4 November 2022

This is Nataly Figueroa, a Behavioural Specialist working in Kensington and Chelsea CAMHS.

Nataly joined CNWL with the intention of staying for just one year, that was about eight years ago now.

She’s still with the CAMHS team, enjoying working alongside caring colleagues who listen and show support over a cup of coffee; this may be a small gesture but it carries a lot of heart because working with young patients with challenging behaviour can be difficult.

However, when you see patients begin to feel better, and you have a compassionate team like Nataly’s, willing to take you for coffee whenever you need a pick me up, it’s really no surprise how one year turned into eight years.

Nataly Said, "It’s very very frequent someone will say let’s go get a coffee and a few of us will go and have a coffee in the middle of the day and come back to our work.”

Watch the video (above) to hear Nataly - in her own words - describe what it’s like to be a Behavioural Specialist in CNWL.

“We look at understanding what need is being met by a behaviour and how instead we can meet those needs through other behaviours, and that sometimes involves teaching communication skills or teaching parents so they can anticipate the needs of their children and can meet it before the behaviour occurs."

"It is challenging work, it is a lot of work. I think you come into contact with a lot of realities that you read in newspapers. You work in your area of expertise – you also collaborate with other clinicians, there’s also the social care side of things – you work with an entire network.”

Nataly’s story forms part of There’s a Place for You, a series of films from our CAMHS service.

The series, produced by And Productions, was created with our staff, showing the working and clinical experiences of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

CAMHS is made up of a team of professionals with different skills and backgrounds who work together to provide a range of specialist support to young people and their families, helping with their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

In these films, team members from across the service reveal the day-to-day realities of their roles in mental health, highlighting how rewarding their work is, and why they are so passionate about working with young people.

We hope this can help raise awareness of the opportunities a career within CAMHS can offer. The full series will be released online over the coming months, so keep an eye out for more stories.

There's a place for you here at CNWL, we have a range of opportunities across CAMHS in mental health, community services, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you’re at.

Be part of our fantastic team. View current vacancies here.

Our most recent vacancies are below:

CAMHS Youth Offending Team Practitioner: Click here to view details

CAMHS Schools Team Practitioner: Click here to view details

CAMHS Urgent Care Specialist Practitioner: Click here to view details

You can find out more about the different professionals involved in a children’s mental health team on our CAMHS service page.