Associate Director, Eating Disorders Program

Weekly outpatient therapy isn't always enough, and a trip to the ER isn't the only answer. Patients and their families rely on Compass Health Center when in crisis – every day, we help people overcome depression, anxiety, suicidality, obsessions/compulsions, trauma, chronic pain, and other obstacles in order for our patients to live freely.

About This Role  

As an Associate Director in the Adult Eating Disorders program, you’ll lead the clinical team, hold fidelity to the program’s treatment model, and develop clinicians in a sub-specialty population while continuing to participate in active patient care. Reports administratively to the Director and clinically to the Director of the Eating Disorders Program, who oversees all clinical aspects of the program. You’ll partner closely with the entirety of the treatment team, including Registered Dietitians, Primary Therapists, Group Therapists, Family Therapists, and Psychiatry Team Members to ensure comprehensive and compassionate care. If you are passionate about helping other clinicians grow while remaining an expert in your own clinical skills, you would be a great addition to our team.  

Our location in Northbrook is our first and largest facility and consists not only of our widest variety of programs, but also serves as a pilot site for many of our new treatment offerings.  

What You'll Do:  

Clinical Leadership and Fidelity Monitoring  

• Partner with the Program Director in overseeing quality of care across PHP and IOP
• Monitor fidelity to the program’s treatment model through direct group observation, session review, and structured feedback
• Identify model drift—including towards supportive processing, accommodation of avoidance, and substitution of familiar modalities for those indicated—and provide corrective support
• Consult on complex cases, particularly where co-occurring OCD, trauma, or mood presentations complicate eating disorder treatment
• Escalate and help resolve medical risk, treatment-interfering behavior, and level-of-care decisions
• Ensure treatment sequencing follows the program’s treatment target hierarchy
• Escalate Eating Disordered clinical matters to the Eating Disorders Program Director, and escalate general clinical and operational matters to onsite Director

Staff Development and Supervision  

• Support program onboarding and ongoing training across the program’s training curriculum
• Provide clinical supervision for staff working toward licensure, including staff in other programs
• Help support the development of clinicians in evidence-based treatment for eating disorders and co-occurring conditions
• Provide performance feedback, coaching, and development planning for clinical staff in the Eating Disorder program and several flex staff members

Program Operations  

• Manage day-to-day clinical operations, including rounds, group and eating block coverage, and staffing assignments
• Maintain required coverage standards for supported meals and snacks
• Manage census flow, admissions readiness, and schedule construction within staffing constraints
• Oversee initial and continuing authorization needs through frequent communication with the Utilization Review team, including eating disorder-specific medical necessity documentation and appeals
• Monitor outcome measure completion and review program-level outcome data with the Program Director  

Direct Patient Care  

• Carry a defined clinical caseload, including individual therapy, scaled to leadership load
• Chart progress of patients appropriately in the electronic medical record
• Support in coverage for staff who are on PTO or unavailable  

Program Development and Growth  

• Contribute to curriculum development, revision, and expansion
• Support readiness for additional cohorts, sites, and virtual delivery
• Provide information about the program to referral sources and participate in outreach as needed
• Ensure program activities align with Compass values and mission
• Meet regularly with both the Program Director and Virtual Director for supervision and consultation
• Participate in professional development activities  
• Will support the launch of Adolescent Eating Disorder programming, if indicated

Who You Are:  

Credentials and Experience  

• Independently licensed as a psychologist, LCSW, LCPC, or LMFT in the state of Illinois (required)
• 2+ years post-degree clinical experience in eating disorder treatment (required)
• Experience treating OCD, anxiety, PTSD, and/or depression (strongly preferred)
• Experience supervising staff, both licensed and seeking licensure (preferred)
• Program development and implementation experience
• Have experience in a PHP, IOP, residential, or inpatient setting  

Skills and Approach (preferred) 

• Working knowledge of CBT-E, exposure-based treatment, and DBT as applied to eating disorders and co-occurring conditions
• Able to give direct developmental feedback to clinicians about clinical performance
• Able to hold program standards while balancing operational needs, including census and staffing requirements
• Practices from a weight-inclusive framework
• Adopts an "all foods fit" approach toward clinical nutrition
• Excellent time management, with the ability to juggle multiple demands in a fast-paced and changing environment
• Seeks and uses supervision and consultation  

We are committed to a fair and equitable work environment. The expected compensation range for this role is below. This range includes multiple career path levels across the organization; where you fall in the range is dependent upon a number of factors including, but not limited to, your years of experience, type of experience, location, and education/certifications. Compass reserves the right to update these ranges.

This role may also be eligible for an annual bonus which is dependent upon individual and company performance.

Compensation

$78,000—$98,000 USD

We know job descriptions can be intimidating, so if this sounds like an opportunity for you, please don't hesitate to apply!  

Who We Are  

Compass Health Center is a recognized leader in crisis-level mental health, bringing passion, connection, and patient-centered care to the Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient space (PHP/IOP). Based in Chicagoland, we serve hundreds of patients every day, ranging from ages 5 through adulthood, in our onsite facilities or through our flourishing virtual programming. Compass fills a critical gap between outpatient and inpatient care through an intermediate level of Behavioral Healthcare.  

A few more things we want you to know: our values are super important to us, and hopefully will be to you, too. Cultural humility, teamwork, continuous improvement, connection, patient centered care, passion, innovation, and agility should be your power sources. Joining Compass is an opportunity to feel fulfilled through a joint mission towards healing our communities. 

Benefits & Perks  

We know that you will be dedicated to your purpose here. We look at that investment as a two-way street. We are proud to offer plenty of space for growth, and opportunities to pursue continuous development within our organization. 

For eligible positions, our other benefits include: comprehensive medical/dental/vision plans, 401k program with company matching, generous PTO (including competitive parental leave after 1 year of employment), and continuous training through CEU seminars and volunteering opportunities.  

What’s Next?  

Compass is committed to cultivating diverse and dynamic teams who exude passion for their craft, so whether or not you check all the boxes, we encourage you to apply – we’d be grateful to hear from you!