Principal Psychological Therapist; Psychotherapy Professional Lead

Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 16 March 2026

We are seeking to recruit an experienced, BPC (British Psychoanalytic Council) and/or UKCP accredited, psychodynamic and/or psychoanalytic psychotherapist to act as professional lead for psychodynamic psychotherapy across adult mental health services (excluding child and adolescent mental health services) in BDCT. We are eager to appoint a professional who is passionate about working and developing analytically informed practice in the NHS, through their own clinical practice and through supervising and training clinicians across the Trust.

The post holder will be responsible for the safe and effective practice of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy by clinical staff in the Trust.

The post holder will work alongside a strong, multi‑professional team of psychologically trained clinicians, who provide individual and group work, training, consultation, supervision and reflective practice to staff and patients. They will actively engage with a locality community mental health team, working with senior clinical staff to provide clinical consultations, formulations and treatment to service users; to provide leadership and to support staff in their complex work.

The post holder will represent this analytic work at Trust level through working with the other psychological therapies lead professionals and in the Psychological Therapies Council. They will take a lead role in developing robust clinical pathways for service users to access psychodynamic psychotherapy, as part of the range of therapies on offer in BDCT.

We offer a wide range of training opportunities and would specifically welcome people trained in or willing to train in mentalisation based therapy.

We seek someone to join our strong and welcoming teams, who are committed to reducing barriers and inequalities for our diverse and marginalised communities and for groups who suffer from intersectional difficulties and needs to receive high quality, multi‑disciplinary, person centred and trauma informed care.

The successful candidate will be experienced working with adults with complex mental health needs and familiar with working through a trauma informed lens to understand what has happened to people and ways to alleviate their distress. We welcome innovation, creativity and holistic ways of working to meet the needs of our diverse communities.

Closing Date:
Midnight on 16th March 2026

Shortlisting Date: 17th March 2026

Interview Date: TBC

Everything we do is underpinned by our core values:

We Care - We act with respect and empathy, and always value difference.

We Listen - We understand people's views and respond to their individual needs.

We Deliver - We develop and provide excellent services and support our partners.

We will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements to enable staff to balance their work and home lives and support staff by offering a fantastic range of benefits including :

• Increase mileage rates for > 3500
• A wide range of health and wellbeing support packages
• A range of internal and external development and learning opportunities
• Plus many more.

We are also proud to pledge our support to the Armed Forces and hold a Bronze Award in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme.

BDCFT is dedicated to environmental and social sustainability by delivering on the commitments within our Green Plan. All staff are actively encouraged and supported to participate in training and to identify and implement sustainable quality improvement across all service areas and activities.

Please note that the Trust reserves the right to close the vacancy before the closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received. It is in the candidate's best interest to apply as soon as possible

Please read the attached Job description and person specification for further details about this role.

Prior to your appointment you will be asked to provide confirmation of your right to work and reside in the UK. During your continued employment…