Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

West London; Greater London; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 63,000; Part time

Job summary

West London NHS Trust is recruiting a Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist (Band 7) for the Eating Disorders Team at Ealing CAMHS. The role is part‑time (37.5 hours/week) and focuses on psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children, adolescents and families, including assessment and short, medium and long‑term treatment.

The post involves supervision, involvement in training and working with a multidisciplinary and multi‑agency team to deliver high‑quality specialist care.

Qualifications

• Honours degree or recognised equivalent.
• Postgraduate accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
• Eligibility for full membership of ACP (Association of Child Psychotherapists).
• Keyboard skills (physical skills).

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy assessment and short/medium/long‑term treatment.
• Offer supervision and consultation within a multidisciplinary team.
• Engage with families and carers, and work across multi‑agency settings.

Skills

Communication

Analytical skills

Risk assessment

Team collaboration

Unconscious processes

Education

Honours degree

Postgraduate training in Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy

ACP membership eligibility

Keyboard skills

Job description

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Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

Band 7

Main area Children & Adolescent Services Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 222-LS-CAMHS-836-D

Site Ealing CAMHS Town London Salary £55,524 - £62,652 per annum inclusive Salary period Yearly Closing 07/10/2026 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

We have an exciting opportunity for a child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapists to join West London CAMHS Eating Disorders Team, based at Ealing CAMHS 1 Armstrong Way, Southall UB2 4SA. The role is based within our Eating Disorder Team.

The post would be suited to someone who is passionate about delivering high quality and effective psychoanalytic psychotherapy with young people and families with the main aim of providing an efficient, effective, comprehensive and highly specialist child and adolescent psychoanalytical psychotherapy service for children/adolescent with severe, complex and persistent mental health problems, their carers/parents and families. We are also looking for someone with an interest in in supervision and working with multidisciplinary and multi-agency colleagues on some of the challenges facing mental health services for children and young people.

Main duties of the job

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists (Band 7, full time) with a broad range of experience of working with children, young people and their families to work West London CAMHS Eating Disorders Team.

This role involves offering specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy assessment and short, medium and long term specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy treatment, alongside more generic and other specialist assessments and clinical work, supervision and consultation.

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy is well established within West London CAMHS and across the three boroughs of West London, and the successful candidate would be joining a welcoming and supportive team which is committed to staff well-being, promoting diversity, continuing professional development and service improvement. We have good links with training schools and offer placements to trainees within our service. There are excellent CPD opportunities with regular whole-service trainings in therapeutic approaches, as well as support for specialist supervision.

Thank you for your interest in this role and I wish you every success with your application.

Working for our organisation

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.

The Trust is rated as ‘Good’ overallby the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as ‘Outstanding’.

The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached.

The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Good relevant honours degree, or a recognised equivalent.
• Other related professional qualification or equivalent.
• Postgraduate accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
• Eligibility for full membership of Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP).
• Keyboard skills (physical skills)

Experience

• Pre-qualification professional experience with children, adolescents and families (e.g. clinical/educational psychology, teaching, social work).
• Experience of work with complex family situations where there is a threat of abuse and breakdown.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups with 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.
• Substantial experience in working in multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, multi-cultural context.
• Experience of assessment and intervention with individuals with neurodevelopmental difficulties.
• Experience of professional teaching and training.
• Experience of work with therapeutic groups of children.
• Substantial experience of work with families where the parents are mentally ill.

Knowledge

• Good knowledge of relevant theories, practices and research in the field of child and adolescent development and psychotherapy and ability to apply them to relevant work situations.
• Knowledge of adult mental health problems.
• Evidence of continuous professional development as recommended by the ACP.
• Knowledge of research methodology.
• Specialist areas of knowledge based on further training and experience.

Skills

• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with patients, staff, administrators and managers about highly complex and sensitive matters in situation of potential conflict or psychological/emotional pain, and where mental health problems affect relationships.
• Capacity to listen to other points of view effectively about highly complex issues through reports, publication or public presentation.
• Good level of analytic skills and understanding of unconscious processes and their impact on the individual, group and institutional processes.
• Ability to remain still and maintain intense concentration in clinical settings with children, adolescents, parents/carers and families where there may be high level of distress, verbal and physical aggression or chaotic activity.
• Ability to integrate available highly complex clinical information into a coherent formulation and to apply it in treatment and clinical management.
• Ability to monitor and assess risk and act accordingly.
• Writes clear records and observes policies, procedures and guidelines.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to plan, evaluate, monitor and develop services.

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.

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.