Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant

About Us:

Founded in 1970, CALM is a community-based mental health agency serving Santa Barbara County with a mission to prevent childhood trauma, heal children and families, and build resilient communities.

Our team of CALM staff and dedicated volunteers share a vision of supporting every family in our community so that every child thrives.

CALM’s guiding principles are:

Clinical Excellence | All-in Approach | Leading the Way | Meaningful Relationships

Work for a mission driven organization committed to transparency, collaboration, and communication. Our values are at the heart of what we do.

Why CALM?

It’s an amazing time to join us as CALM was just awarded a substantial $694,000 grant from the Department of Health Care Services to implement and scale Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) across Santa Barbara County This exciting opportunity affords CALM the resources to establish an 18-month learning collaborative for up to 18 therapists with dedicated time for training, consultation, and implementation of CPP and the ability to hire and train a new Clinical Supervisor in this modality and CALM’s other evidence-based practices.

What is Child Parent Psychotherapy? CPP is an intervention model for children aged 0-5 who have experienced at least one traumatic event (e.g. maltreatment, the sudden or traumatic death of someone close, a serious accident, sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence) and/or are experiencing mental health, attachment, and/or behavioral problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). You can learn more here.

The Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant (IECMHC) is responsible for providing mental health consultation services to enhance the capacity of teachers, administrators, and caregivers to respond to the social-emotional and behavioral needs of children and their families. This position serves Santa Barbara County and works across a broad range of early care and education (ECE) settings where children learn and grow. The IECMHC uses a framework of promotion, prevention, and early intervention to tailor services that address specific goals for children, families, classrooms, or programs. The consultant works within and across systems, integrating mental health practices and trauma-informed care with cultural awareness and sensitivity. The IECMHC seeks to enhance all relationships involved in the care setting to create nurturing and responsive environments and build strong school and home alliances.

Essential Functions

• Guide implementation of mental health best practices in collaboration with families and adults to promote healthy social and emotional development of children.
• Collaborate with families and providers to assess relationships, routines, and practices that impact the classroom or home climate.
• Conduct classroom observations to assess and inform classroom culture, daily routines, relationships, transitions, and challenging behaviors.
• Meet with providers to review observation and assessment data and develop plans to support social, emotional, and relational well-being.
• Partner with providers to support ongoing communication with families about mental health, behavioral health, or developmental concerns related to their infant or young child.
• Develop written intervention strategies using a team approach to assist providers with positive behavior-support strategies to promote optimal social-emotional development in infants and young children.
• Connect and refer children, families, and providers to programs, resources, and supports that will foster their development while addressing barriers to access.
• Provide group and individual training on social and emotional wellness with specific topics related to infant and early childhood development, trauma-informed care, attachment, self-care, and other related topics.
• Guide selection, implementation, and interpretation of social-emotional screening and assessment tools, and their findings.
• Meet regularly with providers and administrators to review information and feedback about outcomes of, and satisfaction with, consultation services.
• Participate in evaluation efforts and commit to continuous quality improvement by incorporating feedback and outcome data into services.
• Create a shared understanding of the effects of trauma and adversity, including oppression, discrimination, racism, and gender inequity on the developing brain.
• Establish and maintain effective partnerships with community agencies.
• Completes all agency required documentation in a timely manner and in accordance with agency policy and best practice.
• Maintains cooperative working relationships with students, parents, families, teachers, and school staff.
• Participate in regular administrative supervision, clinical/group supervision, reflective supervision, team meetings and agency-wide meetings.
• Participate in trainings and work towards certification in available modalities, as directed by supervisor.
• Maintain active clinical license/registration with California licensing board (BBS or BOP).
• Other duties as assigned
• This is a County-wide position servicing Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Santa Barbara

Education and/or Experience:

• Master’s degree in Psychology, Early Childhood Education, Child Development, or relate field required.
• At least three years of experience working with children aged birth to five.
• At least two years of experience working in a mental health profession.
• Demonstrated knowledge and expertise in child development and early childhood mental health.

Qualifications:

• Strong commitment to CALM’s mission, vision, and strategic plan
• Strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Must have respect for confidentiality; ability to work with discretion and integrity
• Strong computer skills, including Microsoft office and web-based systems. Proficient in use of Zoom. Able to adapt to using various types of software
• Bilingual in English and Spanish preferred
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively as part of a multi-disciplinary team is essential
• Excellent clinical, interpersonal, analytical, organizational, time management and computer skills
• Comfortable working in busy, noisy, and dynamic settings where children learn and grow
• Reliable transportation is necessary to travel to designated sites
• Must have a valid driver’s license, clean DMV record and criminal record clearance from the DOJ
• Must be registered with the Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Licensed Social Worker (LSW), Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC), -OR- registered with the CA Board of Psychology as a Registered Psychologist – OR – registered with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst

CALM Benefits:

Benefits:

Culture & Wellness Events

Schedule flexibility

100% Employer sponsored Life Insurance (1x Salary)

100% Employer sponsored Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance for Employees

60% Employer sponsored Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance for Dependents

403(b) Retirement Plan with a 3% Match, increasing to 5% after 7 years

Student Loan Repayment Opportunities of up to $50,000 per year

AD&D, Long-Term Disability and Voluntary Benefits

Medical and Dependent Care FSA

Employee Assistance Plan that provides access to mental health, legal, and financial resources

Monthly Data Stipend of $35

Benefits opt-out stipend of $5,400/year

10 days of PTO for 1st year of service, increasing each year and 80 hours of sick leave

13 Paid Holidays

Training & Development:

We provide clinical supervision for doctoral students, ASW, AMFT, APCC

Access to Therapist Aide

Weekly sponsored Clinical Supervision & Support

We support staff who have a private practice and offer our space at CALM at no charge

Clinical Training & Advancement Opportunities, including certifications in evidence-based modalities:

Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Healthy Families America (HFA)

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC)

Nurturing Parenting Program (NPP)

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE)

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

Coming soon: Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)

Compensation:

CALM is committed to being an “employer of choice” and strives to recruit and retain qualified, high performing employees committed to our mission. Competitive compensation that rewards excellent performance is integral to this goal. CALM’s compensation program is designed to be externally competitive, internally equitable, and financially sustainable. CALM regards compensation holistically and considers wages, benefits, a supportive and positive work environment, staff wellness, on-going professional development, and work-life balance all critical aspects of our total rewards program.

CALM offers a 10% compensation increase upon licensure.

CALM offers a $1-3/hour bilingual stipend to employees that use a second language.

The salary range for this role is $38-52.

To Apply:

Qualified, interested candidates are asked to submit a resume and cover letter.