Complex PTSD Clinical/ Counselling Psychologis inEnfield inEnfield PUBLISHED 1 MAY 2024

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust provides local, regional and national award-winning healthcare services. We have more than 3.300 staff working out of 20 main sites serving a population of 1.2 million people. We provide community health services and mental health services for young people, adults and older people. Our North London Forensic Service treats and cares for people in the criminal justice system who have mental health conditions. We also provide one of the largest eating disorders services in England, as well as drug and alcohol services.

We are an organisation that is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion; one that prides itself in developing the leadership capabilities of its employees, looking after their health and wellbeing, creating safe spaces for staff to speak up and providing opportunities to mentor and be mentored. Our employees are the reason for delivering Good CQC ratings, excellent outcomes and outstanding patient experiences, so it is our aim to create a happy and healthy working environment where you can thrive and succeed.


Job overview


An exciting opportunity has arisen to work within the Complex PTSD Pathway within the Enfield Integrated Core Mental Health Teams (EICMHT). We are very happy to be growing our team with these two additional posts.

The CPTSD Pathway offers specialised trauma focused therapy for adults presenting with complex PTSD. We offer a phase-based treatment pathway whereby service users are first invited to a psychoeducation and symptom management group and later to individual trauma-focussed therapy. As a service we offer EMDR, Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), Trauma Focused CBT and integrate Compassion Focussed ideas and ways of working. We are a small and friendly team who welcome new ideas and ways of working.

All clinicians receive individual supervision, as well as receiving monthly EMDR supervision from an experienced external supervisor. We will support applications for funding for further training necessary for the role, e.g. EMDR training. Prior experience of working with clients with PTSD would be helpful, but we will also welcome applications from clinicians with an enthusiasm to learn trauma-focussed ways of working who have relevant experience with other client groups.

Please do make contact with us if you would like to know more about the role and the team. You can contact CPTSD Lead, Dr Becky Johnson on 02/


Main duties of the job


The duties of the post holder will include:

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the provision of a high-quality trauma-informed and trauma-focused assessments and therapies. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; psychoeducation and stabilization groups and evidence based trauma-focused therapies.
• Working closely alongside other CPTSD colleagues; cofacilitating groups, contributing to team meetings and formulations, and offering informal peer support and supervision where appropriate.
• As a team member both of the CPTSD Pathway and the wider Core team, the post-holder will be expected to work collaboratively with our wider colleagues, adding trauma-informed perspectives to team formulations and meetings.
• The post-holder will supervise doctoral trainees, assistant psychologists and other junior staff as appropriate.
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.

Working for our organisation


The CPTSD pathway is a small and friendly team and we strive to support one another to provide high quality care for our service users. We offer hybrid working but ensure that we have at least one day per week where we are all in the office together in order to foster strong working relationships. We work hard to ensure that we support one another with the emotive nature of the work and are open to the ideas as to how to continually improve care for our staff and service users.


Relationships/Communications


The post holder is expected to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships with other staff members characterised by trust, mutual respect, and open, honest communication.


I

nternal:
Colleagues in the Enfield Core Teams, EIS team, In-Patient Services, Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment teams, Community Rehabilitation Teams, Single Point of Access (SPoA) staff


Ex

ternal:
GPs, local authorities, educational services, employment services, Safeguarding Children and Adult teams and a range of specialist community and voluntary mental health organisations within each borough


Detailed job description and main responsibilities



Key Responsibilities


The duties of the post holder will include:

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality trauma-informed and trauma-focused assessments and therapies. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; psychoeducation and stabilization groups and evidence based trauma-focused therapies.

• Working closely alongside other CPTSD pathway colleagues; cofacilitating groups, contributing to team meetings, joining team formulation meetings and offering informal peer support and supervision where appropriate.
• As a team member both of the CPTSD Pathway and the wider Core team, the post-holder will be expected to work collaboratively with our wider colleagues, adding trauma-informed perspectives to team formulations and meetings
• The post-holder will provide specialist psychological assessment, treatment and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to non-professional carers working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures.
• The post-holder will supervise psychological assessment and therapy provided by doctoral trainees, assistant psychologists and other junior staff.
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.
• The post-holder will utilise skills for research and audit and contribute to policy and service development, in relation to the CPTSD Pathway and in collaboration with the wider team

Person specification



TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS



Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training or equivalent in Clinical or Counselling Psychology including two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Registration with the Health Professions Council as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist (or accreditation pending if you are a trainee clinical or counselling psychologist due for qualification in September 2024).

Desirable criteria

• Training and experience in Trauma focused model of therapy (particularly Trauma focused CBT, EMDR and Narrative Exposure Therapy).
• Speaks of wanting to work in trauma as a deliberate career choice, conveys passion and enthusiasm for the work in their personal statement and evidences in their job choices/thesis etc.

EXPERIENCE



Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including community and inpatient settings and experience of working with complex PTSD.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of offering trauma focussed therapy with patients with complex PTSD presentations particularly those with adult experience of torture or domestic violence and/or with childhood histories of abuse or neglect.
• Experience of working with refugee and asylum seekers and of providing therapy with the aid of interpreters.
• Have experience of working in a secondary care trauma service

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS



Essential criteria

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.

Desirable criteria

• Able to speak a second language E.g. Turkish speaking.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

OTHER



Essential criteria

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

Desirable criteria

• Personal experience of mental health problems and/or experience of receiving personal therapy
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details.

Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff.

Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first
50
applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust's satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed.

Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted.


By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.



Employer certification / accreditation badges



Applicant requirements


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.


Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Spec (PDF, 408.4KB)
• Functional Requirement (PDF, 261.8KB)
• Applicant Information Pack (PDF, 1.6MB)