Band 7 Creative Therapist

Go back Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust

The closing date is 03 March 2026

Are you a passionate and imaginative Creative Therapist looking to make a meaningful impact in a truly unique environment? Do you believe in the power of creativity to transform lives, support trauma recovery, and inspire change?

If so,
Team NHFT wants to hear from you.

At Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), we are proud to be rated Outstanding by the CQC and recognised nationally for our psychologically informed approaches within Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) services. We're committed to compassion, innovation, and delivering high‑quality care that makes a genuine difference.

You’ll be part of The Hive
, an OPD assessment and treatment pathway located within HMP Ranby
, working collaboratively with HMPPS colleagues to support men with complex mental health and behavioural needs. This is a role where your creativity is not just valued—it's essential.

The Band 7 Creative Therapist will play a central role within The Hive Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway at HMP Ranby, delivering specialist creative psychotherapy to service users with complex mental health needs. Working autonomously as a clinical practitioner, the post holder will provide assessment, formulation, and therapeutic intervention using their specialist creative modality—such as drama, art, or music therapy—across both individual and group settings.

You will bring a psychologically informed and trauma‑aware approach, helping individuals develop emotional regulation, relational safety, and pro‑social behaviours within a secure prison environment.

The role requires close collaboration with a broad multi‑disciplinary team, including prison officers, forensic psychologists, probation professionals, and wider healthcare colleagues. You will contribute a distinct creative psychotherapy perspective to case discussions, clinical formulations, and service development activities.

NHFT is an NHS Community and Mental Health Foundation Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in hospital settings and in the community. We provide over 200 services across the county—plus some specialist services in bordering and nearby counties. We work together with our partners to ensure that everyone who comes through our doors receives compassionate, person‑centred care, regardless of their background or circumstances.

NHFT promotes a culture of learning, to improve the care and safety of our patients and colleagues. We have achieved our ‘outstanding’ rating by encouraging opportunity, innovation, development and growth across our workforce.

As a Creative Therapist you will maintain high standards of practice through evidence‑based intervention, accurate record‑keeping, report writing, and regular review of therapeutic progress and risk.

Professional development is embedded within the role and you will actively participate in clinical supervision, reflective practice, mandatory training, and ongoing CPD. You will also contribute to the development of junior staff and students, providing mentoring, supervision, and formal assessments of placement performance.

Working within a secure environment, you will be expected to manage the emotional demands of the role with resilience and professionalism, using de‑escalation skills where required and maintaining clear boundaries. Overall, the role is an exciting opportunity to combine specialist therapeutic expertise with partnership working, service development, and a strong commitment to delivering compassionate, high‑quality care to individuals within the criminal justice system.

• Post‑graduate qualification in Art, Music, Drama Therapy at M.A./M.Sc. level which includes creative processes, working with individual and group dynamics and psychodynamic processes within the creative therapeutic relationship.
• Knowledge and understanding of personality disorders, including Offender Personality Disorder network.
• Will have a high level of communication and interpersonal…