Specialist Dramatherapist in St Albans

Main area Arts Therapies Grade Band 7 Contract Fixed term: 11 months (post ends by mid Nov 2027) Hours Part time - 7.5 hours per week (tuesday or wednesday is desirable) Job ref 367-ACM-101729

Site 99 Waverley Road, St. Albans, AL3 5TL, The Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD Town St. Albans Salary £51,657 - £58,785 per annum, pro rata (Inclusive of 5% HCAS) Salary period Yearly Closing 05/11/2026 23:59

Values Based Screener

At Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust we are looking for people to join us who share our values and those of the NHS. Before your application can be considered please take part on our online values questionnaire, which you can find below. When you have finished you will be sent a 'completion code' by email, which will be valid for 6 months and required to submit your application form.

We are seeking a skilled and enthusiastic dramatherapist to cover maternity leave 1 day a week in our adult community mental health team in St Albans supporting adults who experience complex mental health difficulties. You will be working closely with the other dramatherapist and the art therapists in the local team, and will be part of the wider arts therapies team.

The post holder will hold an active caseload offering both individual and/or group dramatherapy. This post is well supported in terms of space, equipment, CPD opportunities, managerial, clinical and professional supervision.

Main duties of the job

To work as an autonomous clinical specialist within a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) in St Albans, Hertfordshire, p roviding dramatherapy assessment and intervention to service users with complex mental health needs, including personality disorder, complex trauma and psychoses

To assess, plan, undertake and evaluate dramatherapy as appropriate through group and/or individual sessions, in accordance with service user care plans and contribute to MDT review processes.

The main responsibilities of this post are:

• The assessment, planning, implementing and evaluating of both individual and/or group Dramatherapy sessions for community and where clinically appropriate.
• Management of the waiting list
• The completion of risk assessments and patient records
• Integration and attendance to primary MDT meetings.
• To be available to clinically supervise other dramatherapists and placement manage students as required.
• Lead on service innovation as delegated by the Arts Therapies Leadership Team or line manager

Working for our organisation

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the Care Quality Commission

Our family of over 4,000 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As a clinician, the post holder provides and evaluates assessment and treatment services with adults referred for complex, severe and enduring mental health problems including personality disorder, complex trauma and psychoses. They ascertain risk, needs and suitability for individual, group, other psychological therapies as a whole and specialist arts therapies, communicating with the whole range of other professionals involved.

As a senior specialist clinician the post holder works jointly with professionals to deliver assessment and care consultation, considering the range of psychological therapies, provides individual and group dramatherapy assessments and treatment, care coordination, and care consultancy in complex cases.

Analyse and clarifies factors or risk e.g. self-harm, level of functioning, capacity to engage in therapeutic work, unmet needs and support systems to determine the patient’s complex need and capacities to undertake the treatment mode.

To provide specialised assessment of service users referred for the range of psychological therapies jointly with art therapy and psychological therapies to determine which service will meet their therapeutic needs.

To make decisions and recommendations regarding the treatment of service users with complex mental illnesses through investigative assessment processes and to use interpretive skills to understand complex behaviours and psychological function.

To plan, monitor and deliver specialised programmes of care for the treatment of a case load of service users experiencing complex and enduring mental illness.

To provide dramatherapy interventions, group or individual as appropriate through sensitive and expert application of arts psychotherapeutic techniques to service users assessed as able to engage in therapeutic work, whether brief or longer term. Standardised outcome measures and evidence based practice interpretation is part of this.

To work to agreed activity standards including duration of intervention

To be able to contain at time highly emotive and distressing clinical material (i.e. sexual abuse and other trauma). To enable the service user to disclose painful material, in order to progress the course of treatment where appropriate.

To have the highly specialised skills and understanding to help service user in group and individual treatment, either brief or longer term, to disclose, process and resolve conflicts within themselves and with others.

Person specification

Qualifications

• M.A. (or equivalent) Dramatherapy
• Registered with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Dramatherapist
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Member of The British Association of Dramatherapists

Experience

• Relevant post qualifying professional experience and a demonstrable knowledge of and commitment to best practice and evidence-based practice.
• Experience of providing a range of therapeutic interventions including assessment, individual and group work, exploratory and supportive.
• Experience of working with people with a range of mental health problems including personality disorder, psychosis
• Experience of working within MDTs.
• Experience of supervising arts therapies trainees and of liaison with university training courses, in own specialty and other specialist areas
• Experience of key working and care co-ordination of clients

Please note, we do not charge fees for job applications, recruitment processes, sponsorship arrangements, or employment offers. Please see the Trust careers vacancy webpage and Trac as the only authorised routes for recruitment communications, applications and verification of job offers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Name Gerald Maiello Job title Principal Dramatherapist Email address grmaiello@hotmail.com Telephone number 07979933540

Additional information

Informal telephone calls or site visits are welcome.

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