Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for a therapist to join the Mentalisation Based Therapy Team, which is part of the Complex Psychological Interventions Team (CPI) in Bristol.

You would be joining the CPI Team, which is an established team of Arts Psychotherapist, Clinical Psychologists Psychotherapists and Psychological Therapists.

The post holder will be based at Callington Road Hospital offering a service to clients from across Bristol. You will be providing assessments, psychological formulation, planning and implementing individual and group MBT sessions within community services, using a recovery approach including inputting into service users care programmes. 

As a part of the CPI team, you will receive excellent support and supervision from more senior and well-established CPI members who work within the MBT specialism. There are also opportunities to link with psychological therapist colleagues and participate in regular case presentations and peer learning and development through the CPI.

The CPI have links to local training institutions and Universities, bringing opportunities for teaching, mentoring, and research. The CPI also work to support opportunities to develop staff through ongoing professional training and development, both internally and externally.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for someone to hold a lead role in managing all aspects of the rolling 12-week MBTi/Thinking Minds Group. This will include: linkwork, assessment, recruitment, practical organisation, co-ordinating staffing for the group, taking an active role as lead co-facilitator, developing and adapting psychoeducation materials, reviewing clients following the group, and collaborating with the wider team regarding the allocation of places in the 18 month MBT Full Programme.

You would work in collaboration with the MBT Lead, holding a mentalising stance in response to risk and clinical dilemmas, supporting thinking related to team capacity, contributing to the MBT On Call service, and maintaining reflective and open lines of communication with the wider system.

The role will involve working and liaising with other parts of the service including working closely with the Support and Recovery Teams, the Crisis Team and GPs. This will include offering consultation and bringing psychological thinking and consideration of the MBT model to different forums. 

Working for our organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care. 

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.  

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence-based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.