Senior Psychotherapist - Adult Community in Colchester

Main area Senior Psychotherapist Grade Band 8a Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 10.5 hours per week (Hours and work pattern can be discussed) Job ref 364-B-493

Employer Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Herrick House, East Stockwell Street Town Colchester Salary £49,387 - £64,750 per annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 01/11/2026 23:59

Senior Psychotherapist - Adult Community

Band 8a

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.

Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk.

We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.

You’ll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive.

The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.

We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years.

We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.

We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.

Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life – and make a difference to other people’s lives. What we do together, matters.

Job overview

Band 7 or 8a depending on experience.

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and creative Psychotherapist to our team. The successful candidate will have a passion for working with people with complex mental health needs in a community setting, experience of working closely with MDT colleagues, and a drive for ongoing development of high quality services.

We are able to recruit to either a Band 7 or 8a position depending on your post qualification experience.

You will provide one to one therapeutic input for service use across the North East Essex area, as part of the Specialist Mental Health Team MDT. Your understanding of a person's presenting difficulties will be shared with the team in consultation, supervision and teaching activities which form essential aspects of this role. You will work alongside others trained in a range of models of understanding psychological distress and difficulties, and assist those who use our services to develop their strengths and to build resilience.

Main duties of the job

Working alongside other experienced psychologists and psychotherapists, the successful applicant will be responsible for assessing and formulating service users presenting with complex needs, and planning, delivering and evaluating interventions. You will also provide consultation and training for staff and others, and placements and supervision for trainees and assistants. We are integrated into the local MDTs and close working with colleagues from a range of disciplines is an essential aspect of this role.

This post holder will be based in Colchester however, flexibility is needed, as the team covers both Colchester and Tendring localities.

About us

The successful applicant will join our professional team of psychologists and psychotherapists working in Adult Community Mental Health Services in the North East Essex area of EPUT. The service currently comprises of Psychotherapists, Clinical and Counselling Psychologists, Clinical Associate Psychologists, trainees and assistants. We also have close links with colleagues locally working in the Urgent Care, Personality Disorder and Complex Needs, Specialist Dementia, Perinatal, Eating Disorders, Transitions, and Inpatient settings.

Working for our organisation

Valuing you. Recognising your dedication. At EPUT, we look after you.

• Receive supervision and support to help you fulfil your potential.
• Join an inclusive EPUT community and connect with others through engagement events and equality or champion networks.
• If you need help, we provide mental health and wellbeing services, occupational health advice and counselling.
• 27 days holiday, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years’ service.
• Excellent pension of up to 14.5% of your pensionable pay.
• Staff discounts include Blue Light Card, NHS discount offers, and staff benefits.
• Season ticket loans are interest-free to cover the cost of travelling to and from work via tram, rail, or bus.

Work that wraps around your needs

• Job share: Applications for job shares are welcomed.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for a more detailed list of responsibilities.

The salary range on this advert displays the bottom of Band 7 to the top of Band 8a. If the successful candidate is appointed at Band 7, the salary scale will be £49,387 to £56,515 per annum. Appointment to Band 8a will hold a salary scale of £57,528 to £64,750 per annum.

Person specification

Education/Qualification

• Recognised highly specialist formal applied psychotherapy training to Doctoral or Masters Level or equivalent.
• Registered or eligible for registration in UKCP, HCPC, BPC or equivalent.
• Evidence of continuing professional development in line with the requirements of professional registration
• Further qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice e.g. MBT, EMDR, schema therapy, sensori-motor psychotherapy

Knowledge

• Doctoral or masters level knowledge & understanding of the theory and practice of specialised psychotherapy assessment, formulation, intervention and outcome evaluation in treating people with complex mental health presentations.
• Doctoral or masters level knowledge of mental health and psychological distress, including the theoretical and empirical evidence base and frameworks for conceptualising distress in context and working with complex needs.
• Knowledge of policy and standards related to training in the psychological professions.

Skills and Experience

• Experience of working with highly complex service user need in a community setting, including working with and managing risk.
• Experience of running psychotherapy supervision groups and/or supervising those in training.

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.

Important note: please ensure that as part of your application, you include professional references with business contact information covering your last three years of employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee, you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post; the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Important Notice: Recently the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) which amended on 22 July 2021 and come into force on 11 November 2021 that anyone directly employed to work in a Care Home or who are required as part of their role to be deployed to a CQC registered care home are required to have had both their COVID vaccinations, unless they are exempt. This is therefore a requirement of this role and will form part of our pre‑employment checks.

Please note -staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

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.

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