Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

Integrated Care System; Carshalton; On-site; GBP 61,000 - 69,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Carshalton is seeking a Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist to join their Psychiatric Liaison Service. The role involves direct assessments, crisis intervention, and collaboration with multidisciplinary teams to improve patient care. Ideal candidates will have a Doctorate in Psychology and experience in mental health settings. Competitive salary offered with opportunities for professional development.

Benefits

Flexible working

Career development opportunities

Supportive team environment

Qualifications

• Experience of working in Liaison Psychiatry or acute physical healthcare settings.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision in psychology.
• Proven ability to handle professional challenges in emotionally distressing situations.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct psychological assessments and interventions.
• Contribute to team meetings to communicate the psychology perspective.
• Support clinical training and development of psychology interns.

Skills

Experience in delivering NICE adherent interventions

Experience in crisis mental health settings

Psychological assessment and treatment skills

Teamwork and collaboration

Cultural competency

Education

Doctorate level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology

Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the HCPC

Job description

Go back South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

The closing date is 13 August 2025

Band 8a Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

A great opportunity for a clinical or counselling psychologist provide psychology input to the St Helier hospital Psychiatric Liaison Service. This is a varied role with opportunities to use your skills in direct assessments and interventions with service users, as well as indirect work to support the whole team in gaining a psychological perspective when formulating and planning interventions.

You will have a wide breadth of work, including working with people presenting to hospital due to mental health crisis, as well as supporting other hospital inpatients who have co-occurring mental health difficulties.

You will work along side other professionals including psychiatrists and nurses, helping to develop the whole team approach to managing their cases.

You will have strong links with the SWLSGT Acute & Urgent care Psychology team.

This post can be offered as a Band 7 developmental role, with progression to Band 8a upon successful completion of the necessary competencies and requirements, subject to managerial and professional approval.

Main duties of the job

Provision of psychology input to the St Helier Liaison Psychiatry Service to include:

• Direct work with service users. Assessments, Formulations, Crisis planning and care planning, providing recommendations for treatment. Providing brief psychological interventions to address difficulties, such as work on emotion regulation, relapse prevention etc.
• Indirect work with service users: Contribution to team meetings to communicate psychology perspective in planning their care. Engaging with other stakeholders to establish treatment needs when discharged from Liaison team.
• Teamwork: Supporting the team more generally through provision of regular reflective practice, teaching and case formulations.
• Opportunity for supervision of clinical psychology trainee.

About us

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 offer flexible working, career development and a variety ofbenefits 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.

St Helier Liaison Psychiatry Service is located on the first floor of Ferguson House, within the St Helier Hospital premises. It offers a convenient location for staff, with excellent public transport links, a walkable local high street, and a variety of restaurants available on-site. Easily accessible and centrally positioned, it's designed to support your daily workflow and comfort.

Job responsibilities

The main duties are outlined above.

• You will be expected to meet with service users in hospital settings such as A&E department and medical wards.
• You will have regular supervision from a senior psychologist within the Acute & Urgent Care service line
• You will be expected to join the monthly Acute & Urgent care psychology team meeting.
• You will be expected to contribute to various aspects of service development. This may include service evaluation, Quality Improvemnet or other transformation projects.
• You will be expected to liaise with other professionals in the network to establish packages of support when discharged.

Please see full details in the attached Job Description.

Person Specification

EXPERIENCE

• oExperience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
• oExperience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• oExperience of delivering NICE adherent interventions especially CBT for psychological problems
• oDemonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology
• Experience of working in Liaison Psychiatry or other acute physical healthcare settings.
• Experience in working in acute and crisis mental health settings, such as Crisis Home Treatment Teams or acute psychiatric wards
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

Training & Qualifications

• oDoctorate level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or its' equivalent, including two or more distinct psychological therapies as accredited by the HCPC
• oRegistered as a practitioner psychologist with the HCPC under the appropriate domain specific title (Clinical Psychologist)
• oEvidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC
• oPost qualification training in clinical supervision of trainee psychologists
• oPre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• oBABCP accredited CBT practitioner or eligibility for provisional registration of the BABCP as a CBT therapist
• oQualifications in other forms of psychotherapy

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.

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

£61,631 to £68,623 a yearPer annum inclusive of Outer London HCAs