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Consultant Psychotherapist for Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) - Oxford

Oxford Health Psychological Services (Oxfordshire) provides a range of specialist psychological assessments, interventions and consultations for adults patients presenting with more severe and complex difficulties.

We are seeking a suitably qualified (UKCP (PP section) and ACAT accredited) Consultant Psychotherapist to fill the post based in Oxford City. We welcome applications from those with strong assessment skills and an interest in providing clinical services in a busy and demanding NHS setting.

The key responsibilities will be to provide:
1. day to day management of CAT services, supervision and training
2. maintenance, teaching for and development of a well established CAT Training Programme.
Must be able to offer supervision and consultation to other senior qualified staff.
Excellent relationships exist with colleagues from other professions and orientations.
Good supervision and professional support is provided.
Prior consideration will be given to “at risk staff".

Salary band:   8c

Hours: 
0.4 wte (15.0 hours Psychological Services)
0.25 wte (9.375 hours CAT Training programme (Learning & Development))

Contract type: Permanent

For an informal discussion please contact:
Sue Gardner 01865 738878
David Slingo
(Visits will be arranged if requested by shortlisted candidates)

To Apply:
You can apply for this post by visiting www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk, following the link for working for us and then job search.
Alternatively you can telephone the Recruitment Hotline on 01865 782167 or email human.resources@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk

Please quote the appropriate reference number

Closing date for receipt of applications: 23 March 2012

 

Outline for Consultant CAT Psychotherapist Post

The Consultant CAT Psychotherapist post is in the Oxfordshire, Tier 3/Step 4 part of Psychological Services (PS Oxon) in Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The other parts are Buckinghamshire’s Psychological Services (PS Bucks) and the two ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) services which are Talking Space for Oxon and Healthy Minds for Bucks.The Trust is committed to providing a broad range of talking treatments including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Systemic Family Therapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Cognitive Analytic Therapy and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. The service is provided to people over the age of 18 years and there is no upper age limit. The service provides an increasingly wide range of psychological treatments both directly to our patients and via consultancy input to the teams who care for them. The Trust has a history of excellence in the provision of treatment, training and research in this field.

Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) plays an increasingly valued part in this provision and was accepted by the Psychosocial Therapies Committee in 2009 as one of the approved PS treatments on offer. The post holder will therefore play an important role as a senior clinician within the multidisciplinary PS team, with good working relationships across the disciplines, and strong local management support. Core tasks of the post include undertaking assessment, treatment and consultation at a senior level, as well as offering supervision to trainees, honorary therapists and other PS colleagues as appropriate.

A significant part of the role involves being Course Director for the in-house Oxford CAT Practitioner Course which is currently in its fifth intake and tenth year of running. It is a well-established course with a good reputation, consistently receiving positive feed-back from trainees and external assessors alike. After earlier credit-rating with Oxford Brookes University it is now validated by Sheffield Hallam University alongside most CAT courses nationally. The course is run with the support of the 0.2wte Course Co-Trainer and Supervisor, who is funded by the income from the course.

The post holder will be joining a small CAT team consisting of a 0.5wte clinical CAT post at Band 8a, a specialty doctor with CAT as her major remit, and a 0.5wte CAT therapist on a one-year temporary contract. The permanent colleagues are both CAT UKCP Psychotherapists and Supervisors with the temporary therapist also a Supervisor. A further two Trust staff are currently (with management backing) in the process of gaining more CAT clinical experience with a view to starting CAT supervisor training in the future.

As a direct result of the CAT course, 10 Honorary CAT therapists, representing all the mental health professions, are currently providing treatment to patients from the CAT waiting list. An increasing number of referrals are being made explicitly asking for CAT, including from Consultant Psychiatrists, GPs and staff in ‘Talking Space’.

In terms of opportunities for the future, Psychological Services and the CAT course are in an excellent position to draw on the location, status and brand of Oxford Health FT. Future developments could involve organizing International or European Introductory workshops (or even Practitioner trainings) in collaboration with ICATA. This would contribute to the training profile of the Trust and could open up opportunities for CAT research and other collaborative ventures. Across the Trust, we have an accredited CAT Psychotherapist/Supervisor in Buckinghamshire who has expressed an interest in joining the Oxford CAT therapist group in setting up an in-house Skills Level training in CAT for Trust staff. This could be based on local Introductory Workshops and could feed into the practitioner level training. The new post holder will be maintaining a well founded service and course as well as making the business case for future expansion.
 

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