Residential Therapist

Residential Counselor

Ava Health is seeking a Residential Counselor to join our team at a new residential behavioral health program located on a beautiful 40-acre property outside the town of Mesa, Colorado, approximately 30 minutes from Grand Junction.

This is a unique opportunity for a clinician who wants to do more than simply inherit an existing caseload. You will have the opportunity to help build the culture, programming, and clinical environment of a developing sub-acute and residential treatment program serving adults with mental health, substance use, and co-occurring needs.

Our goal is to create a highly structured, relationship-centered therapeutic community where clients can stabilize, build skills, reconnect with themselves and others, and prepare for successful transition into the next phase of recovery.

We are looking for a clinician who is comfortable working outside the traditional outpatient therapy model—someone who enjoys groups, experiential work, building relationships with clients, collaborating with a multidisciplinary team, and being an active presence in the therapeutic community.

The Role

The Residential Counselor will provide clinical services within Ava Health's residential continuum, working closely with therapists, nursing staff, psychiatric providers, behavioral health technicians, case management, and program leadership.

Responsibilities may include:

• Provide individual counseling and maintain an assigned residential caseload.
• Facilitate therapeutic groups, psychoeducation, process groups, and skills-based programming.
• Help develop and refine the daily clinical programming and therapeutic structure of the residential program.
• Participate actively in the residential therapeutic community rather than operating solely from an office-based model.
• Support clients experiencing mental health, substance use, and co-occurring concerns.
• Utilize evidence-based and evidence-informed approaches including Motivational Interviewing, CBT, DBT, ACT, mindfulness, and experiential interventions.
• Incorporate movement, mindfulness, recreation, outdoor experiences, and other experiential approaches when appropriate.
• Complete assessments, treatment planning, progress notes, discharge planning, and other required clinical documentation.
• Participate in multidisciplinary treatment planning and coordinate care with psychiatric, nursing, residential, and case management staff.
• Support clients as they transition from stabilization into longer-term residential treatment and eventually into lower levels of care.
• Help establish a healthy residential culture centered around accountability, connection, respect, participation, and recovery.
• Participate in program development, clinical meetings, staff training, and continuous improvement efforts.
• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries and practice within all applicable ethical, regulatory, and licensure requirements.

Who We're Looking For

This position may be a strong fit for someone who enjoys the energy and relationship-building of residential treatment and wants the opportunity to shape a developing program.

Ideal candidates are:

• Comfortable working with adults experiencing complex mental health, substance use, and co-occurring concerns.
• Skilled at building rapport while maintaining clear and consistent therapeutic boundaries.
• Confident facilitating groups and engaging clients who may initially be ambivalent about treatment.
• Comfortable working collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team.
• Flexible, creative, and able to function well in a developing program.
• Interested in experiential and nontraditional approaches to behavioral health treatment.
• Able to balance warmth and compassion with structure and accountability.
• Excited about helping create a strong therapeutic community rather than simply providing individual therapy.

Qualifications

Candidates should possess or be actively working toward an appropriate Colorado behavioral health credential or professional license.

Potential backgrounds may include:

• LPC, LCSW, LMFT, LAC, or comparable independently licensed behavioral health professional
• LPCC, SWC/CSW, MFTC, or other clinician actively working toward independent licensure
• Master's-level counselor, social worker, marriage and family therapist, or similar behavioral health professional
• Qualified substance use treatment professionals may also be considered depending on education, credentialing, experience, and the needs of the position

Experience in residential treatment, substance use treatment, acute or sub-acute behavioral health, crisis work, group therapy, or co-occurring treatment is strongly preferred.

Compensation

$68,000–$80,000 annually, salaried

Final compensation will depend on licensure, experience, clinical responsibilities, and the specific scope of the position.

Why Ava Health?

This isn't a traditional office-based therapist position.

Our residential campus offers the opportunity to practice behavioral health treatment in an environment intentionally designed around community, relationships, structure, movement, nature, and meaningful therapeutic experiences.

The program is located on approximately 40 acres outside Mesa, Colorado, providing a setting where clinical treatment can extend beyond the therapy office and into the everyday experiences that help people build sustainable recovery.

Most importantly, this position offers something increasingly rare in behavioral healthcare:

The opportunity to help build a program rather than simply step into one.

You will work alongside Ava Health's clinical and operational leadership to shape programming, establish traditions and routines, develop groups and experiential activities, and help define what excellent residential behavioral healthcare can look like in Western Colorado.

If you are a clinician who values connection, creativity, accountability, teamwork, and meaningful clinical work, we'd love to hear from you.

Job Type: Full-Time, Salaried Location: Mesa, Colorado (approximately 30 minutes from Grand Junction) Salary: $68,000–$80,000/year, depending on experience, licensure, and role