Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist
We are excited to be offering a 8b Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or Psychotherapist and Operational Lead to our MHT/ MHT+ Specialist Psychological Therapies Service for working age adults with severe and complex mental health difficulties in the Ashford & Canterbury locality.
You will be working closely with the Clinical Lead for East Kent. We would be particularly keen to hear from those with experience of working with adults with severe and enduring mental health problems, those with operational and managerial experience, and those in established 8a or 8b posts and ready to develop these competencies and skills.
You will join a dynamic team of psychologists/psychotherapists.
Main duties of the job
- You will have operational lead responsibilities for the service, and manage those in the team.
- Your will have your own caseload of assessment, individual and group interventions.
- Experience of Mentalization Based Psychotherapy, Structured Clinical Management and EMDR are welcome in addition to core training competencies. Formal HEE funded training will be available for those interested. In addition to delivery of psychological therapy you will have leadership roles supporting the Transformation, and collaborating for Psychological Therapies to deliver training and supervision to Mental Health Together and Mental Health Together + colleagues.
- You will be working closely with the service manager for MHT+ and the wider team in line with the Community Mental Health Framework and the Transformation in order to develop these agendas.
As the service works closely with the wider team there is ample opportunity to learn about organisational dynamics and delivery of care. As a senior team member you will be part of the Psychological Therapies leadership team, representing our service in local meetings, discussing appropriateness of referrals with the wider community team and influencing service delivery.
About us
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. Rated 'Good' by the CQC, we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.
Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.
Join us – if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's doing well together.
Job responsibilities
The successful candidate will hold a doctoral qualification in clinical or counselling psychology, or equivalent post-graduate qualification for psychotherapists, experience in secondary care and management, and have membership with relevant organisation such as HCPC, BABCP, BPC or UKCP.
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification
We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
Person Specification
Experience
- Years of Experience in Secondary Care
- Management Experience
- Leadership Experience/Qualities
- Competency in Service Development
- Operational Experience
- Skills for working under pressure
- Experience of Teaching
- Understanding management of service delivery/of information/audit
- Experience of Conflict Management
- Experience conducting group work
Training, Qualifications and Registration
- Doctoral Training in Clinical/Counselling Psychology/Psychotherapy Training.Belonging to any of these registration bodies – HCPC, UKCP, BCP, BABCP, BACP (Level C)
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
#J-18808-Ljbffr”, “datePosted”: “2026-05-18”, “hiringOrganization”: { “@type”: “Organization”, “name”: “NHS”, “sameAs”: “https://uk.whatjobs.com/pub_api__cpl__435632612__4861?utm_campaign=publisher&utm_medium=api&utm_source=4861&geoID=516” }, “jobLocation”: { “@type”: “Place”, “address”: { “@type”: “PostalAddress”, “addressLocality”: “Canterbury” } } }Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist
We are excited to be offering a 8b Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or Psychotherapist and Operational Lead to our MHT/ MHT+ Specialist Psychological Therapies Service for working age adults with severe and complex mental health difficulties in the Ashford & Canterbury locality.
You will be working closely with the Clinical Lead for East Kent. We would be particularly keen to hear from those with experience of working with adults with severe and enduring mental health problems, those with operational and managerial experience, and those in established 8a or 8b posts and ready to develop these competencies and skills.
You will join a dynamic team of psychologists/psychotherapists.
Main duties of the job
- You will have operational lead responsibilities for the service, and manage those in the team.
- Your will have your own caseload of assessment, individual and group interventions.
- Experience of Mentalization Based Psychotherapy, Structured Clinical Management and EMDR are welcome in addition to core training competencies. Formal HEE funded training will be available for those interested. In addition to delivery of psychological therapy you will have leadership roles supporting the Transformation, and collaborating for Psychological Therapies to deliver training and supervision to Mental Health Together and Mental Health Together + colleagues.
- You will be working closely with the service manager for MHT+ and the wider team in line with the Community Mental Health Framework and the Transformation in order to develop these agendas.
As the service works closely with the wider team there is ample opportunity to learn about organisational dynamics and delivery of care. As a senior team member you will be part of the Psychological Therapies leadership team, representing our service in local meetings, discussing appropriateness of referrals with the wider community team and influencing service delivery.
About us
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. Rated ‘Good’ by the CQC, we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.
Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It’s why we’re passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.
Join us – if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that’s doing well together.
Job responsibilities
The successful candidate will hold a doctoral qualification in clinical or counselling psychology, or equivalent post-graduate qualification for psychotherapists, experience in secondary care and management, and have membership with relevant organisation such as HCPC, BABCP, BPC or UKCP.
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification
We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
Person Specification
Experience
- Years of Experience in Secondary Care
- Management Experience
- Leadership Experience/Qualities
- Competency in Service Development
- Operational Experience
- Skills for working under pressure
- Experience of Teaching
- Understanding management of service delivery/of information/audit
- Experience of Conflict Management
- Experience conducting group work
Training, Qualifications and Registration
- Doctoral Training in Clinical/Counselling Psychology/Psychotherapy Training.Belonging to any of these registration bodies – HCPC, UKCP, BCP, BABCP, BACP (Level C)
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
#J-18808-Ljbffr…