Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

We are excited to be recruiting a number of full or part-time Child & Adolescent Psychotherapists (ACP accredited) for our dynamic voluntary sector adolescent service where the core profession is psychoanalytic child psychotherapy. Open Door's mission is to make psychotherapy as accessible as possible to all young people in Haringey who need it. We welcome applications from candidates with lived experience of all kinds, including applicants from the global majority & those who are neurodivergent.

Main duties of the job

• To provide an efficient, effective and highly specialist adolescent assessment and treatment service for young people, parents and carers.
• Treatment will be provided to some adolescents with severe, complex and persistent mental health problems.
• To make complex clinical judgements and decisions, with the assistance of colleagues and managers, about risk factors and to ensure that links are established with other agencies, particularly those in the statutory sector, to reduce risks and share responsibility within mental health networks.
• To participate in multi‑agency meetings including Child Protection Conferences, Child in Need, Team around the Family, EHCP meetings and annual reviews etc.
• To participate in and contribute to the development of Open Door's programmes of audit, evaluation and research, and support service users to contribute and participate, and to ensure CYP‑IAPT compliance.
• To work autonomously within the overall policy and governance framework set out by Open Door.
• To provide support for colleagues in team meetings and in difficult or emergency situations.
• To provide, when opportunities arise, consultation, training and advice for staff working in other specialist settings.

About us

Open Door is a volunteer sector service based in Haringey, North London, providing a range of therapeutic services for young people aged 12-24 and parents/carers. We are part of the Haringey CAMHS pathway for 12‑18 year olds and are a highly regarded clinical service. Open Door offers talking therapy to adolescents and young adults on a brief, medium and longer‑term basis. Psychotherapists may have psychoanalytic, CBT, drama therapy, therapeutic football groups and EMDR training. We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for our service users and staff. More than half of our young people are from global majority communities, and approximately 1 in 4 are neurodivergent.

Qualifications

• To have successfully completed, or approaching the end of, a post graduate training in Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
• To maintain eligibility for registration as a full member of the ACP.
• Training in other therapeutic modalities.

Skills and Competencies

• Ability to make complex autonomous judgements based on theoretical, technical and clinical knowledge and experience.
• Ability to communicate effectively in highly emotive situations, overcoming barriers to understanding and analysing complex and conflicting opinion/emotions.
• Capacity to approach clinical work with flexibility and creativity.
• Ability to organise and schedule a range of complex multi‑professional activities such as consultations with clinical teams, clinical seminar groups, educational and training courses, group supervision sessions.
• Ability to work in a way that promotes the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.
• Experience in the autonomous management of personal work patterns and caseload, including scheduling and maintaining a pattern of complex clinical and non‑clinical work.
• Good literary and report writing skills.
• An awareness of the limitations and parameters of the treatment potential of psychotherapy.

Personal Characteristics

• Self‑motivated
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Adaptable
• Good interpersonal skills
• Reliable
• Trustworthy
• Mental effort: capacity for frequent, intense mental concentration
• Emotional effort: capacity to frequently work with highly emotional circumstances and levels of distress
• Working conditions: capacity to work in a mental health setting with occasional exposure to unpleasant working conditions such as verbal aggression

Experience

• Experience working as a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist in a multi‑disciplinary child and adolescent mental health service, including substantial experience with the relevant client age group.
• Experience in the process of assessment of risk and clinical need.
• Experience of time limited and longer‑term clinical work.
• Experience of working with parents and carers.
• Knowledge of other therapeutic modalities.
• Experience of working with neurodivergent service users.
• Experience of liaison with other therapeutic modalities towards improving interdisciplinary understanding and networking to improve patient options for treatment.
• Knowledge of areas of service administration.
• Knowledge of methodology associated with the use of outcome measures, service user evaluations.
• Interest and/or experience in service development.
• Knowledge or interest in understanding barriers faced, and improving access for young people, to psychotherapy and mental health services.
• Experience of or interest in coproduction.

Additional Requirements

• Awareness of the appropriate ethical, professional and legal responsibilities of the profession.
• Ability to work as an autonomous clinical specialist, whilst also maintaining close links with other clinicians and colleagues.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Willingness to work from a number of locations and using different platforms (e.g. phone, video, text).
• Commitment to inclusion.
• Commitment to safeguarding.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£55,524 a year (pro rata to part time hours)