Specialist Counsellor

Job summary

Are you passionate about providing evidenced based psychological therapy to people struggling with a range of psychological difficulties including anxiety and depression, that is flexible and personalised to the service user? Do you want to develop personally and professionally, through regular high-quality individual supervision, and a range of team activities and ongoing CPD opportunities including specialist therapy trainings as available (e.g., IPT, DIT, EMDR, training in CBT for Long Term Conditions)?

This role is within the Haringey's Talking Therapies service offering high quality therapies, in an environment that is supportive for staff. We subscribe to the BABCP Positive Practice guide.

We are committed to staff development and specialist areas of clinical expertise through supervision, training and research opportunities, and reflective spaces. We have a diverse workforce, so we particularly welcome staff members who can speak and work in languages that reflect the diverse communities in Haringey.

We are mindful that working in a fast-paced service with people experiencing psychological distress can be challenging and we proactively support all our staff. We encourage flexible working and staff are encouraged to negotiate a working pattern that allows for a good work life balance.

This is a hybrid role (office/home working). Staff are required to work part of the week in any of the locations around Haringey with the opportunity to work part of the week at home.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a Specialist Counsellors and Clinical/Counselling Psychologists with experience of working with adults with a range of mental health difficulties to join our successful, and supportive team. You will be providing assessment and high intensity psychological interventions.As a CBT therapist/Psychologist, you will work with adults with a range of anxiety and depression disorders using CBT.As a counsellor, qualified in a Talking Therapies approved modality to support the provision of high quality evidenced based counselling. Counsellors should have a core training in Counselling and have specialist training in Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy/Interpersonal Therapy/Counselling for Depression or short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy to provide specialist counselling for clients presenting with depression.You will have training and experience of providing supervision is also required as Band 7 Counsellors will undertake a range of activities alongside providing high quality one-to-one specialist counselling interventions. You may also be providing professional/clinical supervision to, act as a professional lead for trainee counsellors.CBT therapists will also offer (or work towards offering) supervision to trainees, and advice, consultation, and training within the service, as well as having the opportunity to contribute towards shaping and developing by taking the lead in a specific area of interest.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job responsibilities

• Accept referrals via agreed protocols within the service
• Assess clients for suitability for Counselling using one the of Talking Therapies approved Counselling models. Where the problems appear to be too complex or severe to be appropriate for the Talking Therapies service, to refer to manager/supervisor for advice on how to manage the case.
• Contribute to diagnostic decisions and advise on the suitability of new referrals, adhering to the departments referral protocols, and refer unsuitable clients on to the relevant service or back to the referral agent as necessary.
• Formulate, implement and evaluate therapy programmes for clients. IAPT modalities include Counselling for Depression (CfD), Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression (IPT), Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) and Couple Therapy for Depression (CTFD) and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy.
• To make an assessment of risk for patient and others and take appropriate action when necessary.
• Educate and involve family members and others in treatment as necessary, conveying Counselling formulations with sensitivity in easily understood language.
• Adhere to an agreed activity contract relating to the number of client contacts offered and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings relating to referrals or clients in treatment, where appropriate.