Senior DBT Therapist

We are looking for a dedicated Senior DBT Therapist to join our Affinity Programme and Behaviour Intervention Support Service—a multi-disciplinary, trauma-informed service designed to help young people build emotional regulation skills and improve their well-being.

In this role, you will deliver Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and DBT-informed interventions, provide clinical supervision, and contribute to the ongoing development of the service. Working with young people experiencing complex challenges, including trauma histories and co-occurring mental health difficulties, you will play a key role in their journey toward stability and success.

To be successful in this role, you will have at least two years of experience at a Senior Practitioner level delivering DBT or DBT-informed interventions with children and young people. You will also provide supervision to junior colleagues and offer consultation to professionals involved in the young person’s care.

This is a full-time position based at County Hall in Chelmsford.

If you’re ready to make a meaningful impact and be part of a forward-thinking, supportive team, we’d love to hear from you!

As a Senior DBT Therapist, you’ll be part of our valued Affinity Programme (Children and Young People at Risk of Permanent Exclusion) and Behaviour Intervention Service in County Hall, Chelmsford, receiving access to exclusive rewards and benefits including:

• Band 7 salary of £46,148 - £52,809 (depending on experience) with NHS Pension and full Agenda for Change terms and conditions
• Free tea and coffee at your base location
• Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you access to discounts on everyday purchases like grocery shopping as well as cashback and voucher offers for treats for you and those special to you
• Access to your wages as you earn them to help cover life’s emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest rates
• Online and face-to-face help with your mental and physical wellbeing – from healthy recipes and activity challenges through to post-trauma support, legal, debt and life management help, as well as career coaching and counselling
• Access to eLearning, bespoke career pathways and opportunities for continuing professional development through our ‘Outstanding’ learning and development team, The Learning Enterprise
• An open, just culture where you’re encouraged to have and implement ideas which can help us deliver our purpose: changing lives through transforming health and care – backed up by at least £100,000 of ringfenced innovation funding each year
• The pride of working for an organisation committed to the highest clinical and quality standards: with a majority of our rated services holding “good” or “outstanding” ratings from the Care Quality Commission

• Clinical Leadership and Delivery: Lead and deliver DBT interventions (individual and group therapy) for children and young people at risk of exclusion, tailoring interventions to individual needs with a trauma-informed approach.
• Assessment & Formulation: Conduct comprehensive psychological and risk assessments to inform personalised treatment plans.
• Supervision & Training: Provide clinical supervision to practitioners and deliver DBT training to ensure consistent, evidence-based practice across the service.
• Consultation & Collaboration: Offer consultation to professionals involved in young people's care, working closely within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Service Development: Contribute to the development and evaluation of the Affinity Programme, participating in audits and quality improvement initiatives.
• Risk Management & Safeguarding: Adhere to safeguarding protocols, conducting thorough risk assessments and managing risk effectively.
• Leadership & Management: Take a leadership role within the clinical team, supporting junior staff and contributing to service-wide initiatives.

Please see the attached job description for a full list of job responsibilities.

• Qualified in one of the following core professions, with appropriate professional registration:
  • Nursing
  • Social Work
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Counselling Psychology
  • Systemic Psychology
  • Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
• At least 2 years of senior practitioner experience delivering DBT or DBT-informed interventions to children and young people in mental health or educational settings.
• Experience in service development or leadership roles within clinical teams.
• Strong background in multi-disciplinary team working and supervising junior staff.
• In-depth knowledge of DBT principles and experience adapting the model for young people.
• Expertise in psychological assessments, risk assessments, and trauma-informed care.
• Familiarity with CYP IAPT models or other evidence-based approaches for young people.
• Skilled in managing high-risk cases, complex treatment planning, and clinical supervision.
• Ability to lead service development, quality improvement, and clinical governance initiatives.
• Full UK driving license and access to a vehicle for work purposes.

Please see the attached job description for a full person specification.

We change lives by transforming health and care.

Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year - guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do.

We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We’re a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone.

While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes a role is very popular, and we’ll need to close it earlier than the date we’ve shown here. If you’re keen to join our team, we’d love to hear from you so please apply as soon as you can.

As you’d expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.

Finally, we need to let you know that the company you’ll work for is part of HCRG Care Group Holdings Limited and by applying for this job we’ll need to process and hold information about you. If you would like to know a little more about how we use your information, please see our website's privacy policy.