Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person Specification – Brief Summary (Essential Criteria, MBT‑Aligned)

Qualifications (Essential)

• Doctoral‑level qualification in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or equivalent, enabling relevant professional registration.
• Formal training covering psychopathology, psychometrics, lifespan development, and evidence‑based therapeutic models.
• Relevant professional registration (e.g., HCPC or equivalent regulatory body).
• Commitment to completing (or already having) Mentalization‑Based Treatment (MBT) training.

Knowledge & Experience (Essential)

• Post‑qualification experience delivering specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for people with complex emotional needs and personality disorder.
• Experience working in emotionally demanding settings requiring a mentalizing, relational and trauma‑informed approach.
• Experience facilitating psychologically informed therapeutic groups, ideally within structured models such as MBT.
• Experience providing consultation to multidisciplinary teams, supporting formulation, treatment planning and mentalizing practice.
• Experience delivering clinical supervision to trainees or MDT colleagues within a psychological or mentalizing framework.

Skills (Essential)

• Advanced skills in complex psychological assessment and formulation, integrating developmental, attachment and interpersonal factors that influence mentalizing capacity.
• Ability to communicate highly sensitive, complex information clearly and collaboratively while maintaining a mentalizing stance.
• Capacity to remain curious, open and reflective when working with interpersonal challenges, emotional intensity and risk.
• Skills in (or willingness to develop skills in) MBT‑informed interventions, including group facilitation and here‑and‑now mentalizing techniques.
• Strong formulation‑led risk assessment and risk management abilities.
• Ability to teach, present and support others in mentalizing‑based practice.

Values & Behaviours (Essential)

• Commitment to core MBT values: curiosity, collaboration, non‑judgement and a “not‑knowing” stance.
• Belief in the capacity for growth, learning and meaningful recovery for people with complex emotional needs.
• Commitment to trauma‑informed, relational, co‑produced and person‑centred practice.
• Dedication to reflective practice, supervision and supporting a psychologically safe, mentalizing team culture.
• Strong commitment to equity, diversity and anti‑discriminatory practice.
• Ability to remain steady, compassionate and reflective when working with distress and interpersonal intensity.

SPFT is committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and from disabled candidates, as these groups are currently underrepresented.

Successful candidates are normally appointed to the bottom of the pay scale unless previous NHS experience in a similar role can be evidenced.

SPFT takes its responsibilities for safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk very seriously. We expect all staff and bank workers to share this commitment and complete the relevant safeguarding training for their role.

If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful. However, we’ll always do our best to keep you informed as we know how much time and care goes into applying for a role.

In the event of a high number of applications, we may close this vacancy early.