This is an opportunity for an Arts Psychotherapist to join the Arts Psychotherapy Team within the Complex Psychological Interventions (CPI) service in Bristol. You will be based at The Speedwell Centre, offering assessments, psychological formulations, and individual and group arts psychotherapy for service users in the central Bristol area, using a recovery‑focused approach and contributing to care conversations.
As part of the CPI Team alongside Arts Psychotherapists, Clinical Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Psychological Therapists you will also provide individual and group supervision to staff in the Support and Recovery Team and to colleagues across the wider Arts Psychotherapy service.
The role involves close liaison with the Support and Recovery Team, Crisis Team, and local GPs, offering consultation and bringing psychological thinking to multidisciplinary forums.
You will receive strong support and supervision from senior CPI clinicians and have opportunities for peer learning, case discussions, and professional development. The CPI Team maintains links with local universities, offering opportunities for teaching, mentoring, and involvement in research. Ongoing internal and external training is encouraged to support your continued professional growth.
We are looking for someone who is a qualified Art Psychotherapist with HCPC registration.
We are looking for someone with the following skills:
Excellent communication and engagement skills, who can work autonomously whilst enjoying being an integrated member of the arts psychotherapy and CPI Team.
Someone with a particular interest in working in a community setting, bringing energy to work psychologically within this part of our service.
Someone able to plan and implement individual and group art psychotherapy and input into service users integrated care programmes.
Someone that is able to offer supervision and consultation to other Art Psychotherapists and staff within multidisciplinary teams.
We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.
We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.
Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
To be a valued member of the Central CPI Team, Arts Psychotherapy CPI Team and working with recovery clinical teams. Also working as an autonomous clinical practitioner, planning and providing an Arts Psychotherapy service within own area of practice in line with AWP strategies. Inputting into the development of new strategies when needed. To providing highly specialist Arts Psychotherapy treatment and ongoing evaluation. To offer clinical supervision and consultation. To support and engage in research and audits for service development.
Skills and Qualities:
Compassion and empathy for service users with complex mental health difficulties.
Great communication and understanding on multidisciplinary working.
Ability to advocate for psychological approaches and art psychotherapy within a team.
Skills in continual development and application of treatment approaches within the profession of arts psychotherapy.
Excellent skills in psychological assessment, formulation and intervention.
Interest in working with diversity and difference.
