Perinatal and Parent-Infant Outreach Psychotherapist

South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Career development

Benefits package

Job summary

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust is seeking a Perinatal and Parent-Infant Outreach Psychotherapist to join the specialist community perinatal mental health service. The role focuses on providing highly specialist psychological care to parents and their infants with moderate to severe mental health challenges.

Autonomy in clinical responsibility, risk management, and collaboration with the MDT are key.

Qualifications

• Experience working with parents and infants in perinatal mental health settings.
• Ability to assess and manage risk to mothers and babies.
• Training as parent–infant therapist desirable but not essential.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments and interventions for parents and their infants within the perinatal service.
• Manage an identified caseload of parents and infants with complex psychological problems, including risk assessment and safeguarding.
• Offer consultation to other MDT members and networks involved in care.
• Undertake service evaluation, research and policy development as part of the role.
• Collaborate within a multidisciplinary team to support a psychologically informed framework of working across the service.
• Contribute to perinatal care plans, including attendance at pre-birth and post-birth planning meetings.

Skills

Perinatal therapy

Infant mental health

Parent-infant therapy

Job description

Perinatal and Parent-Infant Outreach Psychotherapist

Company:

Company: South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust

Salary: £58,133 - £65,261 per annum Inclusive of Inner London HCAs

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

We are seeking an enthusiastic Perinatal Parent Infant Therapist/Adult Psychotherapist/Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist with a passion for perinatal care and infant mental health to join our specialist community perinatal mental health service and support our parent – infant pathway. We are dedicated to high quality, evidence-based practice. We welcome applications from all psychotherapy and psychological professions and those newly qualified with the necessary perinatal/parent-infant experience.

The post holder will have a proven interest in working with parents and infants and knowledge of infant and adult mental health. Training as a parent – infant therapist (including extended parent – infant observation) is desirable but not essential. Appropriate specialist clinical and professional supervision and opportunities for training and development will be made available.

They will be a key member of our parent-infant psychotherapy sub-team and join an experienced and friendly group of psychological therapists and psychotherapists who provide a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for service users under the care of the Perinatal Mental Health Team. A key aspect of this role is to provide highly specialist psychological care to parents (and their infants) experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. An ability to assess and manage risk in this context is crucial.

Main duties of the role:

• To provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments and interventions to service users and their infants of the Perinatal mental health service.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for managing an identified caseload of parents and infants with complex psychological problems, including assessment of risk and safeguarding adults and babies
• To enable staff and service users from all backgrounds to flourish by working together to create a psychologically safe and responsive environment, ensuring the team operates from an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory perspective at all times
• To provide consultation as appropriate to other members of the MDT and wider professional networks involved in a family’s care.
• To undertake service evaluation, research and policy development
• To work collaboratively and flexibly as a member of the multi-disciplinary team and contribute to a psychologically informed framework of working across the service.
• To actively contribute to perinatal care plans, providing a psychological perspective, which may require attendance at pre-birth and post-birth planning meetings

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.

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 ofbenefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Springfield University Hospital, Tooting

Unless expressly stated in the job advert the role is not subject to sponsorship, please be advised that all offers of employment are subject to evidence of right to work in the UK.

To provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of parent infant dyads in the perinatal mental health service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological 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.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychotherapeutic treatment and/or management of difficulties within the parent‑infant relationship, 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 a range of psychotherapeutic interventions for parent infant relationship difficulties within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychotherapeutic formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

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.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychotherapeutic care plans.

To provide specialist psychotherapeutic advice, guidance, consultation and training to other professionals contributing directly to the formulation and treatment plan for difficulties in the parent infant relationship.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users under the care of the team.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and their babies and to provide advice to other professions on psychotherapeutic aspects of risk assessment and risk management. To utilise specific experience of assessing risk to the unborn child as well as to the infant and to make decisions based on care needs which are most supportive of mother and child.

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 both uni and multi-disciplinary care, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.

To work jointly with psychologists & psychotherapists based in community teams, to plan and hand over the psychotherapy assessment and treatment of patients that may continue after discharge from the Perinatal Team.

This advert closes on Tuesday 3 Nov 2026

£66,274 - £73,496 per annum inclusive of Inner London HCAs

South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust