Clinical/Counselling Psychologist,Early Intervention in Psychosis

Clinical/Counselling Psychologist, Early Intervention in Psychosis

The closing date is 08 March 2026

This is an exciting developmental post for a keen, enthusiastic and motivated Clinical or Counselling Psychologist. In this role you will be given ample opportunities to develop your skills and expertise in working with patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis. You will join our excellent East and North PATH (Psychosis: Prevention, Assessment and Treatment in Hertfordshire) Service. PATH is a specialist service for those experiencing their first episode of psychosis in Hertfordshire.

Psychological Therapies within the PATH team are going through an exciting time of transformation. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to play an active role in services development, utilising and mastering their leadership as well as supervision, consultation and therapeutic skills. This time of transformation is the start of our journey in ensuring our service users receive the right treatment at the right time and can go on to lead fulfilling lives. Do you want to be part of this exciting journey?

This development post is suitable for newly qualified Band 7 Clinical or Counselling Psychologist with interest in psychosis and a desire to develop skills and knowledge to the level of an 8a clinician. Clinical or Counselling Psychologist with experience working with individuals with psychosis, including having relevant training in CBT for Psychosis and/or Family Intervention can be appointed directly into a Band 8a role.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be part of a multi-disciplinary team and will be skilled in working within recovery based, trauma informed and collaborative approaches to care planning, assessment, therapy, supervision and consultation. The successful candidate will be working flexibly and creatively with service users and other professionals in order to achieve the best outcomes for our patients.

The post holder will supervise, consult and support trainee psychologists/psychotherapists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment. The post holder will work within the wider MDT, will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures, and will utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development and research.

We offer a bespoke professional development plan. Psychologists would be encouraged to apply for HEE funded Family Intervention for Psychosis training and CBTp training as necessary. Regarding specialist professional development, PATH has close links with other Early Intervention services. There are opportunities to meet other EIP professionals outside of the Trust and attend CPD sessions run by the group. For applicants who are keen on development such as teaching and conducting research, there will also be opportunities available. We have established links with University of Hertfordshire DClinPsy course and with King's College London.

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Our Trust values are:
Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it!

Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?

Then please read on

Job responsibilities

Main responsibilities include good governance of psychological therapies for people with psychosis, providing assessment, therapy, clinical supervision and consultation. An important part of this role is effective data collection to evidence the efficacy of psychological interventions. It is anticipated that this post holder will work with people accessing the service within East and North Hertfordshire, but there may be a requirement to support service delivery and development more widely across Hertfordshire.

For the full Job Description and Person Specification please refer to the attached documents.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Doctoral/Masters level training in clinical/counselling psychology, including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS and current registration with HCPC
• Professional qualification degree level, which should include knowledge and application of research methodology
• Additional specialist knowledge or training in psychological therapies including CBTp and Family Intervention

Experience

• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life span's 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
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least one evidence based psychological therapy (i.e. CBT, Family Intervention or CFT) relevant to the treatment of adults with complex problems and their families
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Experience of multi-disciplinary team working and inter-agency collaboration
• Ability to provide consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
• Experience of working in a community mental health setting
• Experience of service quality monitoring e.g. clinical audit, evaluative research, etc.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or offering supervision

Skills and Knowledge

• Ability to communicate 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
• Ability to work and communicate therapeutically with clients and their families consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating
• Ability to keep accurate and complete records of activities and communications consistent with legislation, policies and procedures.
• Ability to establish and maintain professional relationships and boundaries with clients from diverse backgrounds
• Ability to apply psychology in different cultural contexts
• Car driver (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 which prevents you from driving)
• IT Skills; including the use of Microsoft Office and Outlook, entering data onto electronic patient records
• Ability to travel and work flexibly across different sites in Hertfordshire
• Ability to deliver complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Ability to comply with BPS/HCPC/BABCP professional standards and current developments in the field of mental health and well-being

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.

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

£47,810 to £62,682 a yearper annum, pro rata