Senior Clinical /Counselling Psychologist in HIV & Sexual Health

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Clinical / Counselling Psychologist in HIV & Sexual Health The closing date is 16 November 2025

Are you a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist interested in HIV and Sexual Health Psychology? We are recruiting to a senior role within our well established and respected HIV and Sexual Health team that provides specialist psychological services to patients and staff of Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. This team sits within a diverse and supportive Clinical Health Psychology service.

As part of our commitment to address inequalities in healthcare, we are particularly keen to hear from applicants with lived experience relevant to the diverse communities we work with, and from those with particular skills in understanding and promoting anti discrimination associated with protected characteristics.

the successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage & support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients & service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Main duties of the job We are looking for a passionate, committed and pro active Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist who is able to manage the challenges of working with complexity and in an environment which can be demanding, as well as hugely rewarding. We prioritise collaboration within our immediate team, with the MDTs with which we work, and with the wider sexual health and HIV community. We are therefore hoping to find candidates who have the required communication and interpersonal skills that will allow them to thrive when working across all these relationships in order to provide a meaningful service to the diverse populations we serve.

Our team demonstrate an interest in providing a high level of service for service users and carers as well as an interest in service development. You will join a friendly, highly experienced and supportive team of clinicians, with opportunities to offer specialist psychological assessment and therapy to individuals and groups; provide supervision to assistant psychologists, trainee clinical/counselling psychologists, and other health professionals; consult with service users and our MDT colleagues; work autonomously within professional guidelines and adhering to the team's policies and procedures; and conduct audit, service improvement initiatives and research within the field, including developing innovative ways of working to enhance patients' access to, experience of and outcomes from HIV and Sexual Health Psychology.

About us CNWL is recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ in line with our values, our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy & policy, & many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries. With us, you will get -

A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing at its core.

An opportunity to work for one of the top 10 NHS employers

Variety of work

Access to a variety of CPD opportunities.

As a Trust we are committed to investing in our staff through a range of initiatives, both profession specific and organisation wide. Psychological professions staff are able to access a range of trust wide CPD initiatives. We have partnered with Bespoke & Contextual Consulting to provide some of the profession specific CPD, alongside additional CPD sessions we commission as part of CNWL CPD programme for Psychological Professions.

Click here to find out more about working at CNWL!Psychological Professions CNWL Extranet

The Trust has the following active Staff Networks: BAME Staff Network, Disabled Employees Network (DEN+), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Staff Network (LGBT+), Carers at Work Network, Lived Experience of Mental Health Issues Stigma Transformation (LEMHIST) Network and Women's Network.

Job responsibilities Please see the attached document for the full Job Description and Person Specification for more information.

Clinical responsibilities

To provide an excellent standard of psychological and clinical care to clients by offering a range of assessments and interventions (including individual and groups) by:

1. Providing specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self report measures, and semi structured interviews.
2. Formulating and implementing plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients psychological difficulties, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. Implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. Evaluating and making decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the person.
5. Assessing new referrals for service suitability.
6. Providing specialist senior psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation and treatment plan.
7. Undertaking risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and providing advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
8. Communicating in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress.
9. Being professionally and legally responsible for all aspects of your work, including the management of clients in your care.
10. Carrying out and prioritising daily your own designated clinical caseload, working as an autonomous practitioner, with regular supervision from your supervisor.
11. Attending and participating in clinical and non clinical meetings as required.
12. Being a senior member of the HIV and Sexual Health Psychology Team and supporting the team, as well as junior members of the team as appropriate.
13. Holding a caseload of approximately 12 clinical contacts a week (for 0.6 wte; to include specialist psychologist assessments, psychological interventions and clinical supervision).

Leadership, Training, and Supervision

Promote successful supervision provisions and be central to the service and individual on going professional development by:

1. Contributing to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holders professional and service manager(s).
2. Contributing to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.
3. Receiving regular clinical professional supervision from a more senior psychologist, and where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues and receive Management Supervision from the Team Lead.
4. Participating in performance objective setting / appraisal and develop a professional development plan.
5. Attending mandatory training as specified in Trust and departmental policies.
6. Gaining additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to clinical/counselling psychology and/or the service as agreed with the professional psychology manager.

Please note: This role may requires successful candidates to be able to engage in Therapeutic Management of Violence and Aggression (TMVA) training, including the use of force techniques and the ability to attend resuscitation training and perform CPR. This is because of the high acuity nature of the ward / community environment and the need to ensure the safety of both patients and staff. The role is conditional upon candidates being able to engage in TMVA training and resus training during the course of their employment whilst undertaking this role.

Person Specification Training and Qualifications

• Post graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent) as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or British Psychological Society Statement of Equivalence
• Registration with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Additional pre qualification or post qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or any other fields of applied psychology, including specific therapeutic models
• Training in supervising trainee clinical psychologists and/or providing supervision.

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
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