Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor

Full Job Description

NEED SUMMARY Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.

Education: Hold a master's or doctoral degree in: Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; or a related field, from a program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

Examples of related mental health counseling fields include, but are not limited to Addiction Counseling; Community Counseling; Gerontology Counseling; Marital, Couple, and Family Counseling.

CACREP defines the date when graduates are considered to have graduated from a CACREP accredited program. Additional information may be obtained from http://www.cacrep.org/directory/.

NOTE: Traditional Rehabilitation counseling programs that are accredited by CACREP do not meet the LPMHC qualification standards as Traditional Rehabilitation counseling differs from Clinical Rehabilitation counseling.

Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to LPMHC positions in the GS-0183 series in VHA must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to independently practice as a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, which includes diagnosis and treatment.

Loss of Licensure: Once licensed, LPMHCs must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted license to independently practice mental health counseling, which includes diagnosis and treatment.

Loss of licensure will result in removal from the GS-0183 LPMHC occupation and may result in termination of employment.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, GS-12 Experience, Education, and Licensure: In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one year of progressively complex LPMHC experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level.

Senior LPMHCs must have five years of post-licensed experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressive professional competency and expertise and be licensed to provide clinical supervision to trainees or unlicensed LPMHCs.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: In addition to meeting the KSAs for the GS-11 grade level, the candidate must demonstrate all of the KSAs below: Advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex mental illness.

Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.

Ability to determine priority of services needed and provide specialized treatment.

Advanced and expert skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities for Veterans with complex needs.

This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling, or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial, and/or case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans.

Ability to coordinate the delivery of specialized psychosocial services and programs. Ability to design system changes based on data.

Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and trainees on the psychosocial treatment of patients, rendering professional opinions based on experience, expertise and role modeling effective clinical skills.

Ability to teach, mentor staff and trainees, and provide supervision for licensure or for specialty certifications.

Ability to engage in written and oral communication with leadership/staff and community stakeholders regarding policies, procedures, practice guidelines, and issues pertaining to the practice of the profession.

Reference: VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G43 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019. Major Duties:

Responsibilities are focused on providing direct services, as well as consultative and educational activities.

Incumbent employs full range of treatment modalities with individuals, couples, families, and groups. Services will generally be provided in the clinic, and under certain circumstances, via telehealth.

The incumbent will focus primarily on addressing the complex mental health needs of Veterans who often are experiencing a wide range of complicated medical, behavioral health, financial, legal and psychosocial concerns.

The incumbent provides advanced evaluation and treatment strategies to the full range of patient problems in his/her work setting, including evidenced based therapies, making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnosis within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.

Incumbent employs a high level of skill and expertise to establish and maintain effective therapeutic relationships with Veterans and/or their families.

Incumbent is qualified to provide expert advice and consultation to professionals representing a variety of disciplines and is required to exercise independent and expert judgment in the selection of or adaptation of standard and accepted theories, techniques and practices.

The incumbent will provide clinical consultation to less experienced staff, will coordinate care including in times of crisis and will serve as the subject matter expert for the discipline.

The Senior LPMHC must have five years of post licensure experience demonstrating possession of advanced practice skills and judgment and must be licensed to provide clinical supervision to trainees and unlicensed LPMHCs.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Telework: Available ad hoc as per agency policy Virtual: This is not a virtual position .Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required