Salomons Institute, located within the Lucy Fildes Building, in central 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 trainees. The Salomons programme conceptualises the clinical psychologist as a critical, reflective, anti-discriminatory scientist and exposes trainees to a variety of therapeutic and practice 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 new approaches to voice-hearing. The Institute has a particular focus on public engagement: for example we have a well-regarded podcast series and blog site, Discursive of Tunbridge Wells, discussing controversies in mental health. We have a long-standing long-standing partnership with the British Psychological Society to produce influential and award-winning public information reports such as Understanding Depression and Understanding Psychosis.  

As part of Canterbury Christ Church University, 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 and a Music Café to support older people with early dementia. It provides schools with pastoral 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 along with 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, working with NHS England and the NHS, and shaping first-rate professional psychology education, research and consultancy within a complex landscape to the benefit of service users and trainees.

Next Steps

For more information, please download the candidate pack. You are also welcome to arrange a supportive and confidential conversation with our Resourcing Consultant, Ellie Hurst, (ellie.hurst@canterbury.ac.uk), who can tell you more about the role, our University, and the application/recruitment process.

To apply, please click the ‘Apply for this job’ button below. You will need to fill out the main details section and upload your CV, covering letter and any supporting documents. If you have any questions about the application process or cover letter, or need any support or reasonable adjustments, please email Ellie Hurst, who will be happy to help (ellie.hurst@canterbury.ac.uk).

Apply now

Canterbury Christ Church University truly welcomes fresh perspectives and new voices. We want you to bring the real you to work, so we are committed to building a genuinely inclusive working environment where everyone is welcomed and where everyone can have a true sense of belonging. Our spirit of community will help us to eliminate discrimination and will enable us all to thrive in a culture that is underpinned by fairness and justice. We therefore seek people to join us who will proactively support and shape this aim and contribute in their own unique way. If this is you, then we are waiting to hear from you.