Specialist Clinical/Counselling Health Psychologist in London

This is a post within the Clinical Health Psychology Department at St Mary's Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The post covers St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. The postholder will work with people who have long-term conditions such as HIV and with patients with complex physical co-morbidities. There may be work with patients from the hospital's sexual health service with concerns relating to sexually transmitted diseases, sexuality or sexual function. The role includes a flexible therapeutic approach with opportunities for longer-term or sporadic interventions, supervision, CPD support, weekly online team meetings, and a mix of remote and in-person working. Interest in research is encouraged.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessments using complex data from diverse sources, including self-report measures, rating scales, observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, families and others involved in care.
• Formulate and implement plans for formal psychological treatment and/or management based on an appropriate conceptual framework and evidence-based methods across care settings.
• Deliver a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, across teams, refining formulations and maintaining multiple provisional hypotheses.
• Evaluate treatment options considering theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors related to historical and developmental processes.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for assessment, treatment and discharge of clients managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• Provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals to inform formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.
• Contribute to a psychologically based framework of care across settings and agencies serving the client group.
• Undertake risk assessment and risk management and advise on psychological aspects of risk to other professionals.
• Communicate assessment, formulation and treatment plans in a skilled and sensitive manner and monitor progress during uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

• Attend regular clinical professional supervision and engage in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) through reading, personal research and agreed training.
• Develop post-graduate teaching, training and supervision skills and provide supervision to assistant/graduate psychologists and, where appropriate, trainees.
• Contribute to pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical/counselling psychology and provide advice and training to staff across agencies.

Management, Policy and Service Development

• Contribute to development, evaluation and monitoring of team policies and services through research, service evaluation and audit.
• Advise management on psychological and organisational aspects needing attention.
• Manage workloads of assistant/graduate psychologists within service policies and participate in shortlisting/interviewing where appropriate.

Research and Service Evaluation

• Utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support practice; undertake research and provide advice to staff undertaking research.
• Lead or contribute to project management, audits and service evaluations to develop service provision.

IT and General Professional Standards

• Use computer systems for correspondence, data entry and record keeping in line with professional and trust standards.
• Maintain high professional standards of practice, participate in CPD, supervision and appraisal, and keep up-to-date with legislation, policies and ethical guidelines.

Person Specification

• Essential Qualifications: Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology, including two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan development psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Experience: Specialist psychological assessment and treatment across the full range of care settings; experience with a diverse client population and ability to stay professional under distressing circumstances.
• Knowledge/Skills: Complex methods of assessment and intervention; effective communication of complex information to clients, families, carers and professionals within and outside the NHS.

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training in research methodology, staff training and/or other applied psychology fields.
• Experience of applying clinical psychology in different cultural contexts; experience of health psychology settings.
• Knowledge of specialised psychological therapies for difficult-to-treat groups.

Other Requirements

• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check compliance.
• UK professional registration required for the role.

This post is permanent and full-time at Band 7 (£56,276 to £63,176 per annum, incl HCAS) within the CNWL NHS Foundation Trust. Working pattern is full-time with a mix of remote and in-person work.