Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist inMilton Keynes inMilton Keynes PUBLISHED 13 SEP 2024

Job Overview



We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our friendly established multi-disciplinary Team. This can be a Preceptorship opportunity starting from Band 7 working your way through a Band 8A Preceptorship plan.


At CNWL we encourage our psychological professions staff to pursue leadership opportunities in senior roles. Various prominent leadership roles within the Trust are currently held by Psychologists including: Director of Strategy and Integration, Chief Information Officer, & Clinical Directors. We facilitate the development of our psychological professions staff across all areas. The professional group is led by our Director of Therapies and our Chief Psychologist, both Consultant Clinical Psychologists.

We are looking for applications from highly motivated and enthusiastic psychologists who are committed to delivering patient-focused care and treatment. We are looking for well-rounded and experienced practitioners.

Alongside delivering therapy interventions this role will also include ample opportunity to develop leadership skills. This will involve supervision of either Assistant Psychologists and Clinical Associates in Psychology or junior colleagues. The Therapies pathway works closely with colleagues across the wider MDT and therefore, this role would involve consultation, training, and liaison across the Hub.

Main duties of the job

The Community Mental Health Hub in Milton Keynes is a formed amalgamation of a number of smaller teams brought together to offer a more accessible service to people with mental health problems. The service is needs-led, offering medical, social and psychological interventions to all on a stepped care model. Therapists work with people with complex mood problems, trauma and PTSD presentations, psychosis, and complex emotional needs delivering a range of evidence-based interventions as recommended by NICE Guidance, predominately MBT, DBT, CBT, CBTp, CFT and EMDR within a Trauma Informed ethos. You will be required to work with clients individually and in groups, and with carers and families as required. Liaising and developing effective collaborative relationships with other key services and with lived experience practitioners is an important part of this role.

You will need a good understanding of the needs of people with complex mental health difficulties and comorbid health problems. Experience of working with complex trauma presentations would be valuable.

Working for our organisation


CNWL is recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ in line with our values, our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries. With us, you will get -


A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing at its core.

• An opportunity to work for one of the top 10 NHS employers
• Flexible working
• Variety of work
• Access to a variety of CPD opportunities
• We encourage staff input and ideas in relation to moving services forward, improving care pathways and meeting the client group’s needs.
  
  

As a Trust we are committed to investing in our staff through a range of initiatives, both profession-specific and organisation wide. Psychological professions staff are able to access a range of trust-wide CPD initiatives. We have partnered with Bespoke and Contextual Consulting to provide some of the profession specific CPD, alongside additional CPD sessions we commission as part of CNWL CPD programme for Psychological Professions. CNWL also has seven established staff networks supporting a range of individual needs.


Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological/therapeutic assessments of service-users referred to the Therapies pathway upon appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources. This will include the use of routine psychometric assessments and measures, observations and interviews where appropriate
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the formulation and implementation of plans for the formal psychological treatment and or management of a client’s problems based upon an appropriate conceptual understanding of the service-users problems in the context of the family and wider system
• To receive regular specialist supervision from the principal clinical psychologist and where appropriate other senior professional colleagues.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision.
  
  

Person specification


Qualifications & Experience


Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuro-psychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies development psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• To be registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) or equivalent i.e., BACP
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and formulation of complex mental health presentations including Trauma presentations.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• Skills in providing consultation and supervision to other professional and non-professional groups and assistants.
• Knowledge of legislation and NICE guidance in relation to this client group