The Role: What you will do?
The Role:
This is a new, exciting training role within the Psychological Therapies for Severe Mental Health Problems (PT SMHP) service in Basildon and Brentwood. The service is an innovative psychological therapies service that sits within Primary Care that fills the gap between NHS Talking Therapies services and Secondary Care mental health services.
The successful candidate will undertake a 2-year postgraduate diploma in cognitive behavioural therapy for personality disorder (PGDip. CBT for PD).
The post-holder will work clinically within a NHS Talking Therapies service and the PT SMHP service in the first year, and solely in the PT SMHP service in the second year, providing psychological interventions whilst undertaking the PGDip CBT PD for personality disorder training programme. The intensive training programme will equip the post-holder to provide CBT treatment to clients with a range of complex mental health problems for which CBT is demonstrated to be clinically effective, while developing a specialism in treating personality disorder.
The post-holder will mostly work in the service (a hybrid of remote and face to face) for 3 to 4 days weekly whilst attending the training at University College of London (UCL) for 1 to 2 days a week. The post holder will be expected to attend in-person training at UCL as required, and attend clinics in Basildon and Brentwood depending on service need.
Interviews are likely to take place via Teams week commencing W/C 29th September.
Course start date: January 2026 (exact dates tbc)
Skills and Experience:
Essential:
* A minimum of a 2:2 in a UK undergraduate degree (or equivalent overseas qualification).
* A core mental health practitioner qualification or evidence of meeting the Knowledge Skills and Attitude (KSA) requirements of the BABCP.
* Demonstrable experience of working in the mental health sector with the ability of managing own caseload.
* Ability to evaluate and apply theory to practice as learned on the training programme.
* Ability to communicate to a high professional standard, including writing clear clinical notes, reports, and letters to referrers.
* Demonstrable understanding of a range of mental health difficulties and they may present in PT SMHP.
* Ability to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients and demonstrate an understanding for the need to apply evidence based psychological interventions.
* Able to attend 70 to 80 days training at UCL over the 2 years of the programme, delivery of which will by a hybrid of remote and face-to-face teaching.
* An awareness of and commitment to supporting and facilitating diversity and inclusion.
* Willingness to travel, which may include overnight stays on occasion, as and when required.
Desirable:
* Experience of working within community-based mental health services.
* Experience of working with patients living with mental health difficulties typical to PT SMHP, including severe depression, severe anxiety disorders, personality disorder, bipolar affective disorder, and psychosis.
* Worked in a service that required working to agreed targets, including demonstrating clinical outcomes.
Why Vita Health Group?
Vita Health Group celebrates life. Improving lives physically and mentally drives everything we do. Now part of Spire Healthcare Group plc we have been providing physical and mental health services for over 30 years. We work in partnership with the NHS, are engaged by insurers and some of the UK's largest corporate companies to support their workforce and provide a full range of physiotherapy services to private customers.
To achieve our mission of Making People Better, we recognise the importance of investing in our staff. We are an award-winning employer recently recognised nationally as "Best Company to Work for" at the Health and Wellbeing Awards 2024.
This is also recognised by current employees – our most recent Employee Survey results showed the top 5 reasons to work here as being:
* Supportive team and management
* Positive work environment
* Wellbeing and mental health support
* Trust and respect
* Autonomy and flexibility
We are keen to progress your skills and enable career development and provide regular Continued Professional Development opportunities including secondments, management training, a mentoring scheme, apprenticeships and regular events and webinars across a range of clinical disciplines. In addition to a competitive salary, we also offer the opportunity of a flexible work life balance and a comprehensive benefits package which you can view here:
Vita Health Group is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and is seeking to improve the diversity of its workforce. We are committed to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion best practice and positively encourage applications from candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion/belief, marital status, or pregnancy/maternity. For further information on our EDI commitments please view here: Vita Health Groups commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to being equitable and supporting the wellbeing of all employees.
* We are a Mindful Employer
* Our status as a Disability Confident Leader dedicated to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process. All disabled candidates that meet the minimum essential criteria will be considered for interview.
* Our Ethnicity Matters Scheme where all applicants for senior roles (£40,000+) from a minority ethnic group that meet the essential criteria will be considered for interview.
* Our Gender Matters Scheme where all women applicants for senior roles (£60,000+) that meet the essential criteria will be considered for interview.
* Our sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant.
* Our status as a Menopause Friendly Committed employer.
* Our sign up to the Employer with Heart Charter.
* Our commitment to meet the standards outlined in the NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS). Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES).
* Access to health and wellbeing services for colleagues including Mental Health Advocates and an Employee Assistance Programme.
* An embedded "speaking up" culture facilitated by Freedom to Speak Up Guardians.
* Treating transgender individuals with dignity and recognising the potential complications that may arise when taking references. We encourage applicants to contact HR at to discuss or amend how we manage reference requests.
Should you wish to discuss any adjustment or assistance you need in the application or interview process please contact and we will facilitate.
Please note, all applicants must be legally entitled to accept and perform work in the UK and all positions are subject to a DBS check.
Any data which you share with us throughout the hiring process will be stored securely within the UK and is accessible only by staff who require it. Should your application be unsuccessful, your data will be securely destroyed after 6 months.
Vita Health Group reserves the right to close this job when sufficient applications have been received.