ABSTRACT
The role of the psychologist within any service is to provide psychological therapies and, traditionally, the emphasis in clinical psychology literature has been on how best to deliver these in the context of work with individuals. In this chapter, the focus is removed from the psychologist-as-therapist. Instead, the chapter is concerned with the role of the psychologist as someone who has the necessary skills to maximise the therapeutic potential of the multidisciplinary team. Knowledge of psychological theory and practice enables the psychologist to harmonise care by embedding psychological thinking into the everyday work of the team in an effort to ensure consistency and, ultimately, optimal conditions for growth and change as recommended by NICE (2009).
