Lead Behavioral Health Therapist (Evening Program)

Alvarado Parkway Institute • La Mesa, CA

34m • Onsite

About The Position

Step into a leadership role where your clinical expertise, confident problem-solving, and independent judgment directly shape patient outcomes. As Lead Behavioral Health Therapist for Alvarado Parkway Institute’s La Mesa Outpatient Evening Program, you’ll guide a harm-reduction focused, mood and chemical dependency program serving both in-person and remote patients, providing advanced clinical care and crisis management in a supportive, collaborative setting. This role is ideal for a licensed clinician who thrives as a self-starter, is excited to lead and evening program, enjoys leading groups, and staff in a dynamic environment, and is committed to delivering evidence-based treatment for individuals with co-occurring mood and substance use disorders.
About Alvarado Parkway Institute (API):
Alvarado Parkway Institute (API) is a 66-bed free-standing psychiatric hospital in La Mesa, California, home to San Diego’s largest and most comprehensive outpatient program. Our three Intensive Outpatient and Partial Hospitalization Programs are designed to help individuals restore stability, independence, and hope. Guided by a patient-centered philosophy, API focuses on symptom management, community integration, and relapse prevention to support long-term wellness. We believe in treating the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—through evidence-based care, compassionate support, and value-added services that truly enhance each patient’s treatment experience.

About this job:
Alvarado Parkway Institute is seeking an experienced, licensed behavioral health professional to serve as Lead Behavioral Health Therapist (Evening Program) for our La Mesa Outpatient Services. In this role, you will oversee the evening program on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, providing direct clinical care, leading groups, and managing crises, while also supporting the day program on Tuesday and Thursday by reviewing and signing documentation, ensuring clinical quality, and covering groups as needed. The ideal candidate brings strong independent clinical judgment, excellent crisis management skills, and experience treating both mood and substance use disorders within a harm reduction framework. This position offers the opportunity to function as a key clinical leader—mentoring team members, ensuring high-quality documentation and care, and helping to maintain a stable, patient-centered, and operationally efficient outpatient program.

Requirements

• Written and oral communications skills, skills in case management, time management, and crisis intervention common to patients with acute psychosis as well as to non-violent crises intervention practice.
• Knowledge of acute adult psychological disorders
• Advanced principals of abnormal psychology as specifically applied to adults.
• Familiarly with follow-up resource services available to adults
• Skills in conducting individual and group psychotherapy.
• Ability to lead and train supervisees.
• Skills in maintaining information as highly confidential.
• Must demonstrate the ability to treat other age populations as needed or have the capacity to develop skills through the organization's cross-training, orientation program. In the absence of these qualifications upon hire, must demonstrate ability to learn these concepts and develop these skills within reasonable time frame.
• Ability to clearly summarize pertinent clinical information via written correspondence and medical records documentation.
• Must be able to concentrate on work amid distractions such as noise, conversations, and foot traffic; must be able to consistently meet deadlines regardless of case load; must be flexible in work hours in order to meet patient and organization operating needs.
• Must maintain self-control in volatile or hostile situations such as when verbally or physically confronted.
• Must be able to set therapeutic limits and maintain therapeutic distance with clients; maintains therapeutic boundaries with patients during treatment and following discharge.
• Must be able to address and prioritize multiple task demands within established time frames.
• Licensed/Licensed eligible with a masters degree or greater in a recognized mental health field.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in outpatient or inpatient setting preferred.

Responsibilities

• Completes psychosocial assessments to document relevant patient history and identify preliminary issues for treatment focus by interviewing the patient and family members/members of support network.
• Provides individual and group process-oriented therapies as well as conducts other didactic groups for patients using various professional treatment modalities.
• Develops and coordinates individualized treatment planning for the patient based upon physician order, patient-derived data, treatment team recommendations, records of previous treatment/chart review, and ancillary sources (e.g., family members, etc.); identifies and assesses community-based resources to facilitate development of concurrent, ancillary support; identifies and develops appropriate discharge planning based upon patient need, treatment team recommendation(s), and available resources.
• Assists Director and/or Clinical supervisor in providing crisis management for patients requiring intervention. Demonstrates crisis management skills as training for staff and interns.
• Attends regular treatment team meetings to provide Treatment Coordinator perspective to total case management of the patient by reading and discussing written progress notes from charts and communicating any state or local agency legal requirement for case management with the interdisciplinary team.
• Lead Treatment Coordinator will maintain group therapy schedule.
• Completes all mandatory third-party notifications per organizational policies and procedures and community/legal requirements; represents facility in any legal proceedings. Displays cultural sensitivity with regards to patients and staff.
• Provides appropriate referrals to inpatient and/or outpatient settings; completes, or assists in the completion of, assessments to facilitate transition from one level of care to another.
• Other duties as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees