Clinical/Counselling Psychologist
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust
Reading, RG30 4EJView on map(opens Google Maps in a new tab)
Salary
£49,387 to £56,515
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Not specified
Closing date
26 October 2026
7 days leftJob description
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to work on an adult acute psychiatric inpatient ward as part of the Mental ...
Work on allocated adult acute mental health ward
Offer psychological consultation to hospital staff (e.g. team formulation, teaching sessions, joint working, supervision and staff support groups).
Supervise Assistant Psychologist.
Clinical work with service users and carers involving assessment (including behavioural support assessments), formulation and interventions with varied and complex mental health presentations.
Contribute to service improvement initiatives in a ward/community team, as well as contributing to projects arising from the Inpatients Psychological Therapies Team.
The 5 must haves for you to be considered for this role:
Postgraduate doctoral qualification in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or equivalent)
You will have experience working with adults and/or older adults with complex mental health problems and have excellent therapeutic and management skills.
You will enjoy working in teams and providing psychological consultation, teaching and supervision.
Calm, confident and assertive in emotionally demanding situations, you will be astute at setting and maintaining professional boundaries and will be efficient at dealing with distressing or hostile situations and behaviour.
Self-motivated and confident, you will show initiative and a determination to support clients and their families through creative engagement. This includes an ability to work integratively in your clinical work.
Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, its important that examples and responses given in your supporting statement genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.
In addition to explaining how you meet the person specification, you must complete your employment history for at least the last five years. Any experience, skills or responsibilities referenced in your supporting statement should be evidenced within your employment history. Applications that do not include sufficient employment history to support the experience claimed may not be shortlisted.
Were committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Stonewall Proud Employer, Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.
We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don't hesitate to call: Catherine Evans-Jones on 0118 605186 or email: catherine.evansjones@berkshire.nhs.uk who'll be delighted to help. Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated 'outstanding' by the CQC, we're committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire. As an employer, we're committed to offering an inclusive and compassionate environment where our people share in a sense of belonging and are supported to flourish.
- Caring for and about you is our top priority
- Committed to providing good quality, safe services
- Working Together with you to develop innovative solutions
Your wellbeing is important to us. Some of the benefits of working for us include:
- Flexible working options to support work-life balance
- 27 days' annual leave rising with service + opportunity to buy and sell
- Generous NHS pension scheme
- Excellent learning and career development opportunities
- 'Cycle to Work' and car leasing scheme including electric vehicles
- Access to a range of wellbeing tools and services
- Discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants
- Staff networks for race, diversity, disabilities, the environment and armed forces community to support equality
- Generous maternity, paternity, adoption and special leave
- Free parking across Trust sites
Education/Qualifications/Training
Essential
- Postgraduate doctorate in clinical or counselling psychology (or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996 or for those who completed their training overseas)
- Registered as a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- (Eligibility for) Chartered Membership of British Psychological Society (BPS)
Desirable
- Additional training and accreditations (or working towards these) in relevant therapeutic approaches or psychological models to reflect post qualification interests/ specialism (e.g., specific therapy models and accreditations, Health Psychology, Neuropsychology etc).
Continuous Professional Development
Essential
- Evidence of training and/or interest and knowledge in psychological models or therapeutic approaches relevant to the post
- Commitment to continuing professional development as recommended by the relevant accrediting body
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working in evidence-based ways with services users (and their carers/families) presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the range of settings, 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 dealing with highly distressing or emotional circumstances, such as serious mental illness, child and sexual abuse, exploitation, and complex family dynamics
- Experience of working effectively in a multi-disciplinary team and multi-agency environments
- Experience of service development and carrying out clinical audits, evaluative research and applying the findings
- Experience of working with, and addressing, issues of diversity, including experience of working with diversity, multiculturalism, and equality of access to the service
Desirable: - Experience of delivering teaching and training to staff; - Experience of providing clinical supervision, mentoring and structured guidance to other staff
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
Essential
- Demonstrable knowledge, skills and abilities in the practice of assessment, formulation and intervention, relevant to the specialist modality and service area
- Knowledge and understanding of service evaluation, audit and research and how to undertake these activities in an NHS context, including how to implement learning
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, complex, technical and/or sensitive information to service users, their carers/families and other professional colleagues, both within and outside of an NHS setting
- Well-developed interpersonal skills, with the ability to support, influence and engage with clinicians, stakeholders and service users to create change and improvement
- The ability and skills to act as an advocate for the service, to engage and foster positive relationships with all health professionals in promoting the good integration of the service within the wider health care system
- Advanced IT skills and the ability to navigate various systems and software packages (such as RiO, Outlook, databases, MS Office/Teams, One Consultation and the Internet)
Additional Requirements
Essential
- Able to work flexibly around working patterns as required
- Ability to travel independently between locations in Berkshire to fulfil the requirements and duties of the position
How to apply
Applications are handled entirely by the employer on the original advert. We do not collect CVs, supporting statements or application data.
Provenance
Source
NHS Jobs
First seen
19 October 2026
Last checked
19 October 2026
Salary, closing date and description are taken from the employer's advert. The original advert always takes precedence.
About the employer
NHS organisation
This listing was structured from NHS Jobs. Vacancy details and the application process remain the responsibility of the original source.
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