Psychological Therapist/Highly Specialist Psychological Therapist: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

The Durham and Darlington Perinatal service are seeking a passionate and motivated Psychological Therapist to join us in our continued drive to provide the best Perinatal Mental Health Services.You will become part of a proactive, innovative, and supportive multidisciplinary team, with opportunities to further develop your knowledge, skills, and experience within this specialist area.

As a member of the Community Perinatal Mental Health Team, you will contribute to the delivery of high-quality, evidence-based care for women who are planning a pregnancy, are pregnant, or are in the postnatal period. You will manage a clinical caseload, providing psychological assessment and therapeutic interventions to women experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties during the perinatal period.

This is a fixed-term/secondment 12-month position, working core hours of 9:00am to 5:00pm, for four days. The service supports hybrid working arrangements, offering flexibility alongside the demands of the role.

You will join an established and valued psychological therapies team within the service, holding an active caseload and delivering a range of therapeutic interventions. In addition, you will play an important role within the service’s leadership structure, supporting the ongoing development of the service, contributing to quality improvement initiatives, and offering support, supervision and guidance to colleagues across the multidisciplinary team.

Main duties of the job

The successful postholder will be accountable for your own professional practice in the delivery of highly specialist psychological therapy to clients with highly complex mental health conditions or learning disabilities which may include challenging behaviours.

The post-holder is responsible for providing a qualified specialist psychological therapy service to people in the designated service, providing both specialist model-specific expertise and broader psychological assessment and therapy, in addition to clinical supervision, advice and consultation to colleagues, and to other non-professional carers, on modality specific aspects of assessment, formulation, care and treatment.

You will work as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, ensuring that high quality, compassionate, individualised care is delivered which ensures safety and a commitment to promoting recovery and wellbeing and maximising independence. In addition you will provide clinical supervision and clinical consultation/advice in accordance with service needs as agreed with the lead psychologist. You will take a lead role within the team for model-specific psychological therapies in the pathway, including providing leadership in adherence to NICE guidance through clinical supervision and monitoring.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate training (doctoral level equivalent) in clinical / counselling / forensic psychology (or its equivalent prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Post doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice – Band 8a
• Trained in clinical supervision and the supervision of doctoral trainees
• Trained in care co-ordination
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

• Registration with BPS

Knowledge/Skills/Experience

Essential

• Awareness of: The Trust’s Quality Improvement System
• Must be able to: Communicate complex and highly sensitive information effectively, to a wide range of people
• Adapt creatively the evidence base for interventions in mental health for clients with communication difficulties / learning disabilities.
• Provide (within agreed timescale) effective teaching, training and clinical supervision
• Work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team and undertake care co-ordination/lead practitioner responsibilities
• Undertake complex multiagency working and liaise with multiple systems
• Utilise psychometric tests competently
• Identify, provide and promote appropriate interventions / means of support for carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours
• Utilise appropriate clinical governance mechanisms within own work.
• Use approved breakaway techniques
• Demonstrate effective keyboard skills

Desirable

• Experience of CBT, DBT, Psychodynamics, systematic therapy
• Skills in using multimedia materials in presentations

Knowledge

Essential

• Working with mental health/learning disability clients (depending on designated service area)
• Multi-disciplinary team working
• Experience of research and audit
• Doctoral level knowledge of: Evidence- based practice relevant to the role
• Risk assessment and risk management
• Clinical governance
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
• Audit and research methodology
• Social Inclusion agenda

Closing Date: 15 November 2026