CF Clinician

POSITION TITLE:     Clinician 

PROGRAM:               Child First Program 

GENERAL STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Child First Mental Health and Developmental Clinician partners with a Care Coordinator to engage families who are referred to the Child First home-based intervention.  Child First’s primary goal is to strengthen the caregiver-child relationship so that it serves both as a protective buffer to unavoidable stress and directly facilitates the child’s emotional, language, and cognitive growth.  The Clinician uses trauma-informed CPP, a relationship-based, dyadic, parent-child treatment model, which focuses on the primary attachment relationships of the young child.  The Clinician engages with the caregiver in a supportive, reflective, and exploratory manner which fosters protective, nurturing, and responsive parent-child relationship.  The Clinician’s therapeutic intervention focuses on: (1) helping caregivers understand typical developmental challenges and expectations; 2) increasing caregivers’ ability to reflect on the meaning and feelings motivating a child’s behavior; 3) supporting caregivers’ problem solving; 4) helping caregivers understand the psychodynamic relationship between parental feelings, history, and the caregiver response to the child.  The Clinician also provides consultation to teachers in early care and education settings, as needed.

EXAMPLES OF RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Partner with families and the Care Coordinator to complete comprehensive child and family assessments using interviews, observations, records, collateral information, and standardized tools.

2. Develop integrated clinical formulations and individualized Child and Family Plans of Care in collaboration with the family and Care Coordinator.

3. Provide home-based, relationship-focused psychotherapy to young children and caregivers using Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and other evidence-based interventions.

4. Support caregivers in understanding the impact of their personal experiences, including trauma, on parenting and the parent-child relationship.

5. Provide crisis intervention and collaborate with the Care Coordinator and Clinical Director to address urgent family needs.

6. Conduct developmental and mental health assessments and provide consultation to early childhood providers and educational settings.

7. Participate in reflective supervision, including the use of videotaping to support clinical growth and treatment quality.

8. Actively participate in Child First trainings, learning collaboratives, team meetings, and required supervision.

9. Maintain accurate, timely clinical documentation and complete other clinical and administrative duties as assigned.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s or Doctoral level mental health provider (e.g., LMSW, LCSW, 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.  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.

• Strong commitment to the vision, mission, and goals of Child First.

• Highly organized, self-motivated, reliable, and flexible (including wiliness to work non-traditional hours, including at least on evening).

 LICENSURE/CERTIFICATION/REGISTRATION:

Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation and valid auto insurance; CPR and first-aid.