Psychotherapist, Practitioner Psychologist & Psychological Therapist

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; Croydon; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

An NHS Foundation Trust in Croydon is seeking a Highly Specialist Psychologist to deliver therapeutic interventions and supervise junior staff for families of individuals with psychosis. The role involves working collaboratively within community teams and developing family-oriented services. A Doctorate in Clinical Psychology is essential. This position offers an opportunity to enhance family support and promote community health initiatives in Croydon.

Qualifications

• Good engagement skills and ability to think creatively.
• Experience with family interventions and complex mental health problems.
• Experience supervising and developing junior clinicians.

Responsibilities

• Provide therapeutic interventions to families and networks of individuals with psychosis.
• Collaborate with professional and personal networks around service users.
• Supervise and support junior staff.

Skills

Good engagement skills

Creative thinking

Flexibility

Collaborative working

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent

Job description

A Vacancy at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Highly Specialist Psychologist/Psychological Therapist/Psychotherapist/Family and Systemic Therapist to experience working in our unique Family Interventions and Support Service (FISS) in Croydon to cover a one year maternity leave. This can be for a fixed term contract or secondment. We are looking for a motivated clinician who is passionate about supporting the families/carers/networks of adults with psychosis and complex mental health difficulties to join us working in Adult Secondary Care.

The successful applicant will have good engagement skills, think creatively, work flexibly and have a range of skills in working collaboratively alongside others. The post holder will be a part of providing therapeutic interventions to the families/carers/networks of individuals living with psychosis and supporting the collaboration and presence of family interventions and needs within the wider community teams. The post will also include the supervision and development of more junior clinicians and provide opportunities to further develop in family approaches for psychosis (e.g. FIp, Open Dialogue).

Clinically, you will be: offering a range of family interventions to families/carers/networks and service users living with psychosis; supporting the professional and personal network around service users; supervising junior staff; teaching and offering consultation and support to MDT colleagues. FISS aims to promote the needs of families/carers in Croydon and the community teams, therefore this role also has a strong service development component, including research and evaluation; developing and refining the existing service; liaison and joint work with colleagues across the directorate and Trust.

Key Duties

• Working with service users with psychosis under the Croydon CMHTs and/or their families/carers/networks.
• Offering family interventions:
  • Assessing and developing specialist formulations and interventions tailored to family/carer needs
  • Co-facilitating family interventions with colleagues
  • Collaboration and communication with service users' professional and personal networks
  • Consultation and liaison with teams and agencies across Croydon
  • Supporting, developing and evaluating FISS
  • Supporting and directing the work of junior staff in the team

Team and Service Context

The Family Intervention and Support Service (FISS) is based at Jeanette Wallace House in central Croydon, close to local amenities and public transport. The team is comprised of a Higher Assistant Psychologist, Trainee Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Therapist/Lead. This small team was established in 2010 and provides specialist input to service users residing within the borough of Croydon who have received a primary diagnosis of psychosis/bi-polar disorder and have relatives / social network who would benefit from a family approach. The service works closely with all secondary care teams in the psychosis care pathway, offering evidence-based family interventions (Family Interventions for Psychosis, Behavioural Family Therapy), Systemic Family Therapy (with a clinic/reflecting team), individual carer support, carer and sibling groups, Open Dialogue informed network meetings, consultation, supervision and teaching. Psychologist colleagues and care coordinators in the surrounding Community Mental Health Teams work in partnership with FISS to provide additional family intervention resource.

FISS is part of the broader psychosis pathway services in Croydon (e.g. EIS and individual psychosis service) which provides many opportunities for collaboration, training and learning. Likewise, there are active Psychology and Psychotherapy networks and discipline specific groups within SLaM which are also available to the candidate.

Clinical and Client Care

• To provide highly specialist psychological interventions/therapy for the carers, families/networks and people living with psychosis and complex mental health problems within secondary care adult psychosis community services in Croydon—including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
• Knowledge, interest and experience of family interventions/approaches for psychosis.
• To ensure cultural context is considered/discussed and to provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with SUs and their carers/families.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

Contributing to Team or Service Clinical Functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically-informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team's or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To offer advice, consultation and training for Croydon community teams on the specialist psychological care of clients with psychosis and their families/carers.
• To liaise with referrers and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in therapeutic work and work with other team members.

Policy and Service Development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users/families/carers in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

Management and Supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychological practitioners with support from a more senior psychologist/psychotherapist.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychological practitioners, as appropriate.
• To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.
• To be active in the provision of staff support within their area, including but not limited to Critical Incident Staff Support and Reflect-Support-Resolve. To participate, as a recipient, in staff support work when appropriate.

Interviews will take place on Monday 15th December 2025.

This advert closes on Monday 8 Dec 2025.