planning and service delivery, and working to place families

Qualifications

• Recognised postgraduate qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (or equivalent).
• UKCP registration in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy.
• Recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions recognised by the AFT (Clinical, Counselling, Educational Psychology, Social Work, Psychiatry, Teaching with counselling experience, Mental Health Nursing, Arts Therapies, Counselling, Occupational Therapy or SLT).

Responsibilities

• Carry out specialist psychological therapy assessments using complex data from multiple sources to form a psychological formulation.
• Formulate and implement plans for psychological therapy treatment and management across care settings.
• Provide highly specialist psychological therapy interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups within and across teams.
• Evaluate treatment options considering theoretical and therapeutic models and developmental factors.

Education

Postgraduate qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy

UKCP registration in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy

Qualification in core mental health profession (as listed)

Job description

Job summary

Help Transform the Lives of Children, Young People and Families

Are you a passionate and experienced Family & Systemic Psychotherapist looking to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children, young people and their families? Come and join our specialist CAMHS Eating Disorders Service in Basingstoke.

This is an exciting opportunity to become part of a well-established, multidisciplinary team providing specialist assessment and evidence-based interventions to children and young people experiencing eating disorders and associated mental health difficulties. The successful post holder will play a key role in delivering systemic interventions that place families at the heart of recovery and support.

As a Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist, you will work as a core member of the Community CAMHS Eating Disorders Service, providing a high-quality, specialist psychological therapy service to children, young people, their families and carers.

You will provide highly specialist systemic assessments, formulations and therapeutic interventions for individuals and families presenting with complex emotional, psychological and mental health needs associated with eating disorders. Working within a multidisciplinary team, you will contribute specialist psychological knowledge and systemic perspectives to assessment, treatment planning and service delivery.

For a full list of roles and responsibilities, please see attached job description; please review this thoroughly prior to application.

Main duties of the job

• To carry out specialist psychological therapy assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including 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, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client's difficulties.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological therapy treatment and/or management of a client's wellbeing and mental health challenges, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing highly specialist psychological therapy interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.

About us

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.

Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.

We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute‑level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.

Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence

Details

Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Closing date: 01 November 2026
Reference number: 348-CFS-12700

Person Specification

Essential qualifications

• A recognised post graduate qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (or equivalent).
• Registration in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).
• A recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions recognised by the Association of Family Therapy (AFT): Clinical, Counselling or Educational Psychology, Social Work, Psychiatry, Teaching (with substantial counselling experience), Mental Health Nursing, Arts Therapies, Counselling (BACP accredited) Occupational Therapy or Speech and Language Therapy.

Desirable qualifications

• Evidence of recognised post qualification training in clinical supervision of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy

Essential experience

• Substantial experience in mental health after completing core professional qualification.
• Substantial post-qualification / accreditation experience of family and systemic psychotherapy (assessment, formulation, and treatment), maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse, and the threat of physical abuse.
• A high level of competence in applying family and systemic psychotherapy to complex difficulties appropriate for this therapy with the client group served by the post, and a proven track record of delivering positive outcomes in this therapy.
• Experience of offering teaching, training, and supervision within a demanding organisational context.
• A clear and theoretically informed approach to supervision
• Experience of representing psychological therapy within the context of multi-disciplinary care within a complex organisational context.
• Significant experience of working with the client group served by the team / service.
• Knowledge of guidance and legislation in relation to the client group.
• A high-level specialist knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapy as specified in the appendix, as applied to the client group using this service.
• Experience of the application of psychological therapy in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the professional registration / accrediting body specified in the appendix.
• Experience of conducting formal research, audit, or service evaluation in a healthcare setting.
• Post graduate level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex data analysis as practiced within clinical practice settings.
• Experience and demonstrated effectiveness in working with the full range of clinical severity served by the service.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapy for specific difficult to treat groups served by the service (e.g. complex comorbidity, physical health problems or disability etc).

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Employer's website: https://hiowhealthcare.nhs.uk/

For questions about the job, contact:

Hiring Manager, Tom Killengray, [e-mail], 02392683597

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