Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

at  Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust

East Sussex Looked After Children’s Mental Health Service (LACMHS) Band 8a Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
The East Sussex LACMHS team are excited to be able to advertise this post for an enthusiastic and innovative Specialist Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist to join us in delivering and developing psychotherapy across our care pathways. The committed multidisciplinary teams based within East Sussex working with children up to18 and their carers with the full range of presenting mental health difficulties and include child psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, psychotherapists and social workers.
The team hosts trainee child psychotherapists and anticipates that this role will include the service supervision of one or more trainees, alongside providing individual or group supervision to other qualified CAPT’s. There is a hope to extend the service to host assistant psychotherapists in the future.
The post holder will be responsible for receiving and assessing internal referrals for consultation and specialist psychodynamic psychotherapy in LACMHS, and for providing treatment for some of the most complex children and young people. Child psychotherapists have a dedicated role in offering STPP as a core treatment for adolescents experiencing depression, in working with children who are suffering cPTSD consequent on early life trauma, and in engaging and assessing high risk treatment resistant young people.
Initial assessments, brief work, work with parents, group work and consultation to networks of professionals are also offered by the child psychotherapy, alongside traditional longer term interventions with individual children and young people. SPFT welcomes innovation and creativity in a context of high quality governance and finite resources, so that there will be opportunity for group initiatives, research and care pathway development commensurate with the successful applicant’s interests, skills and experience.
We are a large NHS Mental Health Trust in South East England and are looking for people to help us provide high quality services for the patients, carers and local communities that we serve.
We want patients and staff to recommend our organisation as a place where they would be happy for their friends and family to be treated. You can help us to do this by bringing your skills, experience and commitment to Sussex Partnership.
What colleagues say about working for SPFT as a child psychotherapist …
…. a team of stimulating, supportive, warm, reflexive practitioners that appreciate psychoanalytic thinking …
… SPFT is a really friendly working environment, colleagues are welcoming, down-to-earth and dedicated …
… lovely supportive team; lots of opportunity for creativity and innovation with young people from a diverse range of backgrounds …
… I really enjoy being able to work with such interesting children and young people - families who wouldn’t access this kind of work anywhere else …
You will be accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapists and have at least 2 years’ post qualifying experience.
The successful psychotherapist will be fully supported by our ’New to CAMHS training’, local leadership and our team of child and adolescent psychotherapists. We value and protect our time to think together, to share learning experiences, theoretical practice and work together on new models of care and development. Clinical Supervision is currently provided by the Lead of Child Psychotherapy.
Person Specification
Recognised postgraduate level training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy conferring eligibility for full membership of the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
Professionally registered with the Association of Child Psychotherapists
Evidence of relevant continuing professional development.
Extensive experience of delivering specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy (assessment, formulation and treatment) maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
A high level of competence in applying a child psychotherapy to complex difficulties and a proven track record of delivering positive outcomes in this therapy
Substantial experience in mental health gained during and/or after child psychotherapy training.
Experience of offering teaching, training and supervision within a demanding organisational context.
Experience of delivering group interventions
Experience of representing psychoanalytic psycho therapy within the context of multi-disciplinary care within a complex organisational context.
Experience of the application of child psychotherapy in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation and intervention frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
Ability to work within a large geographical area effectively, managing travel arrangements and using creative working solutions.
Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings

Please refer the Job description for details