About the opportunity:

This is a permanent part-time opportunity working 3 days (21 hours) per week and will be based in Newcastle.

Availability to work Wednesdays 9am – 5pm and Thursday’s from  11am – 7pm with the third being negotiable.

Uniting Counselling and Mediation has a long history of high-quality service delivery, being well regarded and connected with Family Law stakeholders. You will work across our counselling programs providing individual couple and family counselling.

This includes innovative telehealth and digital options, child inclusive practice, and psycho-educational and therapeutic groups for individuals: young people and their parents.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide Counselling to children aged 5-18 years post separation
• Provide high quality individual and family therapy to repair and strengthen family relationships and individual self-determination.

• Provide child consultation as part of child inclusive practice to families after separation and divorce, including involuntary and court-ordered clients.

• Provide family therapy in conjunction with other Uniting Counselling and Mediation staff (e.g., family dispute resolution practitioners) in a multi-disciplinary approach.

• Assist in the development, facilitation and promotion of clinical group work programs within the centre, and with external stakeholders such as community services and schools.

About You:

• Tertiary qualifications in psychology, social work or other equivalent and relevant field.
• Experience in working with children and adolescents in a therapeutic setting with family law matters.
• Experience in group work programs.
• Experience in individual and couples counselling (desirable)
• Competence in working with issues of violence.
• Demonstrated ability to manage high conflict individuals, couples and families with complex issues.
• Understanding of child protection issues.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently as well as be able to contribute to the functioning of the team.
• Excellent communication, organisation and writing skills.
• Computer literacy.
• Ability to meet the program specific client targets

Even better:

• Eligibility for membership to relevant professional bodies (eg. AASW, APS, PACFA)
• Previous experience in individual, couple and family therapy.
• Experience in working with children and adolescents
• Prior experience in group facilitation
• Experience working with court ordered and involuntary clients
• Experience and expertise in program promotion and liaison.
• Experience in working within a Family Law context.
• Familiarity with the Family Law Act 1975 and other relevant legislation (e.g. Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection Act).

Why Work at Uniting?

• Do you thrive on a challenge and enjoy doing something different every day?  You can exercise choice through our culture of continuous conversations and have a voice in our diverse and inclusive workplace.
• To have a career that matters in an organisation that focuses on making an impact
• Receive comprehensive training and development in areas of child and family counselling and to learn within a supportive work environment
• To work within a strong clinical and supervision framework.
• Do you want to increase your disposable income by reducing the tax you pay?  As a Uniting employee you can package up to $15,900 from your salary for every day purchases, and up to $2650 for entertainment purposes. 
• You receive up to 3 ex-gratia days (on top of annual leave) at the end of the year.

Should you have any questions, please contact Belinda Condon from Uniting's Talent Acquisition Team on 0422 424 225/ [email protected], using the subject line: Child and Family Therapist - Counsellor - Newcastle enquiry via EthicalJobs.

Employment with Uniting is subject to satisfactory background checks, which include National Police Checks, Working with Children Checks and Reference Checks.