Senior Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Newnham, DaventryView on map(opens Google Maps in a new tab)
Salary
£14,560
Contract
Not specified
Hours
Full time
Closing date
Not specified
Job description
Join our Gender Identity Service as a Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist.
We are looking for a dedicated and compassionate Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join our multidisciplinary Gender Identity Service at NHFT. You’ll play a key role in delivering specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for transgender and gender diverse adults. You will be working within NHS England guidelines to support individuals throughout their transition pathway. As part of an Outstanding-rated Trust, you’ll contribute to high‑quality, person‑centred care while collaborating closely with colleagues across psychology, psychiatry, speech and language therapy, nursing and peer support.
This role offers the opportunity to develop advanced clinical skills, contribute to service development and research, supervise trainees and assistants, and help shape an evolving national service. If you’re motivated by meaningful, values‑driven work and want to make a real difference in people’s lives, we’d love to hear from you.
We are able to support a band 7 preceptorship to the right candidate with the expectation that within 12-months you move up into the band 8a.
Provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and evidence‑based interventions for adults accessing the Gender Identity Service.
Develop and implement psychologically informed treatment plans, drawing on multiple therapeutic models and complex clinical information.
Offer consultation, advice and guidance to multidisciplinary colleagues, contributing to shared formulations, risk assessments and care planning.
Work autonomously, holding clinical responsibility for assessment, treatment and discharge within a multidisciplinary pathway.
Deliver supervision to Trainee and Assistant Psychologists and support the wider team’s psychological practice.
Contribute to service development, including audit, research, and quality improvement.
Participate in ongoing professional development, maintain high standards of clinical record‑keeping and uphold relevant legislation, guidelines and professional codes.
Working for our organisation
NHFT is an NHS Community and Mental Health Foundation Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in hospital settings and in the community. We provide over 200 services across the county - as well as some specialist services in bordering and nearby counties. We work together with our partners to ensure that everyone who comes through our doors receives compassionate, person-centred care, regardless of their background or circumstances.
NHFT promotes a culture of learning, to improve the care and safety of our patients and colleagues. We have achieved our ‘outstanding’ rating by encouraging opportunity, innovation, development and growth across our workforce.
At NHFT we believe that work should be rewarded in every sense which is why we are proud to an accredited living wage employer.
We aim to support financial wellbeing and create an environment where are people feel valued and able to thrive.
This post would suit someone who is wishing to develop their skills and knowledge of working with transgender and gender diverse clients who are experiencing gender-related distress to the Gender Specialist standard.
As part of this role there would be an expectation of completing the 'Professional Certificate for Gender Identity Healthcare Professionals' developed by NHS England and the Royal College of Physicians, alongside other CPD relevant to working with gender, sex and relationship diversity, and neurodiversity.
Experience of working with LGBTQ+ communities, neurodivergence and trauma would be advantageous however training and support will be given.
- A reflective practitioner
- Strong prioritisation and problem-solving skills
- Able to demonstrate empathy with clients and to cope with emotionally disturbing situations and case histories
- Demonstrable and excellent communication skills – written, verbal and presentation
- Approachable to the MDT and stakeholders that we work in collaboration with
- Self-motivated and conscientious
- Strong professional demeanour
- Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology as accredited by the BPS with HCPC registration.
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development as recommended by the BPS.
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course, including presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity.
- Able to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Knowledge of trauma-informed care and anti-oppressive practice
- Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a Clinical Psychologist over a minimum of 12 months
Or ability to obtain these are part of a band 7 preceptorship
- Formal training in the supervision of other psychologists
- Post-doctoral training working gender, sex and relationship diversity
- Completion of the 'Professional Certificate for Gender Identity Healthcare Professionals'
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management, with frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, such as orally and in writing, sharing complex and 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.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
- Basic IT and keyboard skills
- Able to attend the clinic in person 3-days per week, or as agreed with the Principal Psychologist.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Experience delivering group interventions.
- Experience of patient involvement and co-production activities.
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Knowledge of the psychological and healthcare needs of transgender and gender diverse clients such as from experience of working with client’s experiencing gender dysphoria, and/or or completion of doctoral research within this area.
- Knowledge and experience of working with neurodivergent clients such those who are autistic or have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- Further training in working with neurodivergent clients e.g., assessment and/or intervention.
- Awareness of the Levy report (2025) and its recommendations.
- Good understanding of quality improvement practices and their application within NHS settings.
- Knowledge of relevant standards and guidelines for working with gender diverse clients, including the NHS England Interim Protocol, BPS guidelines, Royal College of Psychiatrists guidelines and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health Standards of Care.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to this client group, e.g. Gender Recognition Act (2004).
By completing an application you are giving authorisation for the transfer of your data. In submitting an application form, you authorise us to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process. Including factual reference, occupational health clearance and statutory and mandatory training records and full service history.
You must ensure that your application, including supporting statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.
Correspondence regarding your application will be sent to you via a TRAC system account.
Please submit your application as soon as possible; due to the high volumes of applications we receive we reserve the right to close any adverts before the closing date once we have received sufficient applications.
We are an equal opportunities employer, which aims to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons from all backgrounds.
All roles are subject to the home office immigration rules and therefore eligibility must meet certain requirements for any sponsorship to be considered. Please visit the government website for more information regarding eligibility,
At NHFT we support many of our colleagues to work flexibly and we will consider requests for flexible working from day one. For this role, we are open to discussing a range of options including flexible hours, agile/home working, compressed hours and part time hours. Please have a conversation with the recruiting manager about the flexibility you need and we will promise to explore what is possible with you.
Applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria for the job will be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. If you require a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process please make the recruitment services team aware as soon as possible.
All posts that are engaged in a regulated activity will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and a DBS re-check on a three yearly basis whilst employed in such a role. Staff employed in these posts will therefore be asked to register with the DBS Automatic Update Service upon receipt of their DBS certificate and must update yearly , the annual fee will be reimbursed subject to Trust policy. For further information please visit: DBS Update Service: applicant guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Please note if a DBS is applicable for the position then a charge will be deducted from your first salary.
Please note that all new starters to the trust are subject to a probationary period.
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Provenance
Source
Adzuna
First seen
4 November 2026
Last checked
12 November 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 Adzuna. Vacancy details and the application process remain the responsibility of the original source.
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