Job Title: Arts Psychotherapist - Essex
Location: Essex, East
Salary: £37,969 - £45,418 dependent on experience plus £1,250 Essex Allowance
Contract basis: Full Time
Contractual hours per week: 37.5

Salary: £37,969 - £45,418 dependent on experience plus £1,250 Essex Allowance
Location: Basildon, Essex
Contract: Full Time
9-12 month fixed term contract

Transform Lives Through Creativity
We are seeking a compassionate, innovative, and highly skilled Arts Psychotherapist to join our multidisciplinary team within our Essex Hospital. This is an exciting new opportunity for Essex, offering the chance to shape and grow an emerging service that will make a real difference to the lives of our patients and have a chance to step into a position where your clinical expertise directly influences patient flow, discharge progression and length of stay.

St Andrew’s is a charity specialising in complex mental health. Its mission is to help people with complex mental health needs transform their lives.

With its history dating back nearly two centuries, St Andrew’s today is undergoing significant change to deliver on its mission for years to come.

St Andrew’s has hospitals in Birmingham and Essex, with its base in Northampton. It delivers inpatient and outpatient services, as well as dedicated care services for adults.

This is a rewarding opportunity to work with adults experiencing complex mental health needs, personality disorders, trauma, and forensic histories within a secure care setting. Through creative therapeutic interventions, you will support patients in exploring emotions, developing coping strategies, improving self-awareness, and progressing on their recovery journey.

As part of a well-established clinical team, you will work collaboratively alongside Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Nurses, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, and other Allied Health Professionals to deliver high-quality, patient-centred care.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver specialist arts psychotherapy assessments and interventions to individuals and groups within a secure inpatient environment.
• Develop, implement, and evaluate treatment plans tailored to individual patient needs.
• Facilitate a range of creative therapeutic approaches, including art, drama, music, or movement psychotherapy, depending on your professional registration.
• Contribute to multidisciplinary case discussions, risk assessments, and care planning processes.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and outcome measures in line with professional and organisational standards.
• Support patients in addressing trauma, emotional regulation, interpersonal difficulties, and recovery goals.
• Provide consultation and guidance to colleagues on the therapeutic value of creative interventions.
• Ensure all practice is delivered within the framework of safeguarding, security, governance, and professional ethics.

About You
To be successful in this role, you will have:
Essential

• HCPC registration as an Arts Psychotherapist.
• Recognised qualification in Art Psychotherapy, Drama Psychotherapy, Music Therapy, or equivalent.
• Experience working with adults experiencing complex mental health needs.
• Ability to facilitate both individual and group therapeutic interventions.
• Excellent communication, assessment, and report-writing skills.
• Strong understanding of trauma-informed and recovery-focused practice.
• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team.

Desirable

• Experience within forensic, secure, inpatient, or rehabilitation services.
• Knowledge of personality disorders, psychosis, trauma, and risk management.
• Experience working with challenging behaviours and complex presentations.
• Training in additional therapeutic modalities.

You'll join a motivated, skilled and supportive Psychology team that celebrates individual strengths and nurtures emerging specialisms. This is a place where you can grow, innovate and shape your career.