Child First Clinician (In person)

General Purpose

The Child First Clinician partners with a Family Support Partner to engage families who are referred to the Child First home-based intervention.  Child First’s primary goal is to strengthen the caregiver-child relationship so that it serves both as a protective buffer to unavoidable stress and directly facilitates the child’s emotional, language, and cognitive growth.  The Clinician uses trauma-informed CPP, a relationship-based, dyadic, parent-child treatment model, which focuses on the primary attachment relationships of the young child.  The Clinician engages with both the caregiver and child in a supportive, reflective, and exploratory manner which fosters a protective, nurturing, and responsive parent-child relationship.  The Clinician’s therapeutic intervention focuses on: 1) helping caregivers understand typical developmental challenges and expectations; 2) increasing caregivers’ ability to reflect on the meaning and feelings motivating a child’s behavior; 3) supporting caregivers’ problem solving; and 4) helping caregivers understand the psychodynamic relationship between parental feelings, history, and the caregiver response to the child.  The Clinician also provides consultation to teachers in early care and education settings, as needed.  

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities

• Engage with the Child First family and the Family Support Partner in the collaborative family assessment process (i.e., gather information from interviews, observations of interactions and play, reviewed records, collateral sources, and standardized measures).
• Use all available information to develop a thoughtful, well-integrated clinical formulation and Child and Family Plan of Care, in partnership with the Family Support Partner and family.
• Provide Child First home-based psychotherapeutic intervention with young children and their caregivers using relational, dyadic psychotherapy (CPP) and other modalities.
• Help the caregiver gain insight regarding personal history (including trauma history), feelings for the child, and current parenting practices.
• Avert crisis situations by assisting the family in times of urgent need (e.g., risk of harm to child or caregiver, pending child removal), in consultation with the Family Support Partner and Clinical Supervisor.
• Provide mental health and developmental assessment and consultation within early care and education settings and to other early childhood providers.
• Embrace use of videotaping to enhance both therapeutic work with families and reflective supervision. 
• Engage in weekly individual, Team, and group reflective clinical supervision with Clinical Supervisor.
• Engage actively in all aspects of the Child First Learning Collaborative, including in-person trainings, distance learning curriculum, and specialty trainings.
• Keep all appropriate documentation for clinical accountability and reimbursement.
• Participate in other clinical and administrative activities as appropriate.

Supervisory Duties (if any)

• None

Job Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills, and Ability:

• Experience working psychotherapeutically with culturally diverse children and families, including parent-child therapeutic work and play therapy with very young children (0-5 years), for a minimum of three years.  Past CPP training is highly valued.
• Openness to learning, capacity for self-reflection, and eagerness to participate in reflective clinical supervision.
• Knowledge of relationship-based, psychodynamic intervention and early child development; parent-child relationships and attachment theory; effects of trauma and environmental risks on early childhood brain development, especially violence exposure, maternal depression, and substance abuse; and community-level risk factors (e.g., poverty, homelessness).
• Experience providing mental health assessment and consultation to early care and education sites. 
• Knowledge and experience working with adults with mental health, substance use, and cognitive challenges. 
• Experience providing intervention within diverse home and community settings.
• Ability to speak a second language (Spanish), highly valued.
• Strong commitment to the vision, mission, and goals of Child First and Solvista Health.
• Highly organized, self-motivated, reliable, and flexible (including willingness to work non-
• traditional hours, including at least one evening). 
• Able to work as part of a team.
• Able to communicate well verbally and in writing.
• Comfortable with computers and experienced with Word and Excel.
• Reliable vehicle and appropriate insurance for home visits.

Education or Formal Training:

• Master’s degree in social work, clinical psychology, or closely related field.
• Colorado license preferred (LPC, LCSW, LMFT).

Experience:

• Three years of clinical experience as a licensed mental health professional; or combination of training, education, experience, and licensure that is equivalent and provides the required knowledge and abilities.

Working Conditions and Other Conditions of Employment

Working Environment:

This job operates in a fast-paced, professional office environment and routinely requires the use of standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers. The position may require travel to conferences, meetings and branch locations on a regular or intermittent basis. Work may involve moderate exposure to unusual elements, such as extreme temperatures, dirt, dust, fumes, smoke, unpleasant odors, and/or loud noises. In the health center environment, there is potential for contact with blood-borne pathogens and communicable diseases, as well as potential for contact with dissatisfied or abusive individuals. There could be interaction with persons who are mentally ill, disabled, elderly and emotionally upset.

Physical Activities:

These are representative of those which must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

This is a largely sedentary role but can involve standing or sitting for extended periods of time, bending at the waist, and using hands and fingers to handle and file papers or operate assigned equipment. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. Employee may also have to lift 10 to 25 lbs. unassisted.

Conditions of Employment:

• Annual TB, federally required drug screening, and Influenza vaccination or compliance with policy and procedure.
• Required possession of a valid state driver's license.
• Successful candidate must submit to and pass, post-offer drug screen.