Art Therapist

SUMMARY: The CRC Art Therapist evaluates, prepares, and adapts art therapy treatment for clients in the Children's Residential Center. The Art Therapist is able to work with individuals with the goal of improving clients' psychological, social and physical well-being. Using the creative process, the art therapist will help clients improve self-confidence, increase self-awareness, gain insight into social, emotional, and behavioral struggles, as leading into the identification, processing, and resolution of past traumatic events to improve overall functioning. This is done in collaboration with the Trauma Program Leader.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

It is the responsibility of each employee to be a consistent witness for Jesus Christ and to adhere to the Statement of Faith/Standard of Moral Conduct. Further, each employee is responsible for dealing with others with a Christ-like attitude while helping them experience their worth in Christ and demonstrating behaviors reflecting CCHO's core values of Relentless Commitment, Selflessness, and Kindness.

Job-specific essential functions include the following:

• TEAM FIRST: Makes every effort to maintain a 'team first' spirit and atmosphere within the workplace environment, maintaining appropriate working relationships and promoting collaboration.
• Maintains a supportive relationship with clients by providing them with a secure and stable therapeutic space to process past trauma.
• Assesses clients' psychological, social, and physical level of functioning in order to determine needs/strengths.
• Establishes art therapy goals and objectives related to achieving trauma resolution, implements art interventions that are consistent with the art therapy objectives established in the treatment plans.
• Understands inherent aspects and potential effects of media properties, evaluates client interaction with media during sessions, selects appropriate media of visual expression based on client response to art interventions.
• Facilitates individual art therapy sessions, guides efforts of self-expression in the creative process, implements mindfulness techniques to aid clients in gaining insight and becoming more self-aware of underlying thoughts, feelings, motivations for behaviors.
• Facilitates group sessions, assisting individuals to understand and overcome past trauma and find hope and insight into their preset and future dreams/goals through the use of art therapy interventions.
• Engages residents in identifying, understanding, and neutralizing effects of past trauma on current functioning, encourages exploration of insight into their present and future goals.
• Regularly evaluates the effectiveness of interventions and therapeutic modalities provided, adapts them according to the evolving needs and abilities of each client.
• Completes appropriate documentation and paperwork including, but not limited to, progress notes after each therapy session, quarterly treatment plan updates, weekly progress updates to cottage clinical teams, monthly progress updates to clinical case managers. Develops and maintains appropriate records on clients.
• Ensures art materials are readily available and maintains regular inventory.
• Collaborates with cottage therapist and trauma program leader to ensure continuity of care and trauma resolution.
• Coordinates, organizes and implements art activity programs.
• Provides treatment/interacts with clients and families utilizing Trust Based Relational Intervention modality
• Provides lethality assessments/recommendations for care, makes recommendations when needed.
• Participation in agency and professional training and collaboration with cottage teams.
• Provides mental health training to cottage staff as directed/assigned.

Other duties may be assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: None.

REQUIRED SKILLS & ABILITIES:

• Ability to facilitate mental health services using various types of art to engage clients.
• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedure, or governmental regulations.
• Ability to read, comprehend and write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to effectively communicate before groups of varying sizes of clients, employees or members of the public.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including conflict resolution, required. Must be able to communicate well with colleagues, verbally and in writing to ensure safety and efficiency.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize assignments. Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to apply common sense, to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems. Ability to deal with nonverbal symbolism (formulas, scientific equations, graphs, etc.,) in its most difficult phases. Ability to deal with variety of abstract and concrete variables.
• Competency with Microsoft Office Suite and the internet, as well as CCHO clinical documentation software (electronic health record).
• Ability to function well in a fast-paced environment, as well as cope and tolerate high levels of stress.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, CERTIFICATIONS/LICENSES:

• Master's degree (MA) or equivalent, preferably in Art Therapy, Social work, or Clinical Counseling. Coursework in art therapy required for non-art therapy degrees.
• License in social work (LSW), counseling (LPC), or art therapy (LPAT) required. Independent licensure preferred. Four to ten years related experience in art therapy and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Art therapy certification(s) strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated knowledge/proficiency in, and passion for, visual art. Demonstrated knowledge of art therapy theories, techniques, and practices.
• Valid Ohio Driver's License and a driving record that allows that individual to be insurable on agency policy, as job includes occasional travel.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Ability to speak and be easily understood.
• Frequently required to walk, sit, talk, and hear, including a requirement to stand or walk for extended periods of time, sometimes through uneven terrain.
• Often required to use hands/fingers, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms, climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Regularly able to lift/move up to 25 pounds.
• Must be able to be outdoors in various weather conditions for extended amounts of time.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
• Must be able to drive a vehicle legally and safely in the state of Ohio.
• Must maintain compliance/certification with CCHO's requirements for using physical restraints (SCM: Safe Crisis Management), including sufficient strength and completion of extensive training. Physical ability to respond to crisis, including, but not limited to running and performing physical restraints.

CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT (CQI): All Agency staff are expected to focus on Quality improvement as a part of their job responsibilities, in an effort to make the Agency a safe and healing environment for clients and staff. This expectation includes, but is not limited to teamwork, improving service delivery, fulfilling department goals, and other job-specific tasks that encourage excellence.

This position is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check and drug test, satisfactory reference checks (emails were previously sent to the 3 references listed on your application), as well as the completion of a satisfactory Department of Justice National Sex Offender search and Ohio Alleged Perpetrator Search, as required by our licensing agency.

Candidates must be 21 or older to apply. References, background checks and drug screenings will be completed on all potential candidates. Must have valid Ohio Driver's License and maintain a driving record that allows that individual to be insurable. EOE.