Specialist Counsellor

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 56,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

Whittington Health is recruiting specialists in CBT/psychology to join the Talking Therapies team. The role involves high‑intensity psychological interventions for adults with anxiety and depression, using CBT, IPT, DIT and related modalities.

The service values ongoing supervision, training and CPD, and supports flexible working with a hybrid office/home pattern across Haringey locations.

Qualifications

• PG Diploma in CBT or IAPT High Intensity (IAPT Pathway) and BABCP accreditation.
• Qualification to provide clinical supervision to counsellors/psychotherapists (e.g. Supervision certificate/diploma).

Responsibilities

• Accept referrals via agreed service protocols.
• Assess clients for suitability for counselling using Talking Therapies models.
• Contribute to diagnostic decisions and refer as needed.
• Formulate and evaluate therapy programmes (CfD/IPT/DIT/CTFD).
• Assess risk and take appropriate action.
• Educate and involve family members where necessary.
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings relating to referrals.

Skills

CBT

IPT

DIT

Counselling

Supervision

Education

PG Diploma in CBT or IAPT High Intensity

BABCP accreditation

Tools

IAPTUS

Job description

Are you passionate about providing evidenced based psychological therapy to people struggling with a range of psychological difficulties including anxiety and depression, that is flexible and personalised to the service user? Do you want to develop personally and professionally, through regular high-quality individual supervision, and a range of team activities and ongoing CPD opportunities including specialist therapy trainings as available (e.g., IPT, DIT, EMDR, training in CBT for Long Term Conditions)?

This role is within the Haringey's Talking Therapies service offering high quality therapies, in an environment that is supportive for staff. We subscribe to the BABCP Positive Practice guide.

We are committed to staff development and specialist areas of clinical expertise through supervision, training and research opportunities, and reflective spaces. We have a diverse workforce, so we particularly welcome staff members who can speak and work in languages that reflect the diverse communities in Haringey.

We are mindful that working in a fast-paced service with people experiencing psychological distress can be challenging and we proactively support all our staff. We encourage flexible working and staff are encouraged to negotiate a working pattern that allows for a good work life balance.

This is a hybrid role (office/home working). Staff are required to work part of the week in any of the locations around Haringey with the opportunity to work part of the week at home.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a Specialist Counsellors and Clinical/Counselling Psychologists with experience of working with adults with a range of mental health difficulties to join our successful, and supportive team. You will be providing assessment and high intensity psychological interventions.As a CBT therapist/Psychologist, you will work with adults with a range of anxiety and depression disorders using CBT.As a counsellor, qualified in a Talking Therapies approved modality to support the provision of high quality evidenced based counselling. Counsellors should have a core training in Counselling and have specialist training in Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy/Interpersonal Therapy/Counselling for Depression or short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy to provide specialist counselling for clients presenting with depression.You will have training and experience of providing supervision is also required as Band 7 Counsellors will undertake a range of activities alongside providing high quality one-to-one specialist counselling interventions. You may also be providing professional/clinical supervision to, act as a professional lead for trainee counsellors.CBT therapists will also offer (or work towards offering) supervision to trainees, and advice, consultation, and training within the service, as well as having the opportunity to contribute towards shaping and developing by taking the lead in a specific area of interest.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job responsibilities

• Accept referrals via agreed protocols within the service
• Assess clients for suitability for Counselling using one the of Talking Therapies approved Counselling models. Where the problems appear to be too complex or severe to be appropriate for the Talking Therapies service, to refer to manager/supervisor for advice on how to manage the case.
• Contribute to diagnostic decisions and advise on the suitability of new referrals, adhering to the departments referral protocols, and refer unsuitable clients on to the relevant service or back to the referral agent as necessary.
• Formulate, implement and evaluate therapy programmes for clients. IAPT modalities include Counselling for Depression (CfD), Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression (IPT), Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) and Couple Therapy for Depression (CTFD) and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy.
• To make an assessment of risk for patient and others and take appropriate action when necessary.
• Educate and involve family members and others in treatment as necessary, conveying Counselling formulations with sensitivity in easily understood language.
• Adhere to an agreed activity contract relating to the number of client contacts offered and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings relating to referrals or clients in treatment, where appropriate.

Person Specification

Education/Qualifications

• Completed a PG Diploma in CBT or in High Intensity (IAPT Pathway) and be accredited with the BABCP or a registered doctoral level qualification in clinical or counselling psychology, with PG level training in CBT with BABCP accreditation
• Qualification to provide clinical supervision to counsellors and psychotherapists (e.g. Certificate or Diploma in Supervision)

Skills & Abilities

• Ability to evaluate and put in place the effect of training
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Has received training in, and carried out, risk assessments within scope of practice
• Able to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients
• Experience supervising other CBT clinicians.

Knowledge & Experience

• Demonstrable experience of working in mental health services
• Ability to meet agreed/specified service targets
• Ability to manage own caseload and time
• Demonstrates high standards in written communication
• Able to write clear reports and letters to referrers
• Experience of providing evidence based psychological interventions (in particular CBT)
• Experience with routine outcome monitoring
• Demonstrates an understanding (and formal training) of anxiety and depression and how it may present in Primary Care
• Demonstrates a knowledge of the issues surrounding work and the impact it can have on mental health
• Knowledge of medication used in anxiety and depression and other common mental health problems
• Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post
• Experience of working in Primary Care Services
• Experience in teaching and liaising with other professionals
• Experience in establishing diagnoses
• Experience in using IAPTUS
• Experience of working in a service where agreed targets in place demonstrating clinical outcomes

Personal Qualities

• Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships
• Ability to be self-reflective, whilst working with service users, in own personal and professional development and in supervision
• Fluent in languages other than English, in particular common languages in Haringey such as Turkish and Spanish

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.

£55,524 to £62,652 a yearpro rata per annum Including HCAS