CBT High Intensity Trainee | South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust

Psychological therapy services across London are recruiting CBT High Intensity Trainees as part of the Talking Therapies workforce initiative. These services deliver evidence-based psychological therapies for people with anxiety and depression.

Are you an experienced mental health professional or social care worker with a recognised professional qualification working in a mental health setting? Have you considered training in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and getting paid to do it?

Applications are invited from qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychological Therapists, Mental Health Nurses, Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners to apply for the one-year full-time Talking Therapies post graduate diploma courses based at King’s College London and Royal Holloway.

Applicants without a recognised and accredited core mental health professional training (such as Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners* or Psychotherapists and Counsellors without UKCP or BACP accreditation) can apply but must be able to meet the required KSA process.

From 1st April 2022, the ‘2-year psychological professions funding rule’ came into play by NHSE. This was a policy change for future eligibility on NHS funding across specific psychological professions’ training programmes for individuals who wish to undertake more than one NHS-funded training. If entering one training from April 2022, that trainee will normally not be eligible to receive NHS funding for a subsequent psychological professions training until a minimum of 2 years after the award for the first training is recommended by a qualifying examination board or by chair’s action after the qualifying exam board (where this leads to a change of occupation).

Please click to see the NHSE Webpages for further information, including a list of courses

Please note that PWP’s need to have a minimum of 3 years’ experience, two of which are as a qualified practitioner.

Those without a valid permit to work in the UK are not eligible to apply for this position.

The training programme consists of three days working within a Talking Therapies service and two days at university taught by experts in the field. Each training place involves being employed by a service for the length of the training contract. Contracts of employment will be at a Band 6 or equivalent, and fixed-term for one year whilst training. The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience/KCL and Royal Holloway/CNWL will provide the training. These higher education institutions (HEIs) have been selected based on their ability to demonstrate the capacity, knowledge and expertise to deliver the curriculum that has been developed for each training course.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

As this is London wide recruitment process there is a centralised application process between NHS Talking therapy services (previously IAPT) and Royal Holloway and King’s College London.

Applications should not be submitted through NHS Jobs. You must submit your application through the

King’s website onhttps

//www.kcl.ac.uk/mental-health-and-psychological-sciences/study/cognitive-behavioural-therapies-pgdip/index

Information on the application process, including how to apply for London wide training can be found on the KCL PG Dip website. Please review this information carefully in order to apply and please use this link to find the application procedure document on the King’s website for full instructions. Please note that this website is awaiting a few small updates for 2026 recruitment.

For further information on the courses, please visit the website for

Royal Holloway http

//www.central-london-cbt.com/ Kings College https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/cognitive-behavioural-therapies-pgdip

For more information about Talking Therapies see NHS England Mental Health web pages.

This advert closes on Wednesday 6 May 2026