Family Therapist

at  Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

We are specialist child and adolescent mental health that who support children and young people up to the age of 18 years old experiencing moderate to severe eating disorders.
Our team includes consultant psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses and social workers, family therapists, dietitians and administrators. The service has focused on delivering timely access to assessment and evidence-based treatment for children and young people with anorexia nervosa and moderate to severe bulimia and binge eating disorder.
We offer specialist, family based approaches, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive analytical therapy, motivational interviewing and guided self-help. In addition, we are expanding to include an intensive home meal support provision to allow children and young people to remain in the community for treatment and avoid or delay admission to specialist units and acute hospitals.
Treatment involves specialist eating disorder assessment and participation in planned treatment programmes, including individual work, family work, family meals and support around managing difficulties linked with eating linked to specialist dietetic input.
To provide a qualified highly specialist systemic family therapy service to clients of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CAMHS across all sectors of care. This post provides a systemic overview of the family approach to the treatment of complex mental health disorders, specialising in eating disorders. The post-holder will be responsible for co-ordinating, developing and delivering a variety of family and systemic interventions. These interventions are highly specialised, reflecting an expectation that the service will continue to develop innovative practices that are based on collaboration between clinicians, service users and carers, and commissioners of the service. The post holder will be responsible for this process by researching new practices, understanding and applying evidence-based approaches both in relation to family treatments and in the involvement of service users and carers.
The post-holder will be expected to offer advice and consultation on clients’ care to all colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures. The post does not have any budgetary responsibilities.
The post holder will also be accountable for their own professional actions and will need to interpret broad occupational policies (i.e. commitment to a family approach to treatment, involving service users and carers at all levels of treatment and service development).
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
1. Models behaviours that treat others with dignity, respect and compassion.
2. Listens actively and respectfully to others (active listening, nodding, eye contact).
3. Identifies and challenges unacceptable practice of peers and colleagues respectfully, and takes appropriate action to resolve.
4. Improves the quality of services e.g. someone is waiting, I will ask them if they have been seen etc.
5. Treats individuals with respect and kindness (eye contact, smiling etc.)
6. Works in partnership and collaboration with others; respects their rights and promotes equality at all times.
7. Responds to an individual’s situation, needs and preferences, and does not stereo type people
8. Develops trust with service users and colleagues through delivering what they say they will and having a flexible approach to their work

1. Responsible for the delivery of a full range of family treatments to all patients. These treatments may include the following systemic psychotherapy interventions;

• Conjoint family therapy (all family members present in the room at the same time, plus patient and other members of multi-disciplinary team).
• Separated family therapy (i.e. parental counselling and individual systemic counselling running in parallel).
• Multi-family group therapy

1. The post holder is expected to participate in assessments of patients referred for treatment and to consult to multi-disciplinary and multi-agency colleagues regarding the family treatment component of each patient’s care. Assessment of family interactions and formulating how these are connected to diagnostic factors will be a key component of the post, influencing the direction of treatment and recommendations for appropriate family interventions

• Conjoint family therapy (all family members present in the room at the same time, plus patient and other members of multi-disciplinary team).
• Separated family therapy (i.e. parental counselling and individual systemic counselling running in parallel).
• Multi-family group therap