Senior Psychotherapist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Senior CBT Psychotherapist to work in the Cheshire and Merseyside Specialist Perinatal Service, working collaboratively to deliver the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan. Based in Liverpool, the primary aim of this role is to provide clinical leadership, clinical supervision and innovation to trainee and qualified CBT therapists across our three MDTs. Experience of working in specialist perinatal or maternal mental health services will be a significant advantage. You will be accredited or actively working towards accreditation with BABCP. We are looking for a motivated, creative and compassionate clinician who has experience of working clinically with women and families in the perinatal period. We are also seeking people who have a robust understanding of the impact of social inequalities on maternal mental health and are passionate about improving outcomes around health inequality. The successful candidate will have experience of working collaboratively with families and ‘experts by experience’ in support of co-production methodologies to inform service models. As a senior member of the clinical team, the ideal candidate will have great interpersonal skills and an ability to offer confident and sound clinical decision making on behalf of the team.
Working in the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service team, you will be responsible for the systematic provision of highly specialist therapies which may include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)for people experiencing distress in the perinatal period. You will provide services that meet the agreed service priorities consonant with practitioner experience and expertise. Such services to include the development and implementation of highly specialist perinatal psychological therapies including assessment, formulation, clinical casework and the provision of consultancy work generally for the assurance of quality in the use of different modalities (e.g., IPT, CBT or EMDR) methods by other team members.
The post holder will demonstrate an attitude which respects and values service users’ and their carers.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. #we're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITES
Clinical
1. To be a member of the service team and to contribute to, participate in and adhere to the routines and policies of that service.
2. To be responsible for the systematic provision of cognitive behaviour therapy at a highly specialist level to people experiencing significant and/or severe psychological problems
3. To provide a highly specialised cognitive behaviour therapy service. Services will be based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data. Services will include the following: -
a) Highly specialist one-to-one clinical consultations
b) Consultation and training for other team members
c) Highly specialist cognitive behavioural and another psychotherapeutic modality (e.g., EMDR, IPT) assessment including issues of risk
d) Cognitive behavioural and other specialist psychological therapies for individuals, families, and groups, adjusting and refining formulations and utilising a number of provisional hypotheses
e) Decision making for and evaluating Cognitive Behavioural and other treatment options, taking into account both theoretical models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group
f) Exercising autonomous clinical responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by cognitive behavioural and other specialist intervention plans
g) Staff consultation contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and intervention plan
h) Staff consultation on the use of cognitive behavioural and another specialist psychological therapy techniques
i) Staff supervision in the use of cognitive behavioural and other specialist psychological therapy techniques
4. In particular, as part of multidisciplinary, complex care team working, to provide casework for people experiencing severe psychological difficulties in the perinatal period. To prioritise workload to ensure that skills are used to address the more severe and complex presentations within this area of work.
5. To supply services within the context of existing multi professional teamwork. To negotiate appropriate professional relationships within the teams and across both statutory and voluntary agencies to both ensure the referral of appropriate casework and the communication of highly complex clinical information.
6. To maintain the records of service in line with the information needs of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
7. To provide input to health, social care and community-based services to enable best practice and service user choice in line with local service accessibility. This may include inpatient environments (Mother and Baby Unit), specialist departments, general practices, health centres, family hubs and children’s centres, and maternity and health visiting settings.
8. To manage frequent exposure to highly distressing and emotional circumstances and maintain substantial mental effort through frequent and intense levels of concentration and attention.
Managerial
9. To support the formulation and implementation of clinical and operational practices and procedures as appropriate.
10. Support the implementation, monitoring and updating of an operational policy and philosophy for the clinical area.
11. Ensure the principles of clinical governance are incorporated in service delivery by maintaining a high-quality service based on agreed clinical standards.
12. Participate in managerial supervision.
Education and Development
13. To lead and assist the implementation of the supervision of Cognitive Behaviour Therapists and other specialist psychological practitioners within the service.
14. To assist with the clinical supervision of practitioner psychologists, CBT Therapists, practitioners and trainees, assistant psychologists and other MDT staff as agreed by the service manager/professional lead.
15. To receive appropriate clinical supervision to ensure quality of professional practice.
16. Through the personal appraisal process, to engage in professional development that ensures that Continuing Professional Development requirements are met and that eligibility for Chartering and licensed practice is both achieved and maintained.
17. To have access to up to one session per week (pro rata full time) for pursuing professional development following agreement with service manager/professional lead.
18. Participate in regular supervision, engage in reflective practice and be committed to continued development.
19. Develop own skills and knowledge and contribute to the development of others.
Research and Audit
20. To undertake appropriate service audits and assist the research and development agenda by proposing areas of study appropriate to advancing the nature of cognitive behavioural work and other specialist psychological therapies within this service specialty.
21. To assist research projects with practitioners as required.
22. To undertake regular audit and evaluation of the team’s activity by the derivation, collection and analysis of appropriate data.
23. Undertake and participate in appropriate audit, quality assurance programmes and research as directed.
This advert closes on Friday 5 Jan 2024