Associate Behavioral Health Therapist (School Based)

Associate Behavioral Health Therapist

The Associate Behavioral Health Therapist (A-BHT) is an early-career clinician and core member of the LiftED Horizons clinical team at the Colorado LiftED Foundation (CLF). This role provides direct therapeutic services to youth and adults delivering accessible, culturally affirming, trauma-responsive, and healing-centered care to clients within the LiftED Horizons (Therapeutic Services) Program and the broader CLF community.

The A-BHT is both a skilled clinician and a fierce, persistent advocate for the clients and families in their care. This position is designed for professionals pursuing clinical licensure in Colorado who seek to deepen their practice in a supportive, learning-oriented environment. Preference is given to candidates who completed their clinical internship with LiftED Horizons at CLF.

At CLF, going an inch wide and a mile deep means knowing your clients not just as cases, but as whole people their histories, their families, their dreams, and what's standing in the way.

This role lives all five CLF values:

• A Seat at the Table You will treat every client as the expert on their own life centering their voice, their priorities, and their definition of healing in every treatment decision, from intake through discharge.
• Once a Dreamer, Always a Dreamer You will sustain therapeutic relationships across life transitions and, where clinically appropriate, beyond the formal treatment episode honoring CLF's belief that our commitment to a young person outlasts any program, any season, or any caseload.
• An Inch Wide, A Mile Deep You will carry a focused caseload and invest fully in each client, knowing every person by name, by family, by history, and by what helps them heal, bringing depth and continuity to your therapeutic relationships rather than volume.
• Whatever It Takes You will be a persistent, creative problem-solver when systems and barriers threaten your clients' healing connecting them to transportation, housing support, benefits, and community resources with tenacity, and advocating loudly when the path forward isn't clear.
• We Not Me You will build your practice inside a web of collaboration co-creating care with supervisors, interns, school partners, and community providers understanding that the most effective therapy at CLF is always part of a larger, coordinated effort that no single clinician can deliver alone.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical Service Delivery

• Direct Therapeutic Care: Provide direct therapeutic services for clients ages four through adulthood, including intake, assessment, treatment planning, and ongoing care using accessible, culturally affirming, trauma-responsive, and healing-centered approaches throughout.
• Caseload Management: Maintain a weekly productivity target of 20 sessions per week, managing a caseload of approximately 2325 clients with depth and consistency.
• Client-Centered Planning: Treat each client as the expert on their own life, actively centering their voice, their values, and their goals in every treatment decision, so that care is built with them, never just for them (A Seat at the Table).
• Depth of Relationship: Develop strong, deeply trusting therapeutic relationships with clients and families by name, by story, and by what each person is working toward addressing behavioral health needs while strengthening resilience and protective factors.
• Group Facilitation: Facilitate or co-facilitate therapeutic and psychoeducational groups as assigned.
• Therapeutic Continuity: Sustain therapeutic continuity where clinically appropriate honoring CLF's belief that once a dreamer, always a dreamer, and that meaningful change takes time that exceeds any single treatment episode.

Collaboration & Supervision

• Supervision Engagement: Participate in weekly individual supervision with a licensed clinical professional (LPC or LCSW) to strengthen practice, deepen cultural responsiveness, and align with trauma-responsive standards.
• Intern Modeling: Support the clinical intern cohort by co-facilitating intern support groups and modeling trauma-responsive, healing-centered care contributing to a We Not Me culture where team growth is everyone's responsibility.
• Interdisciplinary Coordination: Collaborate across interdisciplinary teams and with external community partners to coordinate holistic care because no single clinician holds the full picture of a client's life.
• Team Contribution: Contribute positively to CLF's clinical culture through active participation, collaboration, and solution-oriented feedback.

Data, Documentation & Compliance

• Clinical Assessment: Complete behavioral health assessments to inform treatment planning and crisis intervention.
• Documentation Discipline: Maintain accurate, timely clinical documentation in accordance with state, federal, and organizational standards.
• Outcomes Tracking: Analyze client and program data to track progress and ensure compliance with quality-of-care standards.

Community Engagement & Advocacy

• Barrier Removal: Remove clinical barriers with persistence connecting clients to transportation, housing, benefits, and community resources when those barriers threaten their healing (Whatever It Takes).
• Partnership Building: Build and sustain partnerships with community organizations, schools, and youth-serving agencies to strengthen access to care knowing that your clients' wellbeing depends on a network, not just a therapist.
• Outreach & Representation: Serve as an ambassador for LiftED Horizons and CLF's mission, helping recruit clients and maintain strong partner relationships.

Organizational Engagement

• All Staff Participation: Participate in CLF and LiftED Horizons all-staff meetings, trainings, and organizational events.
• Culture Building: Foster a collaborative, inclusive culture rooted in CLF's values and commitment to equity and belonging.

Skills & Qualifications

• Master's or Doctoral degree in Social Work, Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, or a related field.
• Eligibility for or ability to obtain Colorado licensure (LSW or LPCC) within three months of hire.
• Strong understanding of child, youth, and family development; demonstrated ability to apply holistic, trauma-responsive, and culturally affirming therapeutic approaches not just awareness, but active responsiveness in practice.
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills; ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining professional boundaries and self-care practices.
• A Seat at the Table orientation: A demonstrated practice of shared decision-making that positions clients and families as co-architects of their care not recipients of services, but genuine partners in defining their own healing.
• An Inch Wide, A Mile Deep practice: A commitment to depth over breadth in therapeutic work you would rather know a focused caseload fully, by name and by story, than serve many clients surface-deep.
• Long-Term Commitment: A genuine belief that CLF's relationship with a young person outlasts any treatment episode you stay connected across life transitions and remain a resource even when formal contact has ended.
• Persistent Problem-Solving: A "whatever it takes" orientation to the barriers that appear in community mental health work creative, tenacious, and unwilling to accept access gaps as fixed.

Requirements

• Language: Spanish fluency (reading, writing, and speaking)
• Location: This position is a school-based therapist at Ricardo Flores Magn Academy
• Ability to pass a fingerprint background check and a DMV driving background check.
• Ability to transport youth to and from sessions when needed.
• Willingness to work evenings, weekends, and special events as needed.
• Deep commitment to justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and the CLF mission.
• Demonstrated belief in and lived practice of CLF's core values: A Seat at the Table, We Not Me, Whatever It Takes, An Inch Wide / A Mile Deep, and Once a Dreamer, Always a Dreamer with a track record of translating those values into role-specific decisions.

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation: $55,000 - $56,500 per year (Salaried/Exempt).
• Benefits: Health, dental, vision, life insurance; 401(k) matching program.
• Time Off: Paid holidays, birthdays, and paid time off (PTO).
• Fellowship Perks: Ongoing clinical supervision toward licensure (meeting state requirements).