Child First Clinician

Wellmore Behavioral Health•Waterbury, CT

1d•$62,593 - $75,324•Hybrid

About The Position

The Child First Clinician partners with a Care Coordinator and delivers home-based interventions designed to strengthen caregiver-child relationships and buffer against stress. Utilizing trauma-informed Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), the Clinician guides caregivers in understanding child development, reflecting on behavior, and recognizing how their personal histories impact their parenting. Additionally, the Clinician provides mental health consultation to early childhood educators.

Requirements

Master’s or Doctoral level mental health provider (e.g., LMSW, LCSW, LPCA, LPC, LMFTA, LMFT, clinical psychologist, other), licensed in Connecticut.
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.
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.
Reliable vehicle and appropriate insurance for home visits.
Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation and valid auto insurance; CPR and First-aid may be required.

Nice To Haves

Past CPP training is highly valued.
Bilingual (Spanish-English) may be required.

Responsibilities

Engage with the Child First family and the Care Coordinator 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 Care Coordinator 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 Care Coordinator and Clinical Director.
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 Director.
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.