CBT Therapist

Brent Talking Therapies Service is located in the diverse London borough of Brent. We are looking for CBT therapists to join our committed team and have an interest in working in working with diverse communities. You will offer CBT interventions for anxiety disorders and depression, provide clinical supervision to our Step 2 team, have access to professional development and training opportunities, and special interest pathways including long-term heath conditions, perinatal mental health and wellbeing, and community outreach work. We are looking for applicants who have enthusiasm for working in a primary care setting and enjoy variety within their work. Wellbeing is important within our service and we are a collaborative and cohesive team.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

You will hold a Step 3 caseload and offer CBT treatment for anxiety disorders and/or depression either face-to-face or digitally. You will be involved with our duty team, have regular clinical supervision/line management supervision from a senior clinician, and benefit from peer support/guidance from other team members. You will supervise our Step 2 team of trainee and qualified psychological wellbeing practitioners, and opportunities to supervisor trainee clinical psychologists and CBT therapy trainees. The ability to deliver therapy in local languages is desirable.

This post would be suitable for experienced practitioners or newly qualified CBT therapists. In order to be shortlisted for this post, applicants must be BABCP accredited or have attended a BABCP accredited CBT training course and working towards their accreditation. Applicants who are within 3 months of completion of CBT training will also be considered provided they meet shortlisting criteria and can demonstrate that they are on target to complete their course requirements, including passing assignments and having the required number of clinical and supervision hours (this will be checked at interview).

The post holder will be expected to participate in extended hours clinics offered by the service which include evening clinics.

The catchment area of the post is the London borough of Brent. The main hub for the service is based at Fairfields House in Kingsbury and there is a satellite hub at Bell House in Willesden Green. You will be required to work across both hubs and in other parts of the borough, e.g. GP surgeries and community settings.

We operate an agile working policy where staff combine remote working and being on-site to deliver face-to-face appointments and other service commitments that require a hub-based presence. The post-holder will work full-time hours and may be required to work at any times between 8am and 8pm on weekdays including an evening clinic as required by the service.

Benefits of working for Brent include:

• Brent Talking Therapies Service has close links with the CNWL Talking Therapies teams and there are opportunities for further development.
• We are able to offer training in other models of care such as BCT and MBCT.
• Our clinicians also have opportunities to develop in their area of interest, e.g. LTC, perinatal, young adults, older adults, outreach/community work, and LGBTQ+
• 27 days of annual leave, plus bank holidays, with an increase to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS discount
• Opportunities for career progression
• If you would like to see what it's like to work for CNWL please have a look athttps://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/work

CLINICAL

• Provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessment of patients referred to Brent Talking Therapies Service for CBT, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of quantitative and qualitative sources including self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients and others involved with their care. Ensure the outcome of assessment is communicated to the referring agent and other professionals involved. Determine suitability of the approach and refer on unsuitable individuals to appropriate agencies and/or provide advice, including psycho-education, as appropriate.
• Formulate and implement plans for the specialist psychotherapeutic treatment and/or management of patient’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of those problems derived from a broad theoretical knowledge of cognitive behaviour therapy, and employing methods based upon evidence of proven efficacy within modality. It is expected that the postholder will treat patients across the range of severity.
• Be responsible for implementing a range of specialist CBT interventions for individual patients and groups, adjusting and refining psychotherapeutic formulations as practice and experience demand, and drawing upon different explanatory models and objective cognitive behaviour therapy measures to maintain a number of provisional hypothesis. Whilst maintaining ethical and legal standards.
• Comply with caseload and set activity requirements which include number of contacts and recovery rates, for a CBT post as per IAPT national guidelines and Local IAPT implementation board.
• Regular and prompt entry of clinical data relating to patients on caseload and make it available for supervision and for the patient as required.
• Regularly monitor and evaluate therapy programmes and progress, using objective measures where appropriate, and communicate this to referring agent and other professionals involved as appropriate.
• Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, developmental and cultural processes and systems, which have shaped the individual.
• Include family members and others involved in clients’ problems in therapy programmes, where necessary.
• Assess and deliver therapy programmes in the community or GP Surgery and other settings within the service, as necessary.
• Discharging patients as appropriate and arrange follow-up as appropriate on completion of therapy. Ensure outcome and follow-up of treatment is communicated to the referring agent and other professional involved as appropriate.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, discharge and onward referral of patients whose problems are managed by psychotherapeutic interventions.
• Assess and manage clinical risk to self and others. Involve other agencies as appropriate.
• Adhere to BABCP, HCPC BPS and other relevant professional codes of conduct, policy and guidance.
• Maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data-entry and recording, report writing for the purposes of personally generated clinical, audit, teaching and research information.
• Exercise responsibility for professional self-governance in accordance with the HCPC, BPS and BABCP and other relevant professional codes of practice and conduct and Trust policies and procedures.
• Develop and maintain knowledge of local resources and relationships with relevant statutory, voluntary and community groups and organisations.
• Develop and propose innovative responses to identified needs of the diverse and multi-cultural community the service serves in collaboration and consultation with colleagues from CNWL Talking Therapies Brent Service and other relevant teams and agencies.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• To maintain relevant professional registration and BABCP accreditation.
• To maintain CPD portfolios and to attend in-house and external CPD activity as appropriate as agreed with the manager
• To fulfil responsibilities towards the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
• To comply with HCPC, BABCP and other relevant professional Codes of Practice.