Perinatal Psychological Therapist

This role is offered on a full time (37.5 hours) 1 year fixed term, secondment also considered. An exciting opportunity has arisen for arole in the Birth Anxiety and Trauma Service which is part of the Gloucestershire Perinatal Mental Health Service. The service is comprised of Specialist Midwifery, Psychological Therapy and Peer Support and provides interventions to women with moderate to severe mental health difficulties directly arising from, or related to, their maternity experience.

This may include those who experience post-traumatic stress disorder following birth trauma, perinatal loss or severe fear of childbirth (tokophobia). This role also sits within the Perinatal Psychological Interventions Team and the post holder will work closely with Psychology Practitioners working in the Perinatal Mental Health Community Team. We are looking for an enthusiastic and innovative Psychological Practitioner to primarily focus on delivering psychological interventions to individuals and families (both directly and by supervising and supporting MDT colleagues) with opportunities for training staff in other services.

• As part of the Birth Anxiety and Trauma Service the post holder will carry a caseload and provide evidence based psychological interventions to women with moderate to severe mental difficulties relating to birth related anxiety, trauma and loss.
  
  E.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), EMDR and Complicated Grief Therapy.
• Plan and prioritise workload, exercising autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
• To ensure that other staff, multi-disciplinary teams, and managers (across a range of agencies and settings) have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation and the sharing of psychological interventions, research and theory.
• To provide training and supervision to others, as relevant to service need.
  Previous experience of working with women experiencing birth anxiety and trauma and perinatal loss is desirable. Training in complicated grief/perinatal loss or the willingness to undertake this training is an essential requirement for this post.
  We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.