Clinical/Counselling Psychologist - Maple (Maternal MH Service)

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic, skilled Band 7 Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to work in our Maternal Mental Health Service, Maple. This is a fixed term contract for 12 months.

The Maple Service is for women and birthing people whose trauma symptoms have a moderate to severe impact on their mental health. This may be due to a traumatic birth experience, pregnancy loss, neonatal death or the loss of a baby as a result of social care procedures due to safeguarding concerns. The trauma may also exist prior to conception, e.g. when tokophobia prevents a woman from achieving a wanted pregnancy.

Staff normally run clinics at team bases, maternity sites as well as occasionally conducting home visits. Some clinical work is additionally carried out via video call. Therefore, the successful post-holder must be willing to travel and work flexibly.

Specialist supervision will be provided for the successful applicant by a band 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist in the Team. There is a large psychology team working across the whole service who meet regularly, provide peer support, and develop/review the psychological service.

We are looking to recruit to a 1.0 WTE based in the East sub team based at N9 7HD.

Please note that the successful applicant is likely to be required to travel to other sites at times including St Pancras Hospital (Camden) and Cedar Place (North Finchley).

Main duties of the job

Services offered by the post holder will include providing psychological assessments, and interventions to service users in line with the evidence base and NICE guidelines. They will also offer advice and consultation based on psychological formulation to referrers, staff of the Maple Service and other professional and non-professional groups.

The post holder will actively contribute to the planning, development and evaluation of perinatal mental health clinical services using leadership skills and knowledge to provide training and consultancy within the specialty area of loss and trauma in the perinatal period. There will also be opportunities to be involved in service audit and research relevant to psychological work within perinatal mental health. They are expected to hold a complex caseload.

About us

Why choose to join the North London NHS Foundation Trust?

• We believe that by working together, our two Trusts can achieve more for the residents of North Central London and our patients than we can by working apart.

• Deliver the best care using the most up-to-date practise in supporting those with mental health illnesses.

• Transforming and creating a positive environment for our service users, staff and visitors.

• Creating and working together to become a great place to work for all our staff.

• We offer flexible working, a wide range of health and wellbeing initiatives, NHS Pension and so much more.

• Generous Annual Leave Allowance

• NHS Discounts in a large variety of retail stores and services.

• We have excellent internal staff network support groups.

The post holder will need to be comfortable working in an environment of complex matrix management arrangements and willat all times behave and align with our Trusts' values and cultural pillars:

• We are kind

• We are respectful

• We work together

• We keep things simple

• We empower

• We are proudly diverse

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work.The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Job responsibilities

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• Services offered by the post-holder will include providing psychological assessments and interventions to service users in line with the evidence base and NICE guidelines. They will also offer advice and consultation based on psychological formulation to referrers, staff of the Maple Service and other professional and non-professional groups.
• To plan, organise and deliver therapeutic groups to Maple and Specialist Perinatal Mental Health service users.
• To maintain a high degree of professionalism at all times when working with service users, families, and colleagues.
• To maintain clinical records and statistics as appropriate.
• To actively contribute to the planning, development and evaluation of maternal mental health clinical services using leadership skills and knowledge to provide training and consultancy within the specialty area of perinatal mental health.

Person specification

Education / Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology
• Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council as a clinical or counselling psychologist.

Desirable

• Completion of further post-doctoral post-qualification specialist training in areas of practice relevant to the post

Experience

Essential

• Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, including community, primary care, outpatient, and inpatient settings.
• Experience of enabling others within a multidisciplinary / staff team to consider psychological factors and deliver psychologically informed interventions.
• Experience of teaching, training, and supervision

Desirable

• Experience working with women in the perinatal period with severe and enduring mental health needs as well as their families, carers, and networks
• Parent/infant work.

Knowledge and Abilities

Essential

• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the Health and Care Professions Council and British Psychological Society
• Ability to form good working relationships with others in a multidisciplinary setting