Child First Mental Health Clinician-. Collins

Overview

We are seeking a Child First Mental Health Clinician to work with families in the Pueblo, Otero, Crowley, Bent Counties. New grads are welcome to apply! This is a full-time salaried position with robust benefits including licensed supervision. Annual base salary range is $60,000-$75,000.

Child First is an evidence-based, early childhood intervention that helps very vulnerable families build strong, nurturing relationships that protect and heal young children from the devastating impact of trauma and chronic stress. Most families have experienced multiple challenges, including poverty, violence, depression, substance use, and homelessness. Research demonstrates that these adverse experiences damage the developing brain of the young child. Therefore, Child First works in the home with a two-pronged approach: (1) Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP HOME – Child-Parent Psychotherapy ()), an attachment-based, trauma-informed, dyadic intervention which protects the brain from the impact of stress and trauma, and (2) care coordination that provides wrap-around services and supports for the whole family, decreasing “toxic” stress.

In this way, Child First is able to decrease the incidence of serious emotional disturbance, developmental and learning problems, and abuse and neglect among young children (prenatal to age six years). This intervention has been designated by Health and Human Services (HHS) as one of the 17 national, evidence-based home visiting models under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Initiative (MIECHV).

• Provide in-home mental health services and support to very young children (prenatal to age six) and their families, using relationship-based, attachment-focused approaches.
• Deliver CPP HOME as part of the intervention, and engage in care coordination to connect families with wrap-around services.
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team and participate in reflective clinical supervision.

• Master’s or Doctoral level mental health provider (e.g., LMSW, LCSW, LMFT, clinical psychologist, other); licensed or license-eligible.
• 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 highly valued.
• Highly organized, self-motivated, reliable, and flexible (including willingness to work non-traditional hours, including some evening hours as needed).
• Able to work as part of a team and communicate well verbally and in writing.
• Comfortable with computers and experienced with Microsoft Word.