Mental Health Counselor (MHC-LP)

Employment Type: Full-Time, W-2

Compensation Model: Fee-for-Service (FFS) · $40,500 – $94,400

Work Location: Hybrid. Telehealth across New York State, plus in-person care in Midtown Manhattan and Irvington, NY

You didn't get into this field to navigate insurance panels or build a practice from scratch — you got into it to become a good therapist.

Next Level is a group practice of 60 clinicians across 100 specialty areas in New York State. We handle billing and credentialing, connect you with warm client referrals, and pair you with real supervision as you work toward licensure, so your energy goes toward the clients in front of you and the therapist you're becoming, not the pieces you haven't learned to run yet.

This is a practice built for clinicians who want real support while they grow.

What you actually get here

• Your caseload is built around your clinical interests. Clients aren't routed to whoever has an opening. Our care team reviews what each person is looking for, what they've already tried, their schedule, and the fit they want, then gives them two or three clinicians to choose from.
• You're not the only clinician in the room. Sixty-plus colleagues means a hard case has someone who's seen it, and a client outside your scope is a warm internal transfer instead of a referral out and a lost hour.
• Room to practice deeply, and to broaden. Individual, couples and relationship, family, and group therapy. Ages 6 to 65 . More than 100 specialty areas, including work most clinicians never get near.
• Supervision built to develop you, not just sign your hours. You're matched to your supervisor by modality and population. Building toward EMDR, DBT, REBT, or CBT? You work with someone who practices it.
• W-2, not contractor. Benefits, structure, and a practice that invests in developing you rather than renting your hours.
• Built by an educator, which shows up everywhere. Dr. Christine Romano taught counselors from their first semester through graduation before she founded this practice.

What you'll do

• Provide individual, couples/relationship, family, and/or group psychotherapy based on your experience and clinical interests.
• Conduct assessments and develop diagnoses, treatment plans, and therapy goals.
• Complete progress notes, treatment plans, discharge planning, and other required documentation accurately and on time.
• Participate consistently in individual and group clinical supervision.
• Collaborate with supervisors and team members regarding client care.
• Build and maintain a consistent caseload of 30 clients/week by actively responding to Next Level referrals, participating in client matching, and independently pursuing opportunities to grow your caseload and professional presence.
• Participate in professional development and practice initiatives that strengthen your clinical and professional skills.

How your caseload actually works

• We contribute referrals and matching. Our care team sends you clients whose needs line up with your interests and expertise.
• You contribute responsiveness and visibility. Building a full caseload is a shared responsibility. Clinicians who do well here respond to referrals quickly, follow through, and take an active role in how prospective clients understand their work. We give you resources and guidance for that.
• Full-time clinical caseload is built around maintaining an average of 30 sessions per week. New clinicians ramp to that over their first six months, with referrals and matching support throughout. After the ramp, maintaining it is an ongoing expectation of the role.
• Additional outside employment may be permitted during your first year with prior approval, as long as it doesn't interfere with scheduling, caseload, or performance expectations.

What you bring

• Master's or doctoral degree in Mental Health Counseling or another NYSED license-qualifying program
• Active Mental Health Counselor Limited Permit issued by NYSED, or evidence of permit eligibility
• Minimum of one year of post-graduate clinical experience
• Strong understanding of the ethical, legal, and confidentiality requirements of clinical practice
• Ability to build strong therapeutic relationships while holding appropriate clinical boundaries
• Sound clinical judgment and the organization to manage a caseload, a schedule, and documentation
• Comfort using telehealth, electronic health records, and email
• Commitment to culturally responsive care
• Availability for in-person sessions at our Midtown Manhattan or Irvington office

You'll do well here if you take initiative and value accountability, stay open to feedback and self-reflection, want colleagues with different perspectives and specialties, and are interested in growing past direct clinical care into mentoring, training, supervision, or leadership.

Compensation

Session-based compensation with built-in opportunities for growth:

• Starting rate: 30% fee-for-service
• After consistently meeting your caseload expectations: 40% fee-for-service
• Upon licensure: additional compensation increases

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance (we cover 85% of the premium!)
• Paid time off and sick time
• 401(k) with employer match
• $1,000 continuing education stipend, plus in-house trainings and workshops and access to external advanced trainings and master classes
• Credentialing and licensure support
• Admin and billing handled
• Bonus and incentive opportunities
• Company-issued device after applicable tenure

Career opportunities

Opportunities to expand your work through specialized clinical services, mentoring, leading groups, facilitating trainings, and more, based on experience, qualifications, performance, and practice needs.

You'll also gain exposure to client engagement, scheduling, documentation, and the operational systems behind a growing group practice. Most clinicians don't get that view until they're trying to build one themselves.

About Next Level

Next Level Mental Health Counseling is a group practice of 60 clinicians serving all of New York State, virtually and in person from our Midtown Manhattan and Irvington offices. We provide individual, couples, family, and group therapy across 100 specialty areas to clients ages 6 to 65 .

Dr. Romano spent years watching clients burn their first sessions explaining their own lives, their culture, their family, their identity, before the real work could start. She spent the same years watching clinicians get ground down by caseloads and thin support. Those aren't two separate problems. A therapist who's stretched thin can't be the one who already understands.

What we hold ourselves to

• Clinical excellence. Competency is an obligation, not an aspiration. Our standard is that a client should never have to educate their therapist.
• Multicultural competency. Being able to address identity, culture, and context directly in session is a clinical skill, not an add-on.
• Inclusivity. 100 specialty areas, insurance and self-pay accepted, and sliding scale availability, so fewer people get turned away before they start.
• Professional growth. Trainings we run ourselves, CE support, and real paths into groups, training, supervision, and leadership.
• Our culture. We welcome clinicians from different backgrounds, cultures, languages, identities, and clinical perspectives, and we want people who'll bring an actual point of view to the work.

Apply at www.nextlevelmhc.com/careers