Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist
The closing date is 29 July 2026

Job summary
At Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional adult mental health care to the diverse communities across Swale and the beautiful surrounding Kent countryside.

We are a well-established, dynamic service that values collaboration, innovation, and clinical excellence. We believe in fostering an environment where our clinicians feel valued, supported, and empowered to do their best work.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and committed Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or Psychotherapist to join our team at a Band 7 level. If you are passionate about making a real difference in people's lives and want to grow alongside a fantastic group of professionals, we would love to meet you.

As a key member of our multidisciplinary team, you will provide high-quality psychological assessment and therapy to adults navigating complex mental health challenges.

Your day-to-day will involve:

• Delivering evidence-based psychological interventions tailored to individual client needs.
• Collaborating with a dynamic, supportive team of clinicians to ensure holistic care.
• Engaging in regular clinical supervision and contributing to the reflective practice of the wider team.
• Helping shape and develop our service to continually improve the care we offer to the Swale and Kent communities

Main duties of the job
You will have the opportunity to be involved in providing assessment and treatment (individual and group), participating in multidisciplinary staff development and supervision, enhancing the provision of psychological therapies for adult mental health, especially for patients with mood and anxiety disorders, and psychosis, service development and evaluation, and a take part in a monthly programme of continuing professional development.

You will also be part of services preparing for the Transformation, welcoming working together with our colleagues in VCSE HEE funded Training, and internal supervision will be available.

We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.

About us
We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.

Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.

Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's working well together.

Date posted: 15 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year per annum
Contract: Fixed term
Duration: 12 months
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 380-NK291
Job locations: Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital, Sittingbourne
Bell Road, Sittingbourne, ME10 4DT, United Kingdom

Job description
Job responsibilities
The post holders will be based at the Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital, within the Medway & Swale Psychological Therapies service which includes psychological clinicians of several disciplines, The Swale Psychological Therapies service works closely and in collaboration with the Swale Community Mental Health team as integrated services to provide a comprehensive service to adults with complex and longstanding mental health conditions and emotional difficulties.

The post holders will join a supportive and diverse psychological therapies service with 5 clinicians from clinical psychology, psychodynamic and Arts psychotherapy.

We have strong links with the South Thames Clinical Psychology Training Centre in Tunbridge Wells, attached to Christ Church University in Canterbury and our service is in the process if offering an annual rotation of both first and third year trainees on placement who join our service. These links also provide access to a wide variety of post-qualification training courses and events.

To deliver an effective service it is essential that you are able to travel within the locality in a timely manner. A car is not essential but desirable. Train and bus routes to and from Swale are within walking distance.

The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Job responsibilities
The post holders will be based at the Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital, within the Medway & Swale Psychological Therapies service which includes psychological clinicians of several disciplines, The Swale Psychological Therapies service works closely and in collaboration with the Swale Community Mental Health team as integrated services to provide a comprehensive service to adults with complex and longstanding mental health conditions and emotional difficulties.

The post holders will join a supportive and diverse psychological therapies service with 5 clinicians from clinical psychology, psychodynamic and Arts psychotherapy.

We have strong links with the South Thames Clinical Psychology Training Centre in Tunbridge Wells, attached to Christ Church University in Canterbury and our service is in the process if offering an annual rotation of both first and third year trainees on placement who join our service. These links also provide access to a wide variety of post-qualification training courses and events.

To deliver an effective service it is essential that you are able to travel within the locality in a timely manner. A car is not essential but desirable. Train and bus routes to and from Swale are within walking distance.

The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Person Specification
Experience & Training, Qualifications and Registration
Essential

• Achieved Qualifications, Training and Registrations as per the Job Description
• Experience in Secondary Care
• Experience of group work
• Experience delivering interventions for SMI, in particular anxiety disorders and psychosis
• Ability to overcome psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.

Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Ability to analyse and manage complex multi-factorial clinical information from a range of sources integrating it into a formulation utilising a variety of psychological perspectives.
• Ability to organise own workload effectively, prioritising a complex range of tasks and responsibilities to meet agreed deadlines

Experience & Training, Qualifications and Registration
Essential

• Achieved Qualifications, Training and Registrations as per the Job Description
• Experience in Secondary Care
• Experience of group work
• Experience delivering interventions for SMI, in particular anxiety disorders and psychosis
• Ability to overcome psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.

Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Ability to analyse and manage complex multi-factorial clinical information from a range of sources integrating it into a formulation utilising a variety of psychological perspectives.
• Ability to organise own workload effectively, prioritising a complex range of tasks and responsibilities to meet agreed deadlines

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
Address: Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital, Sittingbourne, Bell Road, Sittingbourne, ME10 4DT, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.kentmedwaymentalhealth.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Lead for North Kent Psychological Therapies, Nicola Pantony, nicola.pantony1@nhs.net, 01795508223

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.