Violence Reduction Psychotherapist

Belong is an award-winning charity with a vision of hope, rehabilitation and recovery for perpetrators and survivors of crime. We work with our beneficiaries and multiple stakeholder organisations to develop a more humane and effective criminal justice system. Through engaging with our mentoring, restorative justice, psychotherapy and training interventions, individuals and communities achieve positive, lasting change.  

We need a reliable, organised, resilient psychotherapist to join our committed, specialist team. The successful applicant will have over a years’ post qualifying experience of facilitating psychotherapy in prisons or a related area. They will deliver group and one-to-one structured behavioural change interventions to men aged 18 to 30 years old, serving sentences at HMPYOI Feltham.  

We particularly welcome applications from people from Global Majority ethnicities, with lived experience of the criminal justice system, and/or with current enhanced prison security vetting.  

The successful applicant will engage participants in interventions using verbal and non-verbal, creative techniques such as movement, visual arts, creative writing and drama. They will show a high level of professionalism with the ability to multitask and plan ahead. Using trauma informed, psycho-educational, strengths-based approaches, the successful applicant will be responsive to risk and safeguarding issues. As part of Belong's multidisciplinary team, they will engage proactively in regular reflective practice, clinical supervision and line management sessions.  

Please apply for this role by sending your CV and a detailed covering letter explaining how you meet the essential requirements for this position, by Friday 21st February at 11.30pm. Please note that we will not be able to consider applications sent without covering letters.  

Place of work: HMPYOI Feltham, with monthly travel to Central London.  

Hours of work: 28 hours per week, worked over 4 to 5 days.  

Pay scale: £38,430 per annum FTE, on an initial one-year contract with potential for renewal subject to available funding and excellent performance.  

Reports to: Service Manager  

Vetting Required: Enhanced DBS and prison security  

Annual leave and benefits: 

• 28 days paid holiday per year, plus Bank Holidays 
• 3 days fully funded training leave per year 
• Fully funded fortnightly Clinical Supervision 
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme 

Main Duties and Responsibilities  

• Facilitate semi-structured group-based and one-to-one behavioural change interventions over 14 weeks, to men serving sentences at HMPYOI Feltham who present with a risk of violent reoffending in prison and/or on release.  
• Analyse complex, sensitive and potentially disturbing information from prison databases regarding programme participants, to undertake dynamic risk and needs assessments regarding the delivery of behavioural change interventions, on a case-by-case basis. 
• Build excellent working relationships and communicate effectively with other members of Belong’s team, and with members of prison and probation teams. 
• Maintain detailed, high-quality records of interventions in accordance with Belong guidelines and standards. 
• Target interventions towards enabling men to improve their wellbeing and tackle issues related to violent behaviour e.g. relationship problems, gang affiliation, substance misuse issues, adverse childhood experiences and racial trauma. 
• Apply Belong’s thematic structure to interventions, using psycho-educational, trauma informed and strengths-based approaches to encourage participants to explore the themes in each session.  
• Model and encourage the use of non – verbal, creative methods e.g. visual arts, music, movement and writing as part of interventions to engage participants.  
• Identify and share risk and safeguarding information appropriately with other professionals. 
• Write progress reports at the end of each participant's engagement with interventions, for reference during, for example, participants parole hearings and sentence planning processes. 
• Work with the Service Manager to collect and write up programme monitoring information and participant feedback for funders and Belong’s Senior Leadership Team.  
• Actively participate in relevant internal and external meetings e.g. team meetings, line management meetings, clinical supervision meetings, programme reviews with participants, safer custody, reducing reoffending meetings.  
• Exert physical effort in moving equipment and furniture, e.g. when setting up a room for group or one to one work.  
• Assist in the development of resources and materials to promote the interventions as required. 
• Any other duties as may be appropriate to the level and nature of the post. 

Essential Qualifications and Experience  

• Good honours degree (2.2 or above) in psychology or equivalent.  
• Training at Master’s Level in Psychotherapy.  
• State Registration as a Psychotherapist.  
• At least one years’ post qualifying experience of delivering psychotherapy in prisons or a related area.   
• Experience of using trauma informed, strengths based, psycho-educational and creative methods when facilitating interventions.  
• Experience of using Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.  
• Experience of liaising confidently and professionally with a range of stakeholders at different levels of seniority and from diverse backgrounds.  
• Experience of working effectively within a team, with a busy and varied workload.  

Essential Skills and Abilities  

• Ability to form professional relationships with men who are serving prison sentences, who present with risks of violent reoffending and face disadvantages such as substance misuse problems, trauma histories, mental health diagnoses, poor literacy and numeracy, gang affiliation.  
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.  
• Strong organisational, multi-tasking and team working skills. 
• Ability to work autonomously and maintain the capacity to think clearly and focus on supporting participants in stressful situations.  
• Ability to maintain appropriate boundaries with participants and manage personal safety whilst working in prisons. 
• Proficiency in using Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. 
• Ability to work with participants psychological, non-verbal and symbolic expression and be competent in interpreting these as meaningful communications where appropriate. This includes the ability to translate this knowledge so that it can be used by other professionals in the formulation of risk and needs assessments.  
• Ability to be attune to and process transference and countertransference feelings and work with emotional projections from individuals.  
• Basic artistic skills in using a variety of art materials and media in a variety of styles.  

Desirable Knowledge and Experience  

• Understanding of the specific issues faced by people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Backgrounds in contact with the criminal justice system.  
• Strong awareness of appropriate boundaries to be maintained and of personal safety considerations whilst working in prisons.  
• A strong understanding of the principles of confidentiality and of instances when this should be breached.  
• Knowledge and experience of the charity sector.  
• Knowledge and experience of using design and publicity software such as Canva, MailChimp.  

Desirable Skills and Abilities  

• Creative skills in assisting with the design of publicity materials and planning content for newsletters and social media posts. 
• Ability to use prison databases e.g. PNOMIS to view and create individual case notes and reports.   
• Ability to provide support and training for colleagues and other professionals.