Practitioner Psychologist or Psychotherapist

Practitioner Psychologist or Psychotherapist

The closing date is 27 January 2026

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a band 7 or 8a Practitioner Psychologist or Psychotherapist (depending on experience) to work for our community services, offering a psychological therapy service to patients within the psychosis pathway. The postholder will be based in the STEP (Southwark Team for Early Psychosis) team for 3 days and in the Dulwich CMHT team for 2 days. This can be for a fixed term contract or secondment for 9 months.

We are looking for a motivated clinician who is passionate about working with people with a diagnosis of psychosis and their families and networks. The successful applicant will have good engagement skills, think creatively, work flexibly and have a range of skills in working collaboratively alongside others. Southwark is a racially and ethnically diverse borough and we are looking for a clinician who can work with cultural humility and will actively support our anti racism agenda.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will contribute to the work of both the STEP team and the Dulwich CMHT, providing direct and indirect psychological therapeutic interventions for patients, groups and families. Direct evidence based interventions include CBT for psychosis, trauma focused CBT, EMDR, CBT based family interventions, Open Dialogue, Systemic Family Therapy and Arts Therapies. We are also piloting culturally sensitive interventions that are based on afro centric approaches. The successful candidate will contribute to the delivery of therapies depending on their area of expertise.

Within Southwark we offer psychological therapies on a stepped care basis, therefore group working and supporting the delivery of low intensity interventions is also part of the role.

Supervision and management responsibilities will depend on the skills and experience of the successful candidate.

About us

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond. We are committed to providing high quality and specialist care to our service users and are recognised for the care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as "good". We launched our five year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers. The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Job responsibilities

Qualifications (Psychologist)

• Doctoral level qualification in clinical or counselling psychology or equivalent and registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist (or other relevant professional registration for non psychologist posts).
  Professional knowledge acquired through a degree supplemented by postgraduate diploma specialist training, experience, short courses and further specialist training to masters equivalent level (or equivalent for nurses, social workers, occupational therapists).
  Registration with the relevant practitioner registering body, e.g. NMC, HCPC, BACP.
  Experience receiving clinical supervision across a range of client needs.
  Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature including psychosis.
  Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities (gained through work, research, volunteering and/or lived experience).
  Experience of developing and carrying out research projects.
  Prior experience of working within Early Intervention Services.

Knowledge

• Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for Early Intervention in psychosis.
• Knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
• Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.
• To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
• To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources.

Skills

• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues, overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and for meetings such as case reviews.
• To plan allocation of tasks to assistant psychologists.
• Well developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.

Person Specification Qualifications

• For Psychologists: entry level qualification in Applied Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration. (Additional notes for specific disciplines: e.g. Clinical psychologist: Doctorate in Clinical Psychology; Counselling psychologist: MSc and PG Diploma in Counselling Psychology; Forensic psychologist: MSc in Forensic Psychology plus completion of the British Psychological Society's Qualification in Forensic Psychology Stage 2.)
• For Family / Systemic Psychotherapists: post graduate qualification in a relevant mental health/social welfare profession and demonstrable practice in this field (plus Masters level qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy or equivalent, accredited by UKCP).
• For Psychotherapists: entry level qualification in Psychotherapy accepted by the UKCP/BABCP for purposes of professional registration.
• For Arts Therapists: Masters Degree (or equivalent) in Arts Therapy or Dance Movement Therapy.
• Additional training beyond entry level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice (PG Diploma or equivalent), or a combination of specialist short courses and an evidence portfolio of supervised practice based learning assessed by a registered body or experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher.
• Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervised qualified psychological practitioners in relevant discipline.
• Registered with professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/UKCP/BABCP.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the professional body.

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in services for people with psychosis and other complex mental health difficulties.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature including, but limited to, psychosis and substance misuse.
• Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.

Knowledge

• Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment - CBT for psychosis and the application of CBT to work with patients with other complex mental health difficulties and co morbidity with substance misuse.
• Advanced knowledge of the theory of psychological therapy and its therapeutic application.
• Knowledge of racial and other diversity issues and factors affecting access to mental health care.

Skills

• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• Administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials.

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

£64,156 to £71,148 a year (incl. inner HCAs)