Creative Therapist

We have an exciting opportunity for a Creative Therapist to join our Child and Adolescent Inpatient Service at Mill Lodge, York. Mill Lodge is a Tier 4 General Adolescent Unit for children and young people aged 13-18 years old presenting with complexity including mental health difficulties, exploitation, eating difficulties and systemic difficulties. We are a new, developing and dynamic psychological therapies team that are passionate about inclusion, co-production and innovation. The service takes a trauma-informed, attachment and systemic approach to understanding the presentations and needs of young people and their families. Our work is underpinned and informed by a range of evidence based psychological models, including creative therapy. This role will also involve supporting and contributing to the development of our new alternative to hospital admission service for children, young people and families presenting with complexity around eating. This is a unique and innovative role for a creative therapist to contribute to service development and systems change.

We are committed to supporting continued professional development, with a number of our team are accessing further accredited training in specialist therapy modalities.

Working as part of a multi-skilled, experienced, motivated and creative service, you will be responsible for providing and carrying out arts therapy assessments for young people across the service on an individual or group basis. As an enthusiastic Creative Therapist, this post will provide you with an exciting opportunity to contribute to the development of a comprehensive and high-quality therapeutic service for young people experiencing a range of complex needs.

You will be responsible for developing creative therapy practice, and develop and maintain liaison with external mental health teams, working autonomously within professional guidelines and within the overall framework of the Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust.

The role will involve the use of specialist assessment and intervention skills to provide a creative therapies service to young people. In addition to the delivery of individual and group therapeutic work, the role will involve the promotion of a psychotherapeutically based environment, to suggest the suitability of arts therapy and/or other therapeutic therapies to be part of the on-going care and discharge planning arrangements.

The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) is the main provider of Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Leeds. We also provide specialist inpatient services in York and some highly specialised services across the country. As a teaching trust with strong links to local universities, we are a centre of excellence for teaching, research and development.

There are many benefits of working for LYPFT including fantastic employee wellbeing support, 27 - 33 days annual leave, flexible working and remote working arrangements, the NHS Pension Scheme, coaching, support and opportunities for career development and training and education support alongside a range of exclusive discounts and payment schemes including for cars, extra leave days and more NHS Discount Offers.

We also have an incredible bank department, offering variety of roles in nursing, allied health professions, healthcare support worker and administration clerical. Permanent employees are automatically added to bank.

Applicants should be aware that for any individual who requires a visa to work in the UK, the Trust provides sponsorship for registered healthcare practitioner roles only. This is an essential requirement of the role, and the Trust is unable to offer you a role if you are unable to meet Trust requirements for sponsorship and Home Office requirements for a visa.

You will have a high level of specialist knowledge of Arts Therapy acquired through a combination in-depth experience and a master’s degree or equivalent in Arts Therapy. You will hold and ensure to maintain state registration as an Arts Therapist through the Health and Care Professions Council.

You will comply with the ethics and professional conduct code of the British Association of Art Therapists / British Association of Dramatherapists / British Association for Music Therapy and Health Professions Council as well as national and local policies and procedures.

You will have great interpersonal and communication skills, and be able to establish a professional working relationship with the MDT and clinical support teams, and to build and maintain close links with other key services and agencies. You will be calm and confident around people in distress, and have a reflective and considered approach to problem solving.

Your values are essential to this role; we are looking for someone who genuinely wants to make a lasting impact on young people, who insists on doing things with care and diligence and is able to think on their feet.

The CYPMHS inpatient unit st