Senior Psychological Therapist – Clinical/Counselling/Forensic: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

Are you an experienced and passionate psychological practitioner looking for your next leadership opportunity?

Central andNorth WestLondon NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) isseekingan enthusiastic and highly skilledBand 8a Senior Psychological Therapistto join our Health & Justice Psychology Team based at HMPDownview. This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in delivering high-quality, evidence-based psychological services within a specialist prison healthcare setting.

Working within a multidisciplinary team, you will provide expert psychological assessment,formulationand intervention for individuals with complex mental health needs, trauma histories, neurodiversepresentationsand personality difficulties. You will lead psychological practice within the service through consultation, supervision,trainingand service development activities.

Main duties of the job

About the Role

As a Senior Psychological Therapist, you will:

• Deliver highlyspecialist psychological assessment and intervention to individuals and groups.

• Hold and manage a complex clinical caseload.

• Provide clinical supervision and professional leadership to Band 7 therapists, assistant psychologists, traineepsychologistsand other staff.

• Offer consultation and psychologically informed guidance to multidisciplinary colleagues.

• Contribute to service development, quality improvement,auditand research activities.

• Lead on psychological governance and support the development of innovative and responsive services.

• Promote trauma-informed,person-centredand recovery-focused approaches to care.

About You

We are looking for a compassionate and motivated practitioner with:

• A professional qualification and registration as a Practitioner Psychologist, accredited CBT Therapist, or accredited Psychotherapist/Counsellor with relevant post-qualification specialist training.

• Significant post-qualification experience working with complex presentations.

• Experience of supervision, consultation and multidisciplinary team working.

• Knowledge of evidence-based psychological therapies and psychological assessment.

• Excellent communication,leadershipand relationship-building skills.

• A commitment to equality,diversityand psychologically informed care.

Person Specification

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical, forensic or counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, equivalent to that accredited by the BPS
• HCPC Registered as a practitioner psychologist
• Evidence of post-qualification specialist training, experience and developing expertise in a specialist area of clinical practice relevant to this role.

Desirable

• Pre- or Post-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of representing psychology within context of multidisciplinary care
• Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. mental illness, personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc)
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC

Desirable

• Experience of working in secure environments and/or forensic mental health.
• Experience of using a trauma informed approach.
• Lived experience of mental health Issues.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Can demonstrate competence in supervision of junior qualified psychology and MDT staff and professional psychology trainees.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Broad knowledge of models of assessment, management and treatment of offenders with mental health difficulties and personality disorders
• Ability to work intensively with people who present challenges in the complexity of their problems and needs, including sexual and violent offending and self-harming and suicidal behaviours.
• High level of ability to plan and organise clinical service provision to meet service demands, and to maintain high quality professional practice.
• Experience of software e.g. SPSS, EXCEL
• Evidence of continual development of specialist knowledge and skills through engaging in relevant study and Continuing Professional Development relevant to the forensic population.

Desirable

• Ability to write reports for varied audiences, including courts and purchasers of services.

Closing Date: 6 September 2026