Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or CBT Therapist

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work within the CNWL Eating Disorder service as a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or Specialist CBT Therapist covering maternity leave. This position involves providing specialist therapies (CBT-E, MANTRA, CBT-AR) to clients across all sectors of care, although the majority of the work will be with outpatients. This includes the provision of highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, whilst also offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to colleagues and to other non-professional carers.

The post holder will carry out clinical duties, clinically-relevant audit and research (as needed and appropriate), and relevant administrative duties. The post holder will be based at the Vincent Square Eating Disorder Service, 260 Harrow Road, London, W2 5ES and our clinic at Roxborough Road in Harrow, HA1 1NS. Service provision within this scope may at times involve travelling to different sites within the catchment area.

The role covers assessment, care planning, intervention (with individuals and groups) and building strong relationships with partners in the community.

• To provide assessments of clients referred to the team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.
• To diagnose patients’ eating and related psychiatric problems.
• To formulate and implement plans for treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence-based models for eating disorders.
• To be responsible for implementing interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options, taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual.
• To integrate (with the psychological formulation) an understanding of the medical aspects of the eating disorders and associated medical conditions.
• To liaise with other clinicians involved in the patient’s care, in order that appropriate physical checks and interventions are carried out to ensure the patient’s physical safety.
• To understand the role of relevant physical treatments (e.g. nutrition, pharmacology).
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients, and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
• To act as care coordinator where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under CPA (to include clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care).

If you have any questions about the role, enquiries from interested candidates are welcome.