Principal Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

West London NHS Trust; Hounslow; On-site; GBP 67,000 - 79,000; Part time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity for an experienced Principal Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist to join a dedicated team in Hounslow. The role involves leading psychoanalytic assessments and treatments for children and young people facing emotional and mental health challenges. The successful candidate will work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, providing high-quality clinical supervision and contributing to service improvement. This position offers excellent professional development opportunities within a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with client groups reflecting full clinical severity.
• Experience in multi-agency working and delivering professional supervision.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of psychoanalytic psychotherapy to children and families.
• Provide clinical supervision and leadership for the psychotherapy discipline.

Skills

Communication

Leadership

Empathy

Education

Doctoral level training in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Professional registration with the ACP

Job description

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Principal Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

Band 8b

Main area Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 22.5 hours per week Job ref 222-LS-CAMHS-621

Site Heart of Hounslow Health Centre Town Bath Road Hounslow Salary £67,950 - £78,028 pa inclusive of 15% HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 26/05/2025 23:59

West London NHS Trust provides a full range of mental health, community and physical healthcare services for children, adults and older people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.

We also provide some specialist services that are commissioned regionally, such as our medium secure services; and nationally, such as the Cassel Hospital for people with complex and severe personality disorder and our high secure services at Broadmoor Hospital.

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and passionate Principal Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist (Band 8b, 0.6 WTE) to join the West London Hounslow CAMHS Adolescent Team. The successful applicant will lead on the delivery of specialist Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy provision to children, young people, and their families with moderate to severe emotional, relational difficulties and mental health presentations at Hounslow CAMHS.

This brand new senior child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy role reflects West London CAMHS’ commitment to delivering psychoanalytical psychotherapy treatment as one of the key evidence-based treatments for children, young people and their families.

The successful applicant will be joining the existing team of fourteen Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists (ACP) and five trainees working across West London CAMHS.

Main duties of the job

As the Principal Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, you will provide highly specialist psychoanalytic assessments and treatment to children and young people (age 14-18) presenting with severe and complex mental health difficulties alongside more generic clinical work. You will be a professional lead for the Hounslow CAMHS and will provide high-quality clinical supervision and leadership for the psychotherapy discipline in the borough. Furthermore, you will be a vital member of our MDT and will offer clinical leadership skills, collaborating with a range of partner mental health professionals.

You will receive regular supervision and line management from the Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Head of Child Psychotherapy for CAMHS. There is a strong network and regular meetings of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists across the three boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith and Fulham), of which you would be a part. There are excellent opportunities for professional development and support towards further specialist training (eg, VIG, MBT, NVR, Reflective Practice).

This post is an ideal opportunity for an experienced 8b Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, or an 8a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with strong leadership skills looking to move into a more senior role.

The post holder will need to be available to work on Thursdays.

Working for our organisation

West London CAMHS teams (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham CAMHS) are multidisciplinary teams and include family therapy, nursing, clinical psychology, child psychotherapy, psychiatry, art therapy, social work, and allied health professionals. There are also three tri-borough teams for young people with eating disorders, those who are experiencing a crisis and Under 5s team. A range of therapeutic approaches and individual and group therapies are offered within teams, including CBT, systemic family interventions, child and adolescent psychotherapy, NVR, Art Therapy and EMDR. Child and adolescent psychotherapy is highly valued and well established within all three CAMHS clinics.

You would be joining a friendly, welcoming and well established child and adolescent psychotherapy team in West London who are committed to service improvement, staff well-being, and who value diversity in our workforce. We have good links with the training courses and offer placements to trainees within our service.

We welcome enquiries about the post to Ivana Ruzic, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Head of Child Psychotherapy in West London CAMHS. Email: [e-mail] Tel: [phone] ; Mob: [phone]

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The needs of young children and families will be at the centre of thinking about the service, and you will work together with service users and colleagues to ensure that the service best meets the needs of its population. West London is a culturally diverse borough, and you will be involved in ensuring that the service is accessible and effective.

Please see attached job description and person specification for further information.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (or its equivalent), (4-6 years including personal analysis), as accredited by the ACP (Association of Child Psychotherapists).
• Professional registration with the ACP (Association of Child Psychotherapists).
• Specialist therapeutic skills as relevant to clinical population, such as parent-infant psychotherapy, video interactive guidance (VIG)
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of child and adolescent psychotherapy
• Post-qualification Supervision training
• Training in parent-infant psychotherapy

Experience

• Extensive experience of working with a wide variety of client groups and presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity and across the age range of 0-18, 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 assessment and treatment with complex children and their families.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
• Experience of multi-agency working.
• Significant experience of delivering professional, clinical and management supervision to child and adolescent psychotherapists
• Experience of and commitment to service development.
• Experience of the management of staff including appraisal, performance management and budget holding commensurate with a leadership role.
• Experience of teaching and training.

Knowledge

• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups (e.g. looked after children, learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders, adolescent mental health, trauma, anxiety and mood disorders).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of child and adolescent psychotherapy practice specific to difficult to treat client groups.

Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychotherapy assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• 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.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.

Other requirements

• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the ACP
• 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.
• Commitment to provide support to children, their families/carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for the population referred to the service.
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working.
• To approach clients with empathy and adaptability and to be open to development of new approaches to work with clients.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentation in public, professional and academic settings.

As an employee of West London NHS Trust, you have a responsibility to maintain a sound understanding of, and a commitment to uphold the National Health Service values and principles set out in the NHS Constitution.

We reserve the right to close adverts prior to the closing date stated should we receive a high volume of applications.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to West London NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, you will be required to undergo a pre-employment checks which can take between 4-8 weeks . After which your information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system (ESR ).

Please ensure you include email addresses for your referees which MUST be at supervisory or managerial capacity covering the last 3 years of employment to date to avoid delay in the recruitment process.

West London NHS Trust is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We encourage the thoughtful use of technology as a demonstration of strong time management and a commitment to innovation. However, we encourage applicants to personalise their recruitment application to showcase their unique skills and experiences.

While AI-generated content can be a helpful tool, relying solely on generic responses instead of highlighting your own strengths and achievements may impact the success of your application. The success of an application will always be assessed against the essential and desirable criteria for the role, so it is important to ensure that your application and any supporting information clearly demonstrate how you meet these requirements.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Name Ivana Ruzic Job title Head of Child Psychotherapy in CAMHS Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0208 483 1979 Additional information

For more information or an informal discussion please contact Ivana Ruzic, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Head of Child Psychotherapy for CAMHS, by emailing [e-mail] or tel on 0203 483 1979

At West London NHS Trust, we want you to support you to build a career you can be proud of and this starts before your first day with us. Our people live our values every day as they deliver, manage and work to improve our services to patients, carers, families and other professionals.

We’re committed to making our recruitment process clear and efficient. It’s in everyone’s interest that we get the very best people on board as soon as we can.