Complex PTSD Psychologist/Psychological Therapist

Transformationunitgm; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - GBP 80,000; Full time

Job description

Main area Complex PTSD Psychologist/Psychological Therapist Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 455-NLFT-0572-A

Employer North London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site St Ann's Hospital Town London Salary £53,751 - £60,651 per annum inclusive of Outer London HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 01/03/2026 23:59

Complex PTSD Psychologist/Psychological Therapist

Band 7

Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
• Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

As a values‑driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high‑quality care.

Job overview

*This post is primarily advertised as a secondment in NLFT - however the type of contract may be expanded based on applications received and length of time may be extendable subject to further negotiations*

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work within the Complex PTSD Pathway, which sits in the wider Complex Emotional Needs Pathway in Haringey. We are looking for a qualified clinician who can offer evidence-based group and individual trauma focused psychological interventions.

The cPTSD Pathway offers specialised trauma focused therapy for adults presenting with complex PTSD. We offer a phase-based treatment pathway whereby service users are first invited to a psychoeducation and symptom management group and later to individual trauma-focussed therapy. As a service we offer EMDR and Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), integrating Compassion Focused/3rd wave ideas and ways of working.

All clinicians receive individual supervision, as well as regular group supervision for specialist trauma-focused work. We will support applications for funding for further training necessary for the role, e.g. EMDR training. Prior experience of working with clients with PTSD is desirable, but we also welcome applications from clinicians with an enthusiasm to learn trauma-focused ways of working who have relevant experience with other client groups.

The cPTSD pathway is a small and friendly team and we strive to support one another to provide high quality care for our service users.

Main duties of the job

The duties of the post holder will include:

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the provision of a high-quality trauma-informed and trauma-focused assessments and therapies. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; psychoeducation and stabilization groups and evidence based trauma-focused therapies.
• Working closely alongside other CPTSD colleagues; cofacilitating groups, contributing to team meetings and formulations, and offering informal peer support and supervision where appropriate.
• As a team member both of the CPTSD Pathway and the wider Core team, the post-holder will be expected to work collaboratively with our wider colleagues, adding trauma-informed perspectives to team formulations and meetings.
• The post-holder will supervise other junior staff as appropriate - this may include doctoral trainees and assistant psychologists.
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.

Working for our organisation

Why choose to join the North London NHS Foundation Trust?

We believe that by working together, our Trust can achieve more for the residents of North Central London and our patients than we can by working apart.

1. We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.

2. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all

3. We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

4. We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.

Why NLFT?

· Transforming and creating a positive environment for our service users, staff and visitors.

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave allowance and NHS pension scheme
• We have excellent internal staff network support groups.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

The duties of the post holder will include:

• The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality trauma-informed and trauma-focused assessments and therapies. This will involve undertaking psychological assessments; psychoeducation and stabilisation groups and evidence based trauma-focused therapies.
• Working closely alongside other cPTSD pathway colleagues; cofacilitating groups, contributing to team meetings, joining team formulation meetings and offering informal peer support and supervision where appropriate.
  
  
• The post-holder will provide specialist psychological assessment, treatment and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to non-professional carers working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.
  
  
• The post-holder will supervise psychological assessment and therapy provided by doctoral trainees, assistant psychologists and other junior staff.
  
  
• The post-holder will provide training, supervision and support to other clinical members of the team, who provide psychologically based care and treatment.
  
  
• The post-holder will be expected to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychology practice within the service/team.
  
  
• The post-holder will utilise skills for research and audit and contribute to policy and service development, in relation to the cPTSD Pathway and in collaboration with the wider team

Person specification

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

• Doctoral level training or equivalent in Clinical or Counselling Psychology including two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS OR Comparable experience and relevant therapeutic training with accredited qualification from a recognised body.
• Registration with the Health Professions Council as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist OR Registration with another appropriate membership body, depending on core profession
• Training and experience in Trauma focused model of therapy (particularly, EMDR and Narrative Exposure Therapy)
• Speaks of wanting to work in trauma as a deliberate career choice, conveys passion and enthusiasm for the work in their personal statement and evidences in their job choices/thesis etc.

EXPERIENCE

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including community and inpatient settings and experience of working with complex PTSD.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course 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.
• Experience of offering trauma focussed therapy with patients with complex PTSD presentations particularly those with adult experience of torture or domestic violence and/or with childhood histories of abuse or neglect
• Experience of working with refugee and asylum seekers and of providing therapy with the aid of interpreters
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of the application of clinical/counselling psychology in different cultural contexts

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, 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.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to contain, explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision of other staff.
• Able to speak a second language E.g. Turkish speaking.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult groups who may find therapies more difficult to access (e.g. dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities, people with neurodiversity etc).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health

OTHER

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• 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.
• Willing to undertake clinical supervision training sufficient to be able to supervise doctoral trainees.
• Personal experience of mental health problems and/or experience of receiving personal therapy.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for the next stage.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome. Please ensure you hold the correct right to work in the UK at the time of your application. Some roles may not be eligible for sponsorship, and we want to make sure you have all the information you need before applying.To avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI guidelines: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under‑represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.

As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Dr Nick Hearn Job title Principal Clinical Psychologist, CPTSD Lead Email address [emailprotected] Telephone number 02087026210