New Job Registered Counsellor In Saskatchewan

Registered Counsellor
Registered Counsellor

Registered Counsellor

Company : Jobssummary / Indeed
Salary : $95,000–$120,000 a year
Location : Saskatchewan

Full Description

First Talk is a group counselling centre looking to revolutionise the mental health field in Canada. It’s a sister company to the successful McNulty Counseling and Wellness found throughout the Southern United States with offices in St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Sarasota. With a proven successful business model that’s solely focused on a “clinician-first model”, and coupled with client happiness, First Talk is excited to announce that we’ll be first planting our roots in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The group counselling centre will be a first of its kind locally in Saskatoon providing services to individuals, couples, and families. As a full service counselling centre, we’ll have 8 total therapists treating children, teens/adolescents, young adults, adults, and elderly clients. As our first hire, you will be the most important as you’ll be a representative of the values and mission we’re trying to bring to the local community and beyond.

Please only apply if you are fully licensed in Saskatchewan through the Saskatchewan Association of Social Workers, or if you have obtained a masters in social work with years of experience of seeing couples and are licensed through the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. If you’ve seen couples, individuals, families, and/or a combination of all three, and you love the variety, this would be a huge plus so please let us know if that’s the case!

As we begin the construction of our office space in Saskatoon, you will see clients virtually through telehealth. Once office construction is complete, you will be expected to see clients primarily in-person and some through telehealth. Please read this job post in its entirety before applying.

So who are we really looking for? It's not all about credentials…

Our philosophy is to promote balance and wellness from a holistic approach. While you will be working at a group practice, we are looking for someone highly self-motivated and independent. Someone who is not interested in being micromanaged but is naturally at their best when they're given free rein to do what they do best - providing the best psychotherapy possible in every session that you have with your clients. We're looking for someone who will look forward to and contribute your expertise to our monthly group supervision. During "group sup," you’ll get together with all the other therapists at your location, all of whom will have decades of experience in a variety of therapeutic specialties, discussing anonymous case conceptualizations from real-life cases that someone from the group is struggling with. This synergy generates the best suggestions possible to help you and your colleagues advance as clinicians so you can continue to improve professionally for both you and your clients.

Breaking the stigma of people getting help for mental health issues and improving the mental health of our community is a mission that we take very seriously. At the same time, the First Talk environment is full of upbeat positivity filled with laughs and lightheartedness outside of sessions. We do a tough job that can be physically, emotionally, and spiritually taxing, so it's important to know that your team and the director have your back when needed. If these values resonate with you, keep reading!

Our practice offers services to individuals, children, adolescents, families, and couples. We specialise in treating anxiety disorders, depression, self-injurious behaviour, trauma, parent-child relationships, anger, divorce/separation issues, grief counselling, and more. Our current Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in our US offices usually have a caseload of 30% to 50% couples/families and the other percentage is dedicated to individual sessions where it’s you one on one with your client. This ratio can change from week to week, so it's crucial that you enjoy the flexibility and variety. Being a therapist myself who has worked in many different practices and settings, it's a part of our core values that you get to run your therapy sessions how you want to without any outside influence from management or insurance companies telling you how to operate in session. As long as you maintain legal and ethical standards, we encourage you to think outside the box and utilise the most effective and efficient therapy modalities that you know from experience would work best for each individual client based on their needs. We are always open to new counselling styles, theories, and their implementation. Continuing education is required so that you're constantly the best you can be for your clients but what you choose to pursue for CEU’s are up to you. Your clinical director and your colleagues will be available to help you with any difficult clients and leadership will have your back when dealing with difficult cases.

This position will become full-time once you reach 25-30 clients. We do incentivize a bonus for 25+ clients a week. However, we encourage you to see as many clients as you want, even if it's over 30. While reaching these goals is important, the well-being of our clinicians comes first. We try our best to practise what we preach. We are sensitive to clinician burnout and will adjust these goals based on your well-being and practice development.

How does the day-to-day look?

As our office is currently under construction, we require you to have your own computer equipped with a camera for telehealth appointments, a cell phone, and a high-speed internet connection. Prospective new clients will call in and talk with our Practice Administrator who will be answering calls, messages, and email inquiries 40 hours a week to ensure any new client who is interested in getting in right away is scheduled with you at your earliest availability. Our Practice Administrator will also double as your personal administrative assistant who will help you with any administrative issue that needs to be resolved such as billing, superbills, client complaints, and any other daily headaches that may arise so that you can focus on your clients. FirstTalk is responsible for all of your overhead including your own personal furnished office space, an upscale waiting spa-like room for clients, high speed internet, the best HIPAA compliant practice management software in the industry, an amazing practice administrator, marketing material, rent and utilities, office cleaning, and an exorbitant marketing budget to keep new clients coming in so that your availability remains booked and you can break through your professional and personal financial goals. To make your life easier, the practice management software sends, receives, and stores all HIPAA compliant documentation including progress notes and the forms needed for you to see your clients. It also sends clients text and voice reminders for appointment times, and allows you to charge at time of service so you’re sure to be paid in a timely manner. First Talk is also responsible for the 3.5% credit card fees to process payments. All this and much more, including a digital marketing and advertising agency partnership who ensures we’re ranking in the top searches for keywords pertaining to our specialisations in the mental health field which ultimately helps you to get booked up as soon as possible. We excel throughout new industries by implementing our already successful scaling model so it’s important that we get the best of the best clinicians around.

First Talk Model

Your primary responsibility is a commitment to excellence when counselling your clients so punctuality is imperative. You will be responsible for charging clients at the time of service, completing progress notes, and some scheduling which takes less than two minutes. Your job is as simple as coming into the office on time, seeing your clients for their 50-minute clinical hour, then taking the last 10 minutes for scheduling, progress notes, and treatment planning. You go home with zero overhead or management headaches. We have created this model so that you can come in, do your best job counselling, and then head home!

Most practices and community agencies require you to get clients to an emotional space where they feel just well enough to terminate treatment due to insurance constraints leaving much to be desired by the client and the clinician. This turn and burn model is what perpetuates clients not reaching their full potential and creates a negative stigma around mental health. This leads to clinicians being overworked, under-paid, and unfulfilled. At First Talk, clients are private pay so they come to session ready to work, they’re proactive in their treatment, and they enjoy their counselling sessions. An added bonus is because we’re private pay, most clients choose to continue to work with us after we’ve gotten them out of their depression, anxiety, or whatever it is that they’re struggling with, and they look for our guidance as if we’re a life coach so we get to help them reach major life goals. This is extremely rewarding because we get to see clients reach their full potential after we’ve treated their mental health issues. You have that freedom and flexibility with First Talk to take the client as far as they’re wanting to go!

Pay structure and incentives

We aim to have all clinicians see 25+ clients a week on average, and most of our clinicians maintain the bonus throughout the year. If you see 50 clients or more (25 clients a week) in a 2 week pay period, you will go from $60 to $75 per client for individuals and $80 to $100 per couple. More information follows:

Hourly Rates (Clients pay $150 for individuals and $200 for couples and family).

  • 60-minute individual session: $60 standard & $75 bonus
  • 60-minute couples intake: $80 standard & $100 bonus
  • 120-minute couples: $160 standard & $200 bonus

Pay scale example (actual therapists from MCW for the end of the year 2021):

Therapist 1 (RMFT)

  • This therapist saw 20 clients a week.
  • They made $62,400 that year, averaging 40 clients every two weeks.

Therapist 2 (RMFT)

  • This therapist saw 30 clients a week hitting the bonus.
  • They made $124,800 that year, averaging 60 clients every two weeks.

It is crucial that you have a happy and healthy work-life balance! While reaching goals and growing the practice is important, so are your mental health and well-being as a clinician. I encourage all therapists at our practice to take time off for family/vacation as frequently as needed.

We believe in paying for the best clinicians because we want to offer the best therapy. We happily surpass the industry standard when full time goals are reached (25+ clients every two weeks). Our therapists are in the top 10 percentile for salary compared to other counsellors in their field receiving double and almost triple what the industry standard is. Because we take payment at time of service, you get paid for seeing your clients at the end of every two-week pay period. Say goodbye to trickled-in insurance payments. Of course, our clients have the option to self-submit to their insurance companies for reimbursement.

Requirements:

  • Must currently have an active Saskatchewan licence (no interns)
  • Master's Degree or higher in the Mental Health field
  • Experience as RMFT
  • 5+ years of experience in the Mental Health field
  • Private practice experience is a plus but not required

Before applying, please understand that a self-pay private practice is much different from organisations that do accept insurance. Once onboarded, the clinician expectation is 35 client hours of open availability with a minimum of 20 face-to-face clinical hours with the ultimate goal of a minimum of around 25+ per week.

The more availability you can offer, the quicker our team can build your clientele. While it may be slower for the first couple of weeks, we have a very successful marketing onboarding process for our new clinicians that should have you at 20 clients per week within 2-3 months. How quickly your calendar fills is heavily dependent on the availability that you can offer. I never want to over-promise and under-deliver, so you must be upfront about your availability from the start. You are paid per client seen, so we encourage applicants to consider this when applying for this position.

We are a family at First Talk and McNulty Counselling and Wellness, and we want clinicians looking to join us for the long haul. The clinicians we hire are experts in their field and will be advertised as such and we make a considerable investment in making that happen. Our clinicians must take an active role in building their clientele including active community involvement for an hour once a month.

Before applying…

Please check out our website and reviews, and consider everything discussed above to ensure you're a good fit.

  • Why do you feel you would be a good fit for our counselling centre?
  • Who is your ideal client?
  • Why did you choose to be a therapist?
  • What is your ideal caseload in a given week, along with your perfect schedule
  • Weekends are a plus but not required

Finding the best fit for our practice is important to us - so finding a workable and enjoyable schedule is something we’d like for you to achieve. Some clinicians choose to work four days a week and see 6-8 clients in a row. Others work five days a week with 4-7 clients a day. Plan to see a minimum of 20 clients a week and the maximum is up to you.

You must dedicate at least three nights a week (until 7:00 PM) to seeing clients who require evening accommodations. Note that four available evenings would be the quickest way to build your clientele up. If you'd like to offer weekend availability, this would expedite the accrual of a complete client list.

If you feel you are a good fit for this position, we invite you to apply and eagerly await your application! If you have any questions, please ask. Please check us out on Firsttalk.ca and McNultyCounseling.com. Every clinician we have is currently at full capacity with their caseload or very close, so if you come on board, I am confident I can get you a full caseload of 20+ clients a week at the end of two months, depending on your availability.

We do not offer any insurance or benefits, but this may change with time depending on the needs of individuals in the practice. This role is an independent contractor position.

**Applicants will only be responded to on an individual basis. Recruiters, please do not contact this job post. We are not currently hiring interns or other positions, so please don't send us applications unless you meet the requirements outlined in the posting.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: $95,000.00-$120,000.00 per year

Schedule:

  • Monday to Friday

Application question(s):

  • Are you willing to work 3 nights a week until 7 pm? This ideal schedule will get you booked up as quickly as possible so we can accommodate the after-work and after-school clientele. This is the availability we'll be looking for once the buildout is complete. We will be fully virtual until then.
  • What is the youngest client you enjoy working with? What is the oldest client you enjoy working with?
  • Are you willing to see 25 or more clients in a given week on average? What is your ideal number of clients you'd like to see in a given week?
  • Are you planning on living in the Saskatoon area for the next 5-10 years?
  • Are you willing to work solely for First Talk once we get you to a full-time caseload (25 or more clients a week)?
  • Who is your ideal client? There's no wrong answer. We want to know which type of client(s) you get most excited about working with!
  • * Your application will be automatically rejected if you don't respond to the questions listed above. We also highly encourage you to visit our website to get a feel for who we are and what we're about. Please acknowledge your understanding with a "yes."
  • We're looking to hire quickly so please list some dates and times over the next week or two when you'll be available for an hour for a virtual interview.

Work Location: One location

Expected start date: 2023-02-01