Job summary
- Main area
- Psychotherapist
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- 23 months (Fixed term- 23 months)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Part time hours may be possible)
- Job ref
- 318-26-T0243
- Employer
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS FoundationTrust
- Town
- Gloucestershire
- Salary
- £49,387 - £56,515 (pa pro rata if part-time)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 28/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Psychotherapist, Band 7
Band 7
At Gloucestershire Hospitals, our people are at the heart of everything we do. As the county’s largest employer, we are proud to provide high-quality acute, elective, and specialist services to more than 650,000 people across our county. Our care is delivered across Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General and Stroud Maternity Hospital.
With over 9,000 employees representing more than 95 nationalities, bringing together a mix of cultures and experiences to the care that we deliver. Whether you’re beginning your NHS journey or looking to take the next step in your career, this is an exciting time to join us. We’re investing heavily in innovation, research, and transformation, with more than 100 active clinical studies and major developments underway across our hospitals.
We take pride in working as one team, driven by a shared ambition to grow, develop, and continually improve. Every contribution is valued and by combining our collective strengths, we support not only our diverse communities but one another. You can expect a warm, supportive culture and colleagues who are passionate about teamwork, professional development and delivering exceptional care. We offer structured development programmes, mentoring and leadership opportunities to help you progress in your career.
We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from a comprehensive package that includes flexible working opportunities, generous annual leave, the NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, local discounts, access to on-site nurseries, reduced public transport costs, reward and recognition schemes and a wide range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
Be part of Gloucestershire Hospitals, explore your future with us today.
Job overview
This is a newly created and innovative post, we are seeking a skilled and compassionate psychotherapist to provide a specialist psychological service to people affected by cancer and its treatments across the pathway, for people in early stages of curative treatment through to those with advanced disease and having end of life care.
In an inaugural initiative, the Rotary District 1100 and Hospitals Charity are collaboratively funding a full time psychotherapist to both offer a service to patients having or post cancer treatment, and to collaborate with cross sector services in the community and voluntary sector.
This is an exciting opportunity for a creative professional to engage in service development alongside the other psychology colleagues in cancer and palliative care, and where psychological care is highly valued. The post spans direct clinical work and indirect clinical work such as training and consultation, and with plenty of scope to develop the role according to the post holder’s interests. The postholder will work closely with Focus, cancer MDT professionals, Oncology and AHP teams to support the integration of psychologically informed care within services and more broadly between the hospital’s trust and in the community.
Additional working pattern details: Part time hours may be possible
Main duties of the job
The post is fixed term and largely based at Gloucester Royal, though at times cross site working at Cheltenham General is needed. The service has strong links with Psycho-oncology services across the region and with local hospices, alongside a supportive and friendly clinical health psychology department with access to CPD.
To be responsible for providing a high quality, specialist psychological service for people affected by a diagnosis of cancer and its treatments, consistent with the Trust's objective of "best care for everyone". This will include:
- providing specialist psychological interventions to patients
- providing psychological expertise to indirect clinical work of consultation and training to other healthcare professionals and to enable cancer health care professionals to
- provide psychologically informed care.
- using knowledge and skills to identify and implement audit, service evaluation and development activities.
- acting independently and being accountable for own actions within professional guidelines and trust policies.
Working for our organisation
The role offers:
- An autonomous band 7 role with the flexibility to develop and shape the service going forward, well integrated with the teams it serves.
- An innovative, stimulating and well organised psychology department – part of a well-established Clinical Health Psychology department employing a range of applied psychology roles.
- A friendly and supportive team of colleagues, excellent peer support and regular supervision.
- A commitment to the training and support of applied psychological professions and active involvement in the local clinical doctoral courses.
With a team of over 9,000 employees, we are proud to be the largest employer in Gloucestershire and rank among the top 10 largest Trusts in the South West region. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities and the chance to gain valuable experience in one of our innovative hospitals. As well as generous annual leave allowance, access to the excellent NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, access to two on-site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Direct clinical intervention through the application of a range of psychological theories and models to analyse, understand and interpret complex situations and behaviours in order to formulate solutions and interventions which are tailored to individuals’ needs. This requires the capacity to engage in intense concentration for prolonged periods of time.
- To act autonomously and be professionally accountable for their own practice and in common with all psychotherapists to undertake regular clinical supervision.
- To work with more complex cases appropriate for a physical health acute setting and to working jointly and consultatively with other colleagues. For example, with patients who have difficulty in accepting their diagnosis or making necessary lifestyle changes, patients who have co-morbid mood difficulties or other psychological factors that affect adjustment, adherence, decision making and quality of life.
- Effective communication of complex, delicate and often unwelcome information to patients, carers and staff within a highly emotive atmosphere, in a rapidly changing context. This involves working alone with patients who may be in a highly emotional or distressed state. This requires a high level of communication skills.
- Provide specialised advice, supervision and consultation on care, therapy, and psychological aspects of health to multidisciplinary teams and HCPs.
- Take responsibility for managing own time, planning of patient clinics and other clinical work. Organising workload of, and supervising students / assistants where appropriate.
- To have responsibility for maintaining clear and accurate patient records in the department and in hospital health care records, including letter writing and reports to other health care colleagues and other relevant agencies.
- Application of current evidence based interventions.
- There will be a frequent requirement for intense concentration during sessions and exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances. This may include occasionally dealing with verbally or physically aggressive patients.
This role is only suitable for a psychotherapist trained in talking therapy approaches.
Please see the job description document for further details
Additional Contact Details
Dr Hilly Webb-Peploe is the recruiting manager: [email protected]
Dr Julie Highfield is the CPPO and Head of department: [email protected]
Person specification
Qualifications and training
Essential criteria
- Accredited post-graduate psychotherapy / CBT training
- Prof. registration in the UK (BACP, BABCP, UKCP)
Desirable criteria
- Evidence of regular CPD
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Ability to put psychological theory into practice in novel and complex clinical settings, synthesising data and theory from a range of evidence-based sources to create individual, group, team intervention plans
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of healthcare systems and the contribution of psychological care to these
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working in a clinical setting in the NHS and of representing a psychological perspective within the context of multi-disciplinary care
Desirable criteria
- Significant understanding and experience of working with people with physical health issues, ideally in an acute hospital setting
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Julie Highfield
- Job title
- Chief Psychological Professions Officer
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 422 8523
- Additional information
Dr Hilly Webb-Peploe is the recruiting manager: [email protected]
Dr Julie Highfield is the CPPO and Head of department: [email protected]
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