Youth Psychotherapist

POSITION OVERVIEW: The Youth Psychotherapist provides high-quality, trauma-informed,

holistic, youth-friendly, anti-oppressive therapeutic services for Pa’lante youth, with an emphasis

on those impacted by violence. This position also builds strong community and family

partnerships to co-create and coordinate communities of care, and supports our staff team to

better serve the mental health needs of our youth. The ideal candidate understands that mental

health is connected to systemic oppression, and is invested in supporting their clients’ self

determination and in decolonizing their own therapy practice.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Individual, Family & Group Therapy

• Develop Pa’lante’s new clinical program in partnership with youth leaders, centering the needs and priorities of youth who have experienced mental health challenges
• Provide onsite clinical services that align with Pa’lante’s values, including maintaining a caseload of individual therapy clients and offering regular groups and circles
• Collaborate with parents, families and community supports to provide integrated, wraparound supports to youth
• Assessment and treatment of suicidal ideation, crisis intervention and safety planning
• Coordination, recruitment & co- facilitation of Mindful Rage, Pa’lante’s youth-designed, youth-led alternative anger management training
• Maintain compliant documentation of progress notes, treatment plans, and keep all records up to date.

Outreach, Partnerships & Referrals

• Oversee Pa’lante’s overall outreach program to increase access to all of our services, with particular attention to youth impacted by the criminal legal system, foster care, violence, & school push out
• Build strong, cohesive and streamlined relationships and referral networks
• Leverage networks to generate referrals for restorative justice circles, drop-in services, and leadership development opportunities

Supervision & Leadership Development

• All Pa’lante staff are expected to find opportunities to support and develop Pa’lante youth leaders. This may include supervising youth staff, facilitating portions of youth leadership meetings, and providing trainings to youth.
• Recruit and supervise MSW graduate students
• Support staff navigating challenges with clients
• Provide trainings on mental health topics as needed for staff and interns

QUALIFICATIONS:

If you have just some of the skills listed below, or others we failed to list, please consider

applying for this position. We are a small, nimble organization that makes the best use of the

skills of its staff and is dedicated to their professional development.

• This position requires a Master's Degree in Psychology, Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, Counseling, or a related subject area.
• Clinical license (LICSW, LMFT, LMHC), preferred but not required. Supervision toward licensure is possible.
• Demonstrated commitment to challenging racism and other systems of oppression
• Commitment to shared leadership and decision making
• Demonstrated love and respect for young people of color
• Minimum 3 years experience working with people with serious mental health concerns and people who have been impacted by the criminal legal system and school pushout
• Minimum 3 years of related experience providing crisis intervention, case management, group therapy, individual therapy
• Excellent project management, time-management, priority setting and organizational skills
• Excellent supervisory skills, including enthusiasm and skill in working with and developing young staff
• Team player and capable of working independently and collaboratively.
• Experience with some or all of the following, preferred: community organizing, public speaking, training design and facilitation, youth development, restorative/transformative justice, program design/development, strategic planning
• Lived experience navigating mental health challenges and systemic oppression, preferred
• Clinical supervisory experience, preferred
• Bilingual in Spanish, strongly preferred
• Connection to Holyoke, preferred

COMMITMENT/EXPECTATIONS: This is an in-person position with some limited virtual working opportunities. Pa’lante has a 35-hour work week with a flexible schedule and the option to work a 4-day week. Our youth drop-in hours are Mon-Fri 3-7PM, and the Youth Pyschotherapist will need to be present for most (but not all) of those hours in order to reach youth who are in school during the day.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS: $65-70k plus very generous benefits, including:

• 5 weeks paid agency closure time (2 weeks in the summer, 2 weeks in the winter and one week for Thanksgiving/Day of Mourning) plus 13 vacation days and 10 sick/wellness days accrued annually.
• Medical/dental insurance is covered at 80% for individuals and 70% for a family. Vision insurance is covered at 100%.
• Employees enrolled in our insurance plan receive an HRA card funded at $3,000 per year for individuals and $6,000 per year for families to use toward eligible medical expenses (copays, prescriptions, mental health services). This is essentially “free money” provided by the employer to cover health-related costs.
• Employer sponsored retirement plan with a 3% match.
• Annual $1500 raise, revenue permitting