Director of Salomons Institute

With the imminent retirement of the current Director, we invite applications from Clinical Psychologist academics to lead the Salomons Institute of Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to take a distinguished Institute into its next chapter.

Salomons Institute, located in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, is largely focussed on training for services in Mental Health – psychological aspects of care and delivery, talking therapies and professional development of practitioners across Kent, Sussex and South East London.

The flagship programme is the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, which, following sustainable growth in recent years, currently has 180 registered students. The Salomons Programme conceptualises the clinical psychologist as a critical, reflective, anti-discriminatory scientist and exposes trainees to a variety of therapeutic models. Accredited by the UK Health and Care Professions Council, the British Psychological Society and the Association of Family Therapy, the programme  is positively connected with NHS Trusts across Kent, London and Sussex.  The DClinPsychol is proud of its involvement of Experts by Experience in all aspects of its development and delivery.

Salomons Institute also offers a range of professional and postgraduate psychology courses, professional practice and consultancy. This includes two fully online, part-time, BPS-accredited postgraduate awards in Clinical Neuropsychology, a BABCP-Accredited Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, as well as being the only location in England to offer a full range of training in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT). There is an ambition for the Institute to develop further as a Centre for therapies, including the potential for a clinic.

Research and knowledge exchange work at Salomons Institute is recognised nationally and internationally. Recent projects include exploring the impact of disability on elite sports performance, user experience of Art Therapy, mindfulness-based and compassion-focussed approaches to wellbeing and building deeper understanding of Psychosis and Schizophrenia.

As part of Canterbury Christ Church, Salomons Institute is deeply committed to enriching the communities it serves. It has recently facilitated a Death Café to provide a safe space for local people to speak about bereavement, a Music Café to support older people with early stages dementia, provided schools with pastural and mental health support and more broadly, offers consultancy to mental health service commissioners and bespoke training around working with young people.

We are looking for a strategic, empathetic leader who brings genuine commitment to inclusion, antiracism, and diversity and vision to take this successful and socially important Institute into its next phase of growth. The successful candidate will be a Chartered Clinical Psychologist with significant experience of leading academic research, delivering a DClinPsy programme and shaping first-rate professional psychology education, research and consultancy to the benefit of service users and trainees.

Next Steps

For more information, including a candidate brochure, please go to www.canterbury.ac.uk/salomons-director. You are also welcome to arrange a supportive, confidential conversation with our Resourcing Consultant, Ellie Hurst (ellie.hurst@canterbury.ac.uk).

Closing date: Monday 6^th May 2024 at midnight.

Applicants will hear from us on or before Friday 10^th May 2024

Interview date: 22^nd May 2024 in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent

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