Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation NHS Trust; Lowestoft; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare trust in England seeks a Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join their Community Learning Disabilities Team. The ideal candidate will provide high-quality psychological care to adults with learning disabilities, deliver clinical supervision, and contribute to service development. This role promotes collaboration within multidisciplinary teams and requires experience in psychological assessment and treatment. If you're passionate about making a positive impact on service users and enjoy a supportive and innovative environment, we want to hear from you.

Qualifications

• Specialist in complex psychological assessment
• Extensive experience as a clinical or counselling psychologist
• Experience with assessment of neurodiversity (autism/ADHD)

Responsibilities

• Maintain a clinical caseload delivering psychological interventions
• Provide clinical guidance and leadership within the team
• Expand access to psychological assessment and interventions

Skills

Assessment, evaluation and management of risk

Experience in diagnostic systems/processes

Familiarity with interpersonal psychotherapy

Experience in treating PTSD

Education

Post-graduate doctoral level training

Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist

Evidence of CPD in additional specialised areas

Job description

Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Are you an experienced Practitioner Psychologist looking to join a dedicated and welcoming Community Learning Disabilities Team?

The North Suffolk Community Learning Disabilities Service welcomes applications from HCPC registered practitioner psychologists to join our friendly, person-centred team. If you value collaboration, innovation, and making a positive impact, we'd love to hear from you.

You will be required to provide clinical supervision, in line with your experience.

In this role, as an experienced clinician, you'll deliver high-quality psychological care to adults with learning disabilities, shaping the support around them and promoting independence. You'll work within a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team alongside partner agencies, ensuring a flexible and responsive approach. We also encourage you to develop your own specialist interests within the field. As services are delivered across our catchment area, some travel will be required.

We have close links with the University of East Anglia from whom we take clinical psychology trainees on a regular basis.

Based in Oulton, near Lowestoft, the location offers the perfect balance of professional fulfilment amidst the lifestyle benefits of the beautiful Suffolk coast and Broads National Park. We look forward to hearing from you.

Main duties of the job

Clinical Delivery: Maintain a clinical caseload, delivering high-quality psychological interventions within our community learning disabilities services. Provide clinical guidance and leadership within the team, ensuring high standards of psychological care.

Service Development: Expanding access to psychological assessment, formulation, and evidence-based interventions, enhancing collaboration, treatment choice, and effectiveness.

Supervision & Line Management: Offer supervision to psychological professionals and trainees, fostering a culture of learning and excellence within learning disabilities services.

Training & Development: Helping to deliver and embed psychologically informed practices within our multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and in wider services, supporting evidence-based models of psychological care.

Staff Wellbeing & Resilience: Promote staff wellbeing by leading reflective supervision and providing support to enhance resilience and retention.

Service User Engagement: Lead and promote collaborative service development, empowering service users to actively shape psychological services through meaningful co-creation.

Innovation & Research: Collaborate with local universities to support teaching and supervise doctoral trainees. Contribute to research and quality improvement initiatives.

About us

At Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), we are proud of our commitment to delivering innovative, compassionate, and person-centred care. Our team is dedicated to upholding the TALK values: Teamwork, Accountability, Learning, and Kindness, creating an environment where service users and staff thrive.

We value diversity and inclusion, and actively welcome applications from all backgrounds. We are committed to supporting the growth and development of psychological professionals through strong partnerships with local universities, offering opportunities for teaching, research, and supervision of doctoral trainees.

You’ll be joining a forward-thinking team where innovation is encouraged, and quality improvement is a priority. Together, we aim to provide safer, kinder, and better care to our communities. If you’re ready to make a difference, we want to hear from you!

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached Job Description (including Person Specification) for the Band 8b role for a detailed breakdown of responsibilities and key requirements. Applications are welcomed from both clinical and counselling psychologists.

Please find attached our Job Description and Person Specification for more detail on your Key Accountabilities, then if you feel you have what it takes to make a difference in your local communities, click APPLY!

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology, or its equivalent, including eligibility for chartered status with the BPS
• Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Evidence of CPD in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice

Experience

• Specialist complex psychological assessment and treatment of people with a wide range of mental health problems, of varying severity and complexity.
• Extensive experience of working as a qualified clinical or counselling psychologist and evidence of specialist knowledge gained through practice and ongoing training
• Teaching, training and delivering clinical supervision.
• Experience with assessment of neurodiversity (autism/ADHD)
• Supervision of clinical or counselling psychology trainees at doctorate level

Skills

• Assessment, evaluation and management of risk associated with mental ill health and related psychopathology
• Experience in the use of diagnostic systems/processes relating to autism and other neurodiversity
• Familiarity in depth with at least two models of interpersonal psychotherapy delivered within a learning disabilities service
• Experience in treating PTSD and therapeutic use of trauma informed approaches

Knowledge

• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in difficult to treat groups (e.g. neurodiversity, personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc.)
• Practitioner level knowledge of at least two models of psychological therapy
• Knowledge of assessment and diagnosis in neurodiversity (autism / ADHD)

Other

• Experience of providing specific support intervention and strategy for staff
• Experience in more than one specialism in more than one type of setting (e.g. learning disabilities, older adults,community, inpatient)

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.

Associate Director of Learning Disabilities

Depending on experiencegross per annum pro rata