Systemic Family Therapist

at  Oxfordshire County Council

ABOUT US

How about joining our new Community Family Clinic initiative as part of a vibrant and innovative team composed of Clinical Psychologists, a Counselling Psychologist, Family Therapists, a Consultant Psychiatrist, Psychological Family practitioners, an Occupational Therapist and highly experienced outdoor specialists?
We are expanding the offer for children, young people and families in Oxfordshire with an innovative Community Family Clinic initiative where you will be working with other Clinical Psychologists, Family Therapists and Psychological Family Practioners. This is a team with a strong value base who will fully support you. We want people in our team to thrive in what they do, so they can be the best professionals supporting the children and families we work with.
Oxfordshire County Council values the role Family Therapists can play in supporting families during times of crises. Over the past eight years our team has more than quadrupled in numbers, developed very interesting tools, published papers and worked closely with colleagues in the UK and Europe. Our outdoor therapeutic centre with mountain bikes, canoes, camping equipment and Land rovers located by the river at a central Oxford location offers an opportunity for truly innovative work. We are also very lucky to have monthly reflective practice with Arlene Vetere who also offers systemic supervision to our trainees. In addition, Oxfordshire County Council is an outstanding employer and offers very generous work conditions (agenda for change salary and a generous pension and relocation package amongst others).

ABOUT YOU

We are looking forward to welcoming a motivated Systemic Family Therapist who is committed to enable and promote positive change in people’s lives. Someone enthusiastic and compassionate who works well with others and that will enhance our team. Your interest in learning from ongoing experience will be demonstrated on how you use evidence base to correlate to new learning. We use formulation as our entry point to all interventions, so your ability to remain curious and open to what a presentation might represent as well as what could be the most effective intervention with someone is very important to us.
We believe that families can be helped and that we can play a role is supporting parents to achieve their best potential so family breakdown can be prevented.

As a Systemic Family Therapist, you will benefit from the input from highly regarded Dr Arlene Vetere, who provides reflective practice to our team and systemic case supervision to our trainees which you would be able to attend. You will also be provided with systemic supervision by a Family Therapist within our team.
In this specific role, you will be working as part of our Clinical Team working with, and alongside, the Family Solutions Service, providing family therapy for families that have been identified as in need of this specific support. You will be working in a sub-team of the Clinical Team with a Clinical Psychologist and a Psychological Family Practitioner in the north of the county. There are two other similar sub-teams in the south and central part of the county. The three teams form the Family Clinical Offer to the Family Solutions Services. The three teams will come together to plan and review strategies as well as for reflective practice. The FSS consists of the Family Help and Statutory Teams who provide support to vulnerable children and their birth families to reduce safeguarding concerns and improve life chances for children aged between 0 and 19.
This role offers you extensive opportunity to develop your therapeutic skills by working with a varied range of needs and experiences, including working with families, couples, adults and children, as well as supporting staff teams with advise and participating in the delivery of training. In addition to your colleagues working in the family solutions subteams, you will be very much part of the wider Clinical Team attending weekly meetings and will be able to draw upon a wide range of experienced team members who offer innovative interventions to help meet the diverse and often complex needs of this population, including providing specialist assessments and interventions This includes the opportunity to build on the team’s research and publication in this area of work. We have published papers related to our learnings related to consultations with teams. Most recently we have contributed with a chapter on a upcoming book on the issue of safety and protection from danger within residential children’s homes.
We would also be keen to meet with you to explore any specific skills and experience that you might bring and wish to further develop in your role.