Psychotherapist

Full Time, Permanent - 40 hours
**Location**: HMP Ashfield, Bristol
**Salary**: £45,000.00PA
HMP Ashfield is a category B male prison with an operational capacity is for 412 prisoners. This is a role that offers plenty of variety and contributes enormously to the important work of stabilising and reintegrating those prisoners safely and successfully back into society.
As a member of the Therapeutic Community's Clinical Team, you will conduct group treatment to residents. Reporting and tracking the Resident's progress in therapy will be an important part of your job, as will ensuring that their risk of reoffending is minimised. As a member of the Community Clinical Team, you will participate in/chair Therapy Review Boards and make choices regarding appropriate future steps for Residents at the end of their Therapy Journey. You will deliver therapy within the context of a Therapeutic Community and work with the Clinical Team to embed and sustain the Community's Audit Standards. You'll be active in every part of the Community Program and will help to promote clinical thinking in areas like Group Process, Supervision, and Sensitivity. You will be able to contain and think about the work and experiences of the Residents on the TC if you have a good awareness and understanding of residents who have complex mental health problems, including Personality disorder.
- As part of our team, you’ll help deliver psychological services at HMP Ashfield, including:
To setup and facilitate Psychotherapy group sessions, with clinical autonomy drawing on a range of models from a group psychotherapy perspective.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account highly complex factors concerning historical, criminal, relational and developmental processes that have shaped the resident and their difficulties.
To facilitate large community meetings, supporting co‐facilitators and other staff engaged in these processes.
- Contribute to effective risk assessment and resulting risk management of complex, vulnerable or high risk prisoners, reporting on treatment and therapeutic progress in relation to criminogenic factors.
- To contribute clinically to group processes in general and to provide feedback to operational and therapeutic staff specifically regarding the residents in your group(s).
- To communicate complex clinical information in a skilled and sensitive manner including assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of residents to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary treatment.
- To attend any other appropriate meetings to provide clinical specialist input and advice to the multi-disciplinary team on the community (operational and therapeutic) to maintain a treatment environment informed by psychodynamic principles.
- To contribute to the effective implementation of the Democratic Therapeutic Communities accredited core model in the prison setting.
- Ensure the clinical effectiveness of own practice and of service by participating in audit and development activities as required.
- Remain informed of and critically evaluate current research to support evidence‐based practice in own professional work and to contribute this perspective in the multi‐disciplinary team.
- Provide a specialist contribution to the preparation for clinical external audit of the therapeutic community, including preparation of case studies, detailed self-reviews and liaison with external agencies such as the Community of Communities.
Act as a peer‐reviewer consultant to other Therapeutic Communities outside of the prison service.
- Maintain professional networks with other clinicians and TCs sharing best practice.
- To attend supervision based on psychotherapy knowledge and skills.
- To maintain Psychotherapy registration as a clinician and as a supervisor.
**What you’ll need to do the role**:
**Qualifications**:
You will be a qualified/accredited psychotherapist with the UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) or BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).
Experience
This is a challenging environment and it is desirable that you will be:
An experienced and robust practitioner with experience of working in a forensic setting, particularly those convicted of sexual offences.
A practitioner with experience of assessment, implementation and delivery of group work
An understanding and awareness of TC issues
Additional requirements
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Able to work collaboratively with prisoners
Skilled and experienced in working within a multi-disciplinary team
About Serco
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