Specialist behavioural support worker jobs

We are seeking a compassionate and skilled CBT Therapist or Psychologist to join Gordon Moody, supporting individuals experiencing gambling-related harms through specialist psychological assessment and evidence-based treatment.

This role involves delivering structured Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) interventions across both individual and group settings within residential and remote treatment programmes. You will work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team to provide psychologically informed, trauma-informed care that supports long-term recovery and wellbeing.

The successful candidate will work autonomously within professional guidelines and within the overall framework of Gordon Moody’s clinical governance, policies and procedures.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities:

• Provide specialist psychological assessment and treatment for individuals experiencing gambling-related harms.
• Deliver evidence-based CBT interventions within individual and group treatment settings.
• Develop collaborative treatment and risk management plans tailored to service user needs.
• Facilitate psychoeducational, relapse prevention and therapeutic group programmes.
• Support individuals presenting with co-occurring mental health difficulties, including anxiety, depression and trauma-related symptoms.
• Maintain accurate, timely and confidential clinical records in line with organisational, professional and GDPR standards.
• Monitor and manage clinical risk, safeguarding concerns and service user wellbeing appropriately.
• Work within professional and ethical guidelines relevant to CBT and psychological therapies.
• Support service users to engage with onward recovery and community support services where appropriate.

Multidisciplinary & Partnership Working:

• Work collaboratively with therapists, recovery workers, support staff and external professionals.
• Liaise with GPs, mental health services, social care teams and partner agencies to ensure continuity of care.
• Participate in multidisciplinary team meetings, clinical reviews and case discussions.
• Contribute to maintaining effective referral pathways and integrated recovery support.
• Promote psychologically informed and trauma-informed approaches across services.

Clinical Governance & Service Development:

• Participate in regular clinical supervision, reflective practice and continuing professional development.
• Contribute to audit, service evaluation and quality improvement initiatives.
• Support the development and implementation of evidence-based practice within gambling harm treatment.
• Maintain awareness of emerging developments within behavioural addiction and CBT practice.
• Adhere to all clinical governance, safeguarding and information governance policies.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of therapeutic programmes and interventions.

Person Specification

Essential Qualifications:

• BABCP accredited CBT Therapist or actively working towards accreditation.
• Postgraduate qualification in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or equivalent recognised qualification.
• Relevant professional registration or core profession qualification (e.g. mental health nursing, psychology, social work, counselling or psychotherapy).

Desirable Qualifications:

• Additional training in motivational interviewing, trauma-informed care or addiction treatment.
• Further training in group facilitation or behavioural addictions.

Essential Experience:

• Experience delivering CBT interventions within a mental health or addiction setting.
• Experience undertaking specialist psychological and risk assessments.
• Experience facilitating therapeutic groups.
• Experience supporting individuals experiencing complex emotional or psychological difficulties, including trauma.
• Ability to work autonomously while contributing effectively within multidisciplinary teams.

Desirable Experience:

• Experience working within gambling harms or behavioural addiction services.
• Experience within residential treatment settings.
• Experience supporting individuals with co-occurring mental health and addiction needs.
• Experience delivering remote or online therapeutic interventions.
• Training or qualification in other NHS-recognised therapeutic modalities such as EMDR, CAT, DIT, IPT, DBT, MBCT or ACT.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential:

• Strong knowledge of CBT theory and evidence-based interventions.
• Knowledge and experience of treating PTSD and trauma.
• Understanding of gambling-related harms and addiction recovery models.
• Understanding of relapse prevention approaches and motivational interviewing.
• Strong safeguarding and risk assessment knowledge.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage emotionally distressing situations professionally and sensitively.
• Strong organisational and time management skills.
• Ability to maintain accurate clinical documentation and outcome measures.

Desirable:

• Awareness of current developments in behavioural addiction treatment.

Please note that we may close this vacancy at any time should we receive a high volume of suitable applications. Interviews may be conducted throughout the advertising period.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK, as we are unable to provide sponsorship for this role.

Our specialist children's practitioners provide child-led play therapy sessions on a weekly basis, usually for 6-16 weeks. Sessions give children the opportunity to process what has happened to them and make sense of the complicated and confusing emotions they may be experiencing.  Our practitioners work from our purpose-designed therapeutic playroom in Colchester or from some of our outreach premises in other areas, using a range of techniques including sand tray, art and imaginative play.

What we expect from our Sessional Counsellors/Play Therapists:

· Support up to eight CARA clients each week

· Maintain and update accurate database records of clients

· Diploma in Counselling or equivalent, with a minimum of 400 counselling hours.

· Certificate in Counselling Children, Play Therapy qualification or equivalent

· Experience of working therapeutically with children with psychological and behavioural problems.

· An understanding of how trauma affects children both physically and emotionally.

· An ability to work creatively to enable children to process their conscious and unconscious emotions.

· An ability to work collaboratively with parents, while protecting children’s confidentiality.

· To liaise with other agencies including social care, Children and Adolescent Mental Health service (CAMHS) and schools, and attend meetings and provide reports, where required.

· Attendance of one CARA Meeting per month and attendance of monthly point of contact meetings.

· Attendance of clinical supervision, provided by a CARA-approved supervisor.

· Attend annual safeguarding training and other relevant training

· An open and non-judgemental attitude.

· Demonstrable understanding of safeguarding, both in relation to children and to vulnerable adults;

· Sessional Counsellors/Play Therapists will be working with clients on behalf of CARA and not on a private basis.  As such, they will be bound by CARA’s processes, policies and procedures.

· Commitment to the feminist ethos of CARA

· Willingness to commit the necessary time to supporting vulnerable clients

· Membership of BACP, UKCP or equivalent professional body

· Abide by BACP’s Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy

· Owing to the nature of the role, we are only able to take on female candidates

What the Sessional Counsellor/Play Therapist can expect from us:

·Training and support

·Ongoing training opportunities

We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and those with additional language skills, including BSL.

About CARA

CARA (Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse) works with victims and survivors of sexual violence and child sexual abuse, providing independent, specialist support and promoting and representing their rights and needs. 

CARA is a registered charity working with adults of all genders, young people and children from across mid and north Essex.  We have a head office in Colchester and outreach premises in Braintree, Chelmsford, Clacton-on-Sea, Great Dunmow and Harwich.  We also provide remote services.

CARA seeks to be an inclusive organisation that actively encourages, supports and values diversity amongst both our service-users and our workers.  We wish to create a culture in which discrimination, in all its forms, is recognised and addressed.

You can read more about CARA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion on our website.  We encourage and welcome applications from candidates from diverse backgrounds.

About Synergy East

CARA is part of Synergy East. We work closely with SERICC Rape and Sexual Abuse Specialist Service and Southend-on-Sea Rape Crisis (SOS Rape Crisis) to deliver the contract for the Office for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex for services for victims and survivors of sexual violence and child sexual abuse across Essex.

Crisis is the national charity for people experiencing homelessness. We have embarked on our new 10-year strategy for ending homelessness. We know it is not inevitable. We know together we can end it.

It is an exciting and important time to be joining us at Crisis. We work with thousands of people across England, Scotland, and Wales so they can leave homelessness behind for good. We have recently adapted the way our services work to maximise our impact in ending homelessness.

Job Title: Senior Practitioner Psychologist (internally this role is known as Senior Skylight Psychologist) or Practitioner Psychologist (internally known as Skylight Psychologist)

The Skylight Psychologist role is offered as a development opportunity for candidates in the first 18 months post qualification. There would be the opportunity to progress to the Senior Skylight Psychologist role when they meet the relevant clinical and leadership competencies, in line with Crisis’ Preceptorship Framework.

Qualifications: You must be a Practitioner Psychologist registered with the HCPC. For the Skylight Psychologist role, we will consider applications from individuals due to complete doctoral training.

Hours: Part-time 14 hours per week, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Salary: Full-time and part-time (14hours per week) salaries are as follows:

• Skylight Psychologist, qualified within the last 18 months:
  • £50,757 per annum FTE (part-time £20,302)
• Senior Skylight Psychologist:
  • 18 months to 4 years qualified - £58,364 per annum FTE (part-time £23,345)
  • 5 to 7 years qualified - £60,454 per annum FTE (part-time £24,181)
  • 8+ years qualified - £64,504 per annum FTE (part-time £25,801)

Please note this opportunity is part-time. Our salaries are fixed to counter inequity, and we do not negotiate at offer stage.

Location: Crisis Skylight London 50 – 52 Commercial Street, E1 6LT This is a primarily onsite role, so you can support our members and team face to face, but some homeworking may be an option in line with Crisis’ Hybrid Working Policy.

About the role

We are committed to ending the homelessness of more people using our direct services, including people with complex needs. To do this, we are seeking a part-time Practitioner Psychologists to join our fantastic team in Crisis Skylight London.

You will form part of the local Leadership team, supporting the implementation of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIEs). You will support the delivery of our work to members by offering training and leading reflective practice for staff and providing direct services to members at times.

You will also be a part of a national psychology team made up of a Lead Clinical Psychologist, a Regional Lead Clinical Psychologist and nine Practitioner Psychologists as well as Trainee Clinical Psychologists on placements.

At Crisis, we understand more and more Practitioner Psychologists are taking on multiple part-time opportunities within the NHS, academia, private practice and the third sector as this has been the case with our own team. Crisis and our members have benefited from employing people with a variety of different work experience. This an opportunity for you to work within an agile and progressive charity where you can influence psychologically informed ways of working to end homelessness for good.

You will join an extraordinary team of frontline lead workers with a focus on people facing homelessness who have survived a range of difficult and traumatic experiences.

About you

We are looking for people who are community focused and driven by our shared values. This role brings a real opportunity to be creative and flexible in our approach to working psychologically with people who face multiple disadvantages, and to support the staff teams via training and reflective practice.

There are opportunities to provide direct support as well as working extensively with local teams and other parts of the organisation to influence policy and practice developments. We are looking for someone with post qualification experience of working within complex systems and you may have direct experience of working with people who experience homelessness.

You will be excited by the prospect of working innovatively to deliver services locally alongside the Skylight team, as well linking in closely with the wider Psychology team to develop the service. You will be committed towards social justice, and to being an advocate for those we work with and for breaking down the systemic barriers that exclude those who need most support.

Please see the full Job Pack linked below, for a full list of requirements for this role. We realise that long lists of criteria can be daunting, and you may not want to apply for a role unless you feel 100% qualified. However, if you feel you have relevant examples to answer the screening questions, we encourage you to apply.

We believe diversity is a strength, and our aim is to make sure that Crisis truly reflects the communities we serve. We are actively working towards our organisation being a place where everyone can thrive and make their best contribution to our mission of ending homelessness for good. We know that the more perspectives, voices, and experiences we can bring to this work, the better. We particularly welcome applications from people who have lived experience of homelessness, and people from all marginalised groups, communities and backgrounds.

Working at Crisis

Our values, Bold, Impactful, Collaborative and Equitable, are at the heart of everything we do as we continue in our mission to end homelessness.

Our staff, members and volunteers are vital to getting the right government policies in place, providing breakthrough services, and building a supportive community. We’ll lead by example to nurture a positive and ambitious workplace guided by ending homelessness.

As a member of the team, you will have access to a wide range of employee benefits including:

• A competitive salary. Please note, our salaries are fixed to counter inequity, and we do not negotiate at offer stage
• Interest free loans for travel season ticket, cycle to work, and deposit to secure a tenancy
• Pension scheme with an employer contribution of 8.5%
• 28 days’ annual leave (pro rata) which increases with service to 31 days and the option to purchase up to 10 additional days leave
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental, and adoption pay.
• Wellbeing Leave to be used flexibly And more! (Full list of benefits available on website)

As a member of the Practitioner Psychology Team, you will have:

• Access to funds to support CPD as part of a wider commitment to ensure meeting HCPC standards.
• Reimbursement of costs to join a professional body (e.g., ACP/BPS)
• Bi-annual away day with the Team
• Access to high quality clinical and professional supervision

Alongside our excellent staff benefits, we will support your ongoing development to build your skills, experience, and career.

When you join us, you will have the opportunity to join our staff diversity networks, which aim to champion issues across the organisation, enable staff to be their authentic and best selves and contribute to making Crisis a truly diverse organisation.

How do I apply?

Please click on the 'Apply for Job' button below. Our shortlisting process is anonymised as part of our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We do not ask for CVs, instead we ask you complete the work history section and answer the screening questions for us to be able to assess you fairly and objectively. At least two members of staff score all applications.

Closing date: Wednesday 10th June 2026 at 23:59

Interviews will take place week commencing 22nd June, in-person at Crisis Skylight London, 50 – 52 Commercial Street, E1 6LT

We welcome informal conversations to learn more about the role with a member of our Skylight Psychology Team, and we will arrange a call. Contact information can be found on our website. 

We would also strongly encourage you to visit Crisis Skylight London prior to applying. 

AI in Job Applications

We understand some candidates use AI tools when applying. Whilst we welcome the use of technology to support clear communication and structure, we want to learn more about you, so please ensure that your application reflects your own skills, knowledge and experiences.

Accessibility 

We want our recruitment process to be as accessible as possible. If you need us to make an adjustment or provide additional support as you apply for a role, please email our Talent Acquisition team to discuss how we can help. 

Registered Charity Numbers: E&W1082947, SC040094