Consultant Psychotherapists

DescriptionHarmeny Education Trust is a charitable organisation providing therapeutic care and education to children who have experienced early years trauma through abuse, neglect and family disruption, referred from all over Scotland. We currently work with children and young people aged 5-18, both on a day and all-year-round residential basis. Our core service, Harmeny School, comprises:

· An education service, which includes an outdoor learning team.· A care service, with five residential cottages and one day service cottage.· Support services, made up of a therapies manager coordinating evidence informed approaches for children and young people, finance, estates, catering and domestic services, fundraising, IT, HR, learning and development, and admin teams. Harmeny is committed to achieving the highest possible standards of care and education and to continuously improving our work. We have recently developed a practice framework, The Harmeny Way, which describes the unique combination of therapeutic approaches used to guide our work and ensure consistent practice with children and young people placed with us. We wish to engage two Consultant Psychotherapists on a consultancy basis, who will work three days per week, providing adults across the organisation reflective space sessions to support them in their work with our children.

The psychotherapists will help staff to consider their responses and approaches through reflective practice, including:

· Individual and group reflective space for any staff member · Working alongside key workers, Assessment and Planning Workers, and Education staff, to support their work with children and families.· Observing our children in cottage and school learning environments to inform the above discussions. · Group reflective space for multidisciplinary teams at key time periods for our children, including when a child arrives or leaves Harmeny, and when an assessment or review has been completed.· Contributing to key team, pre-placement, review and post-placement meetings.· Supporting staff who have been involved in an incident of restrictive practice.
Key Responsibilities

1. Build relationships with, advise, guide and constructively challenge staff across the organisation, in order to aid their work with the children/young people, using psychodynamic thinking.
2. Play a key role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all staff. 
3. Provide reflective space for staff, on an individual and group basis, allowing them to discuss their work with a child/young person or group of children/young people, where a psychodynamic perspective can help them to understand the dynamic and a different way forward, or aid further learning.
4. Support staff to reflect on their own life experiences and how they can impact the work we do. 
5. Support staff to understand children and young people’s verbal and non-verbal behaviours as a way of communication, and provide advice and guidance on how best to respond. 
6. Lead case discussions to encourage teams to reflect on the child’s history, care and learning.
7. Provide advice and guidance in relation to the ongoing development of our therapeutic practice framework and training using The Harmeny Way.
8. Maintain confidentiality at all times, reporting any concerns to management.
9. Reflect and share the impact the role of psychotherapy is having, as part of our therapeutic model with the Therapies Manager. 
   
   

Qualifications, Skills, Knowledge and Experience

1. Registered with ‘Full Membership’ of the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP).
2. MSc in Psychoanalytic Observation or pre-clinical training for child psychotherapy, or equivalent.
3. Experience and knowledge relating to children and young people who have experienced significant early years trauma and adversity, preferably in a care, education or multidisciplinary setting.
4. Experience of working with families and carers.
5. Experience of facilitating reflective practice using psychodynamic and systemic thinking.
6. The ability to facilitate case discussions and provide advice and guidance in relation to working with individual children and families.
7. A highly relational, compassionate and empathic approach, with the ability to create a supportive environment for care and education staff in their work with complex children and young people. 

Harmeny Education Trust is a charity that provides care and education to remarkable children from all over Scotland who’ve had a challenging start in life. Our therapeutic services enable children to discover the wonders of childhood, and develop the skills and resilience to lead happy and fulfilling lives.

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