Mental Health Consultant/Parent-Child Dyadic Therapist - San Mateo, United States - STARVISTA

Description

JOB TITLE: Mental Health Consultant/Parent-Child Dyadic Therapist

DEPARTMENT: Early Childhood Services

REPORTS TO: Program Manager

POSITION STATUS: Non-Exempt-Full-time-30-40 hours per week

SALARY: $34.50 per hour

LOCATION: San Mateo County- Coast Region (Half Moon Bay, La Honda, Pescadero)

DESCRIPTION:

StarVista is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has helped people of all ages throughout San Mateo County navigate life challenges for over 55 years. Our mental health, crisis intervention, youth housing, substance use, and early childhood services help thousands of individuals each year. StarVista's services are rooted in strength-based, holistic practices and center diversity, equity and inclusion to ensure anyone who comes to StarVista can access support. StarVista's values of respect, passion, partnerships, accountability, innovation and integrity foster an agency culture of support and growth.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

Our Early Childhood Services program strives to foster healthy cognitive, emotional, and social development for children birth through age five and their families. The Early Childhood Services Department provides Mental Health Consultation to childcare centers and providers throughout San Mateo County and northern Santa Clara County to enhance the quality of childcare services and the accessibility to these services, especially for children with special needs and low-income families, as well as providing dyadic therapy services, groups and case management to children and parents.

POSITION PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES:

This position includes work as both a Mental Health Consultant and a Parent-child Dyadic Therapist working with children birth through five, their families, and their care providers. The Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant/Dyadic Therapist will be part of a collaborative community-based team of early childhood providers. A successful candidate for this position will have proven history working with young children and families, strong capacity for self-reflection and collaboration with team members, and ability to communicate a sense of passion and commitment to supporting the social-emotional development young children and the deepening the understanding of their care providers. While experience in providing Child-Parent Psychotherapy is preferred for the dyadic clinical work portion of the position, we shall orient the right candidate in the fundamental concepts of Child Parent Psychotherapy and other similar clinical modalities. You will be joining a dedicated team of collaborative early childhood professionals. We will provide high-quality training and reflective supervision to support professional development and growth.

**Currently all staff meetings & some of the clinical services are via telehealth platforms

Requirements

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Training Program

• Actively participates in a comprehensive training program that includes individual supervision, administrative supervision, and involvement.
• Reads, studies and applies materials presented in the didactic seminar on mental health consultation and child development.
• Prepares process recordings and presents consultation work in clinical case conferences in order to understand appropriate interventions in the consultation context.
• Regularly attends all seminars, case conferences and supervisory meetings.
• May assist with staff supervision based on qualifications and experience.
• Programmatic consultation
• Observes the childcare setting to become familiar with the program offered to children.
• Meets regularly with the childcare staff and the director to address programmatic concerns.
• Provides consultation to center staff on programmatic issues that affect the quality of care provided to the children, as requested.
• Discusses effective mechanisms of working with parents, as requested.
• Assists staff to build and maintain productive collegial relationships with one another.
• Collaborates with providers and partners (individuals and systems) as needed

Child-centered Consultation

• Provides case-centered consultation to caregivers with questions or concerns about children at the center.
• Observes children in the childcare setting to assess functioning, relationships with caregivers and other children, and "fit" in the program.
• Meets on-site or at home with families to complete assessments, provide developmental guidance and referrals, including linkage to clinical services.
• Meets regularly with childcare staff individually and in groups to discuss individual children.
• Infant-/Child-Parent Dyadic Therapy
• Provides weekly therapy telehealth/home visits to families.
• Assesses and diagnoses infants/children (or mothers/primary caregivers when working with families during the prenatal period), develops and implements treatment plans, maintains timely progress notes for each case.
• Coordinates with team members to provide case management, advocacy and referrals based on the needs of each family.
• Coordinates treatment with other providers who are involved with each family.
• Collaborates with team members to implement outreach efforts aimed at engaging families and building relationships with community partners.
• Administrative
• Maintains up to date records, charting regularly and accurately.
• Participates in program evaluation efforts.
• Prepares demographic and service data on all site activities.
• Represents the program in the community, as requested.
• Complies with all standards of performance.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree in social work or psychology and license or license eligible required. A licensed candidate is preferred.
• This position is a field position, and applicants must be comfortable and willing to drive to various points throughout San Mateo County and Santa Clara County. Specifically, we are looking someone able to cover the Coast Region predominantly (Half Moon Bay, La Honda, Pescadero)
• (Optional) Experience as a mental health clinician specializing in psychotherapeutic work with young children and their families.
• Knowledge of early development
• (Optional) Prior work experience in early childhood education and/or group settings for children.
• Knowledge of assessment of young children's social and emotional functioning.
• Experience with group dynamics and therapeutic interventions with adults (individuals and groups).
• Willingness to engage in self-reflection and participate fully in reflective supervision.
• Willingness to utilize a trauma-informed culturally humble model of therapy.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• You do not need prior clinical experience working in consultation, childcare settings, or dyadic zero to five clinical settings (although, those with experience highly encouraged to apply).
• We provide one year of intensive seminar training in both Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation and Dyadic Family Therapy with young children.

BENEFITS: *Benefits applicable only to benefit eligible employees 20+hours per week on a prorated basis

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Basic Life & AD&D
• Flexible Spending Account / Dependent Care Spending Account
• Employee Assistance Program
• Retirement Plan (non-matching)
• Sick Time
• Vacation Time
• Personal Time
• Holiday Pay
• Birthday Floating Holiday

We encourage you to apply if you think you would be a great fit but do not meet the preferred education/experience level. We welcome folks from all backgrounds and lived experiences and would love to learn more about how you may be a great fit for this role.

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