South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Principal Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Psychological Therapist
The closing date is 23 November 2026
Job summary
We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Principal Psychologist/Psychotherapist/Arts Psychotherapist/Family Therapist (Band 8b, 1.0 WTE, permanent) to join the Maudsley Adult Acute and Crisis Psychology and Psychotherapy Service. The person should already have extensive experience of working in acute and crisis services.

This role is split between the Southwark Home Treatment Team (HTT) and adult acute mental health wards. You will work with people experiencing severe and enduring mental health difficulties, including schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, psychosis, and personality disorder, often alongside trauma, self-harm, suicidality, and other complex challenges.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced clinician to contribute to high-quality psychological care across acute and crisis services.
Main duties of the job
You will provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations, and brief interventions for service users admitted to inpatient wards or supported by the Southwark HTT.

A key part of the role will be supporting multidisciplinary teams to deliver psychologically informed care, including the development of behavioural support and risk management plans. As a Principal Therapist, you will provide leadership and supervision to Junior Psychological Therapists, trainees, and Clinical Associate Psychologists.

You will deliver culturally responsive interventions for service users, carers, and families, and contribute to quality improvement, research, audit, and service development across the acute and crisis pathway.

This is a varied and rewarding role offering opportunities to further develop your clinical, leadership, and service development skills, supported by regular supervision and an experienced multidisciplinary team.
About us
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

By coming to work at our Trust, you will gain experience of being part of an organisation with a rich history and international reputation in mental health care. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field. The Trust delivered more than 14,000 training experiences in 2014: providing an extensive range of learning opportunities for staff at all levels. In addition, our working relationship with King's Health Partners allows those working at the Trust to get involved in academic research.
Details
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8b
Salary: £75,328 to £86,114 a year per annum inclusive of HCAS (Inner)
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 334-CLI-8366686
Job locations: The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, United Kingdom
Job responsibilities

• To develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of a psychological therapy service and personally provide highly specialist clinical input.
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist.
• To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of other psychological professionals in the service.
• To promote service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
• To work as an autonomous professional within registration body guidelines and codes of conduct, guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
• To support the coordination of staff support within their area, working closely with Corporate Psychology and Psychotherapy to support colleagues and ensure all staff in SLaM have access to evidence based support. To participate, as a recipient, in staff support work when appropriate.

Person Specification
Qualifications

• Essential: Entry-level qualification in an applied psychological profession and demonstrable practice in one of the roles below (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of one of the professional registrations below. (A/I) For Psychologists: Entry-level qualification in Applied Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration. (A/I) For Family / Systemic Psychotherapists: Masters level qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy or equivalent qualification, accredited by UKCP, with demonstrable practice in this field (A/I) For Adult Psychotherapists: A level 7 post-graduate (or equivalent) qualification or above in Psychotherapy ie Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or Masters. See What qualification levels mean: England, Wales and Northern Ireland - GOV.UK and experience in line with SCoPEd Column C Accreditation: SCoPEd Frameword January 2022 (amended 2025) (A/I) For Arts Psychotherapists: Masters Degree (or equivalent) in Arts Therapy that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration. (A/I) For CBT Psychotherapists: British Association for Behaviour and Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP) level 2 CBT qualification or equivalent that meets eligibility for BABCP accreditation as a CBT Psychotherapist (A/I) AND Registered with professional body as appropriate (see above) to discipline: HCPC/UKCP/BACP/BPC/BABCP. Adult Psychotherapy accreditation needs to be one of the following: 'Senior Accredited Member' with British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP), 'Psychotherapist' with UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), 'Psychotherapist' with British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) (no other categories of accreditation with these bodies will be accepted).
• Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a relevant specialised area of psychological practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of relevant specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of relevant supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher. (A/I)
• Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervised qualified psychological professionals in relevant discipline.

Experience

• Essential: Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in HTT and acute services.
• Essential: Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in HTT and acute services.
• Essential: Experience of supervising assistants and trainees having completed the relevant training.
• Essential: Experience of carrying out post-qualification research, audit or service evaluation projects.
• Essential: Experience of providing teaching and training to psychological professionals or other professional groups.
• Essential: Experience of working with, and addressing issues of, diversity, including experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Desirable: Record of publications in either peer reviewed, academic or professional journals/books.

Knowledge

• Essential: Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment.
• Essential: Knowledge of a range of therapeutic ideas/approaches models in assessment and treatment relevant to scope of practice.
• Essential: Knowledge of racial and other diversity issues and factors affecting access to mental health care.
• Essential: Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions relevant to this post.
• Desirable: To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to the service as appropriate.
• Desirable: Doctoral/MSc level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.

Skills

• Essential: To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• Essential: To plan allocation of tasks to assistants/trainees and junior staff as appropriate.
• Essential: Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups.
• Essential: Consultation skills to work with the multi-professional team or other professional groups and sensitively managing a number of people's needs simultaneously within the context of therapeutic work/consultation.
• Essential: Advanced skills in working with a number of clients and systems together, managing the highly complex emotional relationships within and between the component parts of the systems in ways which maximise the potential for therapeutic outcomes.

Abilities

• Essential: Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
• Essential: Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
• Essential: Ability to manage highly complex situations involving multiple difficulties, and competing/conflicting views about those difficulties; and to help create contexts that develop systemic engagement, and harness the strengths and abilities of those involved in order to work towards solutions.

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.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website. From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see the NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Address: The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.slam.nhs.uk/
Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Consultant Clinical Psychologist Hanne Jakobsen, hanne.jakobsen@slam.nhs.uk, 07914064699
Supporting documents
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