Functional Family Therapist

Overview

At The New York Foundling, we trust in the power and potential of people, and we deliberately invest in proven practices. From bold beginnings in 1869, our New York-based nonprofit has supported hundreds of thousands of our neighbors on their own paths to stability, strength, and independence.  We help children and families navigate through and beyond foster care. We help families struggling with conflict and poverty grow strong. We help individuals with developmental disabilities live their best lives, and we help our neighbors access quality health and mental health services—core to building lifelong resilience and wellbeing. Together, our interrelated programs provide a whole-person, whole-family, and whole-life approach that unlocks solutions for a lifetime.

A Functional Family Therapist provides intensive, in-home, family-centered treatment to youth and families with complex behavioral health needs. Guided by the evidence-based model, the therapist works to reduce safety risks, strengthen family functioning, and decrease involvement with higher-level systems of care (e.g., child welfare, juvenile justice, hospitalization). This role emphasizes measurable outcomes, collaborative engagement, and culturally responsive practices to support sustainable family change and to reduce a young person's likelihood of facing a jail or prison outcome on their case.

Responsibilities

*UP TO $2,000 SIGN ON INCENTIVE***

***Sign-on Bonus is not permitted for internal candidates***

A Functional Family Therapist provides intensive, in-home, family-centered treatment to youth and families with complex behavioral health needs. Guided by the evidence-based model, the therapist works to reduce safety risks, strengthen family functioning, and decrease involvement with higher-level systems of care (e.g., child welfare, juvenile justice, hospitalization). This role emphasizes measurable outcomes, collaborative engagement, and culturally responsive practices to support sustainable family change and to reduce a young person's likelihood of facing a jail or prison outcome on their case. 

Job Responsibilities: 

• Provide evidence-based, in-home therapeutic services to an assigned caseload of up to 8 families, completing an average of 1 sessions per family per week to reduce identified risk factors, increase protective factors, and support families in achieving individualized treatment goals. Cases may be assigned in up to 2 boroughs. 
• Actively engage caregivers, youth, and key supports in treatment by maintaining full family session attendance, addressing barriers to treatment in a timely manner, and utilizing engagement strategies to promote consistent involvement and successful goal attainment. Therapists will maintain a 80% session pacing expectation.
• Document case progression in a timely and accurate manner in all databases to support treatment fidelity, tracking, and planning and ensure compliance with model, stakeholder, and billing requirements. Therapists to complete treatment plans within 20 days of case opening to meet OMH regulations.
• Establish and maintain collaborative working relationships with colleagues, community providers and model/external stakeholders to connect families to resources and support ongoing treatment communication and collaboration for effective treatment planning.
• Continuously assess for families safety, addressing crises, completing safety plans and incident reports in a timely manner as necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of all families served by the program with an emphasis on decreasing system involvement. Provide after hour and weekend on call support to families for emergencies.
• Write compliance reports for the court. Attend court appearances with clients and new referrals to give updates on compliance with programming to the court and build engagement with clients.
• Participate in required individual supervision, group supervision, model consultations, trainings, staff meetings, and community outreach events, contributing to professional growth, model adherence, team cohesion, and community visibility. Support families in participating in live sessions and/or have recordings ready for review for specified model trainings.
• Provide clinical case coverage for peers during absences or high-need periods, responding to assigned coverage requests within established program timelines to ensure continuity of care and consistent support for families.

The New York Foundling is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse employee population, the Foundling will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.

Qualifications

• Masters degree in Psychology, Social Work, Counseling or a related subject area.
• 1 years of accumulated relevant experience (internships through post-graduate) in child welfare, mental health or substance abuse.
• Excellent writing, communication, interpersonal, problem-solving, time management and organizational skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team. Proven self-management abilities including meeting deadlines, prioritizing multiple tasks efficiently, timely completion of documentation and maintaining accurate and up-to-date case records.
• Ability to work effectively with a diverse, multidisciplinary team and connect with a diverse client population to engage them in services throughout treatment.
• Ability to receive and execute feedback to professionally grow and/or improve and be flexible with programmatic needs and changes. Ability to manage stress, self-care and maintain a high level of self-awareness.
• An understanding and commitment to complying with the New York State Central Register of Abuse and Neglect protocol (requirement to report any suspected abuse, maltreatment or neglect of any child).
• Must be comfortable and able to travel and visit families in their homes and perform safety assessments.

Education Required

Masters’s Degree from a U.S. accredited educational institution or Credential Evaluation for a non-U.S. educational institution

Salary Range:

$77,583.62/year + $3,500 - Bilingual Additive (as applicable) + $1,000 – Provisional Licensure Additive (as applicable) + $4,000 – Full Licensure Additive (as applicable)