Clinical/Counselling Psychologist – Adult Community: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

We have a full time (37.5 hours per week) vacancy for a Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our supportive and creative Adult Community Psychological (ACP) services in North East Essex.

The post holder will work in collaboration with colleagues, service users, carers, and other services and partner organisations towards the overall provision a high quality and trauma informed specialist mental health provision.

We are integrated within MDTs covering a broad geographical area, with bases in Colchester and Tendring. This post will be primarily Colchester based but some flexibility will be required on the basis of client and service need.

We welcome newly qualified applicants who can initially be appointed at a band 7 with a supportive development plan to work towards an 8A position.

Main duties of the job

You will be working alongside a variety of professionals from different backgrounds. We focus on providing psychological interventions to service users with highly complex and severe presentations who are also under the care of our specialist community teams. The post-holder will be expected to become proficient in the delivery of one or more specialist evidence based psychological interventions (e.g. EMDR, DBT, CAT, Schema Therapy) and contribute to the management and running of these programmes. We are looking for someone skilled in multi-disciplinary treatment planning, who can form respectful and collegial relationships with members of various disciplines and rise to the challenges posed by working in large teams and across services.

This is an exciting opportunity to work within supportive MDTs and highly experienced clinical/counselling psychology and psychotherapy colleagues. We are looking for someone competent and experienced in delivering psychological assessments and interventions who is capable of working compassionately and confidently in the context of high levels of risk. Experience of offering consultations and developing clinical formulations is essential. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate experience with clients who experience severe emotional dysregulation and distress, often with a history of complex trauma.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctorate qualification (or equivalent) in Clinical or Counselling Psychology and current registration with HCPC

Desirable

• Further post qualification specialist training in a relevant psychological therapy

Experience

Essential

• Relevant NHS mental health service experience

Desirable

• Experience of working in a community setting with people with serious mental health difficulties (those with difficulties associated with complex trauma, people who may attract a diagnosis of personality disorder, those with experiences of psychosis)

Closing Date: 25 October 2026