Principal Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist The closing date is 08 December 2025

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled, motivated and enthusiastic clinical/ counselling psychologist to work and lead psychological therapies team within countywide PATH service. If you are looking for an exciting opportunity to progress in your career and be part of a forward thinking team, this role is for you!

Alongside supervision and therapeutic work, you will be involved in service development and exciting research projects. You will work alongside Consultant Clinical Lead for Psychological Services for Psychosis and with other service leads to ensure the delivery of high quality interventions across the PATH service.

If you are an ambitious and driven clinician with strong team skills who has patient care at heart, we would love to hear from you. In return we offer opportunities for further learning and development.

Main duties of the job This is a leadership position, with managerial and supervisory responsibilities.

• Ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist Psychological Service across the county to clients presenting with the first and early episode psychosis.
• Supporting the development of an integrated approach to psychological assessment and interventions for people presenting with the first episode of psychosis across PATH teams.
• Ensuring the training and post training support for all relevant staff members is in accordance with the best current National Standards for Governance.
• Supervising and supporting the psychological assessments and therapy provided by other psychologists, psychological therapists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• Working autonomously within professional guidelines and exercising responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within Secondary Care.
• Utilising research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.
• Proposing and implementing policy changes within the area served by the team/service.
• All staff should comply with the Trust's Anti-Discriminatory Statement, Employee Charter, Trust Policies and Procedures, Code of Conduct and Equality and Diversity.

For detailed job description please see attached JD/PS for this role.

About us Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission.

Our family of over 4,500 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

Job responsibilities In this countywide role, alongside managerial and supervisory responsibilities, you would also hold a small caseload and offer a range of psychological interventions to service users on an individual, family and group basis when appropriate.

You would have access to regular individual supervision as well as supervision groups (e.g. FIP) depending on your specialist training. There are regular training events, and the Trust is highly supportive of staff accessing further specialist training such as CBTp, FIP etc.

For Full job description please refer to JD/PS attached to this post.

Person Specification Education and Qualifications

• Postgraduate Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• Registered with Health and Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Good honours degree in psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Substantial post-registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Experience in neuropsychological assessment
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Related academic qualifications to master's or doctorate level.

Previous Experience

• Experience of working with patients presenting with moderate to severe mental health problems, including medically unexplained symptoms, physical health problems, and personality difficulties.
• Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults of working age with a wide range of presentations of varying severity. Typically, this would involve a minimum of four years' experience with 2 years at highly specialist level, or its equivalent demonstrated through CV and interview.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HPC.
• Demonstrate further specialist clinical experience of training, through a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an agreed alternative.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision, including supervision of clinical psychology trainee(s).
• Experience working within a multi- disciplinary therapy service.
• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management with clients with complex problems, including specialised psychological interventions for difficult to treat groups (eg multiple mental health and/or physical health problems). Ability to demonstrate an area of specialist interest/skill in assessment, therapeutic intervention or research/evaluation.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively and well, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, caress and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Able to plan own workload; and coordinate with other relevant staff in the delivery of clinical service
• Able to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to verbal and sometimes physical aggression.
• Full UK driving licence (subject to Disability Discrimination Legislation)
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to individuals experiencing psychosis and psychotic type disorder.
• Experience of having published in either peer reviewed academic or professional journals and/or books.
• Experience of working within multicultural framework.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnoses, people with co-morbid conditions: physical health, social complexity, psychologically complex histories).
• Good presentation and teaching skills and ability to use multi-media materials for formal presentations to large groups.
• Familiarity with computing technology, including keyboard skills, and use of word- processing, e-mail, and internet software.
• Skilled in appropriate and up to date disengagement techniques.
• Able to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to verbal and sometimes physical aggression.
• Ability to demonstrate an interest in working with adults experiencing the first episode of psychosis.
• Ability to work face to face with patients in isolated potentially hostile settings without other team members being nearby.
• Ability to work and communicate highly sensitive, contentious information effectively in a highly emotive or hostile atmosphere, and to overcome barriers to acceptance/ psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations.

Analytical Skills

• Able to prioritise work, to operate a waiting list, meet short deadlines and an unpredictable work pattern which requires regular revision of plans.
• 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

Physical skills

• Car driver (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 which prevents you from driving)
• Ability to move equipment (including case files, self-help materials, audio-visual equipment) between office base and other work settings.

Physical effort

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