Child First Mental Health and Developmental Clinician

Easterseals PORT•New Bern, NC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Easterseals PORT Health (ESPH), our mission is rooted in empowering individuals and strengthening communities. We are seeking a passionate Child First Mental Health and Developmental Clinician to provide supportive, family-centered care for children and families impacted by mental health and developmental challenges in Craven County and surrounding areas. This isn’t just a job — you will be influencing change and shaping futures as part of our shared mission to help people reach their full potential. The Child First Mental Health and Developmental Clinician partners with a Family Resource Partner to engage families referred to the Child First home-based intervention. The primary goal of Child First is to strengthen caregiver-child relationships so they serve as a protective buffer to stress while fostering the child’s emotional, language, and cognitive development. In this role, you will provide trauma-informed Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), a relationship-based, dyadic treatment model focused on the young child’s primary attachment relationships. Through reflective, supportive, and exploratory engagement, you will promote nurturing, responsive, and protective caregiver-child interactions. Your work will support caregivers by: Building understanding of typical developmental expectations and challenges, Increasing reflective capacity around emotions and meaning behind child behavior, Strengthening problem-solving skills and parenting confidence, Exploring how caregiver history and experiences influence parenting responses. You will also: Conduct collaborative family assessments through interviews, observation, play, standardized measures, and collateral information, Develop integrated clinical formulations and individualized Child and Family Plans of Care, Provide home-based therapeutic intervention using CPP and other evidence-based modalities, Support families during periods of urgent need to help avert crisis situations, Offer mental health and developmental consultation in early care and education settings, Participate in reflective clinical supervision, team meetings, and the Child First Learning Collaborative, Maintain timely, accurate documentation to support clinical accountability and reimbursement.

Requirements

Master’s or Doctoral degree in a mental health field
Full or provisional NC license as an LCSW (A), LPC/LCMHC (A), or LMFT (A)
Minimum of 3 years’ experience providing psychotherapy to culturally diverse children and families, including parent-child therapy with children ages 0–5
Knowledge of early child development, attachment theory, trauma-informed and psychodynamic approaches
Experience providing assessment and consultation in early care and education settings
Valid driver’s license, good driving record, and current auto insurance

Nice To Haves

Bilingual abilities (Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, or other languages) are highly valued.

Responsibilities

Provide trauma-informed Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)
Conduct collaborative family assessments through interviews, observation, play, standardized measures, and collateral information
Develop integrated clinical formulations and individualized Child and Family Plans of Care
Provide home-based therapeutic intervention using CPP and other evidence-based modalities
Support families during periods of urgent need to help avert crisis situations
Offer mental health and developmental consultation in early care and education settings
Participate in reflective clinical supervision, team meetings, and the Child First Learning Collaborative
Maintain timely, accurate documentation to support clinical accountability and reimbursement