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Highly Specialist Psychologist/Psychotherapist Lewisham Crisis Plus

The closing date is 21 August 2025

Lewisham Crisis Plus - Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist/Psychotherapist - B8a or B7-8a preceptorship

This is an exciting opportunity to join Lewisham Crisis Plus, a repeat/high intensity user psychology service, as a highly specialist psychologist/psychotherapist within Lewisham Community Mental Health Services. The team works across services in the Lewisham directorate whilst being based within the secondary care community mental health teams.

The successful applicant will use their clinical skills to support a complex range of service users and their network. They will think creatively, work flexibly and have a range of skills in working alongside others. The role involves offering time-limited, formulation- and psychologically-informed crisis and care support to the service user, carer(s) and network of services. The post holder will also be expected to guide the work of other mental health professionals and assistant/trainee psychologists. The model emphasises consultation alongside the service user, including their networks of services. Applicants would benefit from experience of multi-agency management of self-neglect, self-harm, violence and substance misuse. In addition, skills and experience of training, coaching and supervision to support other practitioners are a valued asset.

Main duties of the job

Clinically, you will be: offering targeted support to a small cohort of service users who have had repeated psychiatric admissions; supporting the professional and personal network around the service user; supervising junior staff; teaching and training MDT colleagues. The service is expanding across SLaM and this role also has a strong service development component, including: research and evaluation; developing and refining the existing service; supporting the development of new services; liaison and joint work with senior colleagues across the directorate and Trust.

• Working with repeat SUs across Lewisham Adult Mental Health Services
• Offering time-limited interventions:
  • Engaging highly complex service users; supporting them to reflect on their experiences of services and take a more active role in their care, and advocate for appropriate amendments to care
  • Developing specialist, trauma-informed formulations, centred around relationship to help
  • Engaging with carers and family
  • Co-producing multi-service/-agency crisis plans and interventions
• Consultation and liaison with teams and agencies across Lewisham
• Supporting, developing and evaluating Crisis Plus in conjunction with the Clinical Service Lead and Trust Lead for Crisis Plus
• Deputising for the Clinical Lead and representing Lewisham Crisis Plus across the directorate
• Supporting and directing the work of junior staff in the team (currently B5 Assistant Psychologists and B6 DClin Trainees)

About us

You will be based across a number of sites in Lewisham including two Community Mental Health bases (Speedwell and Churchdown) and the Ladywell unit, based in University Hospital Lewisham.

Some of our benefits are highlighted here:

• Generous pay, pensions and leave, we offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package which is dependent on the role and length of service.
• Work life balance, flexible working and support a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working and job sharing.
• Career development, we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes
• Car lease, our staff benefits from competitive deals to lease cars
• Accommodation, our staff benefits fromkeyworker housing available which is available on selected sites
• NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands though Health Service Discounts website.

Other benefits include:

• Counselling services
• Long service awards
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Staff restaurants

Our values: Kindness. Respect. Together.

Job responsibilities

The Crisis Plus model offers time-limited intervention to repeat users of crisis/acute pathways and the network of services, agencies and carers supporting that individual. Crisis Plus aims to reduce dependency on acute, crisis and emergency services through safe, reflective and assertive community treatment. Service users will primarily include individuals who have frequent or prolonged contact with inpatient, emergency and other acute/crisis services. Repeat users typically present with challenging and complex needs, including interpersonal trauma, high levels of distress/hopelessness, a range of diagnoses and an increased risk of harm to self and others. They are likely to have a history of difficult engagement/relationships with services, which makes them increasingly vulnerable to admission, which in turn can be traumatising and further impact on the relationship to/with help and services.

Clinical and Client Care

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the Lewisham Crisis Plus service including risk of harm to self and other and risk of those vulnerable to dependency on acute and crisis services.
• Knowledge and experience of using CBT/third wave models such as DBT/Open Dialogue and/or other evidence-based treatments in the management of personality disorder, psychosis and/or substance misuse.
• To ensure cultural context is considered/discussed and to provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with SUs and their carers/families.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically-informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team's or services delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To offer advice, consultation and training in Lewisham Crisis Plus planning and evidence-based interventions to other members of the service on the specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists with support from a more senior psychologist.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
• To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

Please see Job Description attached for full list of responsibilities. Please get in touch with CSL Dr Lucy Rands if you would like to hear more about the role: lucy.rands@slam.nhs.uk

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Entry-level qualification in Applied Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration. This can include Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychology or registered with BABCP as a CBT therapist.
• Additional training in a specialised area of psychological practice (such as any NICE and/or evidence base recommended psychological interventions for personality disorder such as DBT, MBT) through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma. (A/I)
• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC
• Completed training course in clinical supervision

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in community mental health services
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in community and acute mental health services
• Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists or CBT psychotherapists having completed the relevant training
• Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities
• Experience of carrying out post-doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects
• oExperience of delivering Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Open Dialogue, or trauma-focused models; or willingness to be trained in one of these models.
• Working across multiple services and agencies in relation to risk of harm to self and others
• Experience of working with service users who frequently present to acute and crisis services with multiple and complex risk presentations
• The Trust encourages and welcomes applications from people with lived experience of mental health challenges. We see this as valuable and recognise the positive impact this experience can have on the work we do

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for a range of diagnostic groups including personality disorder, psychosis and/or dual diagnosis
• Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment
• Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities
• Doctoral level / equivalent knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
• Understanding of principles around contingency management
• Understanding of principles of treatment in relation to personality disorder
• Understanding of the principles of DBT/Open Dialogue/trauma-focused models

Skills

• To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences
• To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources
• To skilfully and sensitively communicate complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues, overcoming barriers to communication including sensory and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to/rejection of information
• To be skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials
• Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups

Abilities

• Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings
• Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

£64,156 to £71,148 a yearper annum incl. HCAs

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time,Job share,Flexible working,Compressed hours