A Quick Note About CARE

In community mental health centers, there tends to be a strong sense of community, rich culture, support systems, and a strong mission statement. However, this is often at the expense of a lower salary. Conversely, private practices provide a high standard of living with great flexibility, but often leaves a sense of isolation.

Dr. Andrea Hutchinson and her co-owner John saw an opportunity to combine the positive attributes of the above dichotomy and provide a clinical environment that embraced both community, values, and a high standard of living. These values were at the core of the development of CARE Counseling in January of 2014 leading to CARE’s mission statement: build a community to strengthen the community.

CARE continues to work towards these attributes, and prides itself on providing employees a competitive salary, a congenial work environment, and the flexibility and freedom that is valuable to professionals who have other personal and professional goals. This is achieved through its focus on community, a work hard/play hard mentality, transparency, and accountability with team members. CARE is dedicated to providing a great professional experience for its clinicians so that in turn, the clinicians will provide a high-level standard of care to our community that is inherently sustainable.

CARE is honored to join this part in a clinician’s professional path and we realize how important a supportive community can be as one is emerging in the mental health profession.

The guiding mission at CARE Counseling is to build a community to strengthen the community. That is why CARE focuses on building a strong community of emerging clinicians to promote quality, affirming, and culturally responsive care to the communities we work with. The PILT community at CARE is actively involved in weekly training and supervision and our cohort of early clinicians. Learn more about this amazing CARE community below!

Now, What is a PILT!?

PILT is short hand for: Pre-Independently Licensed Therapist. Meaning, a clinician has completed their Masters in Counseling (or a related field) and is not yet independently licensed. Folks are in the process of gaining practical experience in mental health, additional supervision, and other requirements from their respective governing boards to be independently licensed Mental Health Professionals.

PILT role at CARE Counseling:

At CARE, we pride ourselves on education, training, inclusion and supervision. All of these are qualities that are central to the development of competent and ethical mental health providers.

Typically, it takes an unlicensed clinician around two+ years to fulfill governing board requirements for licensure and each license track has different expectations. At CARE, we invest significant resources in supporting our PILTs to fulfill the requirements necessary in two years. Meaning, when the two years is completed, a PILT will be able to apply for independent licensure. No need for additional hours, specialized supervision, or relational hours. CARE is able to work with the PILT to ensure that these are covered proactively. There are few things that are worse on the professional journey than spending years working towards licensure just to fall short and need to extend unlicensed experience.

At CARE, not only do we make sure requirements for licensure are completed, but we also have a training program specifically for our PILT community.

PILT Training Programming:

A key aspect with the CARE mission of building and strengthening community is supporting our clinicians in having access to quality, complimentary training. The PILT Training Program is focused on learning to be exceptional across a variety of modalities and interventions which are used to address diagnoses and symptoms that are most seen in outpatient mental health settings.

Rooted in a practitioner-scholar model, the PILT Training Program consists of 12 foundational topics related to outpatient therapy, providing in-depth learning to further one’s knowledge and competence. The first year of training folks are absorbing and learning the material, and the second year they are further understanding how to apply to clinical practice.

A main intention of the PILT Program is to advance the core competencies of clinicians, including communication skills, professionalism, diversity and inclusion, ethically minded practice, use of consultation, supervision, and integrating research. The training team is continually developing new content to ensure clinicians are prepared to provide the highest standard of care possible.

Expectations of a PILT:

PILTs maintain a weekly outpatient therapy caseload. Our clinicians have opportunities to provide counseling and support for individuals of all ages, families, and couples from diverse backgrounds and symptom presentations.

The PILT community at CARE meets one hour a week for training and another hour a week for supervision; both of which are at no additional cost to the PILT. With both training and supervision there may be reflective tasks outside of these hours, which are built into a PILTs’ overall weekly schedule expectations.

Additionally, PILTs attend weekly consultation with the multidisciplinary team of clinicians at CARE that have backgrounds in psychology, social work, and marriage and family therapy. These consultation groups have at least one supervisor present for an additional included weekly group supervision hour.

Throughout the PILT journey, folks are studying for licensure exams and preparing to apply for licensure. So, our trainings incorporate the knowledge needed for license exams and PILT community members often collaborate on studying tips as well!

We also hold quarterly meetings with our PILT community to dedicate time to covering what you need to know in preparing for your career as a therapist at CARE.

Different Tracks of a PILT:

The CARE training and supervision teams are dedicated to supporting PILTs in achieving the below requirements within the two-year PILT program. Supervision with a board approved supervisor is provided by CARE.

LPCC

Completion of 4,000 hours of supervised post-masters professional practice, under the supervision of a board approved supervisor.
Successful completion of the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE) administered, ideally after the first year of training.

LMFT

Completion of 4,000 hours of supervised post-masters professional practice, under the supervision of a Board-approved LMFT supervisor; 500 hours of which are to be with couples, families, or similar relational groups.
Successful completion of the National MFT Examination (AMFTRB) application and administered exam.

LICSW

Completion of LGSW license application
Completion of 4,000 hours of supervised post-masters professional practice, under the supervision of a Board-approved supervisor.
Successful completion of the Association of Social Work Board (ASWB) Clinical Examination.

Additional Perks to Working at CARE as a PILT:

Competitive pay and bonuses. CARE values our employees and pays competitive salaries, along with additional bonuses for exceeding expectations. Bonuses are paid out at the end of each quarter.
Supervision is covered by CARE (weekly individual and group)!
PILT training (equivalent to six days of CEUs over a year)
Flexible schedule
Community building outings all throughout the year (like Twins Games, renting out movie theaters, etc).
Ongoing DEI Initiatives and BIPOC Group for CARE staff that meets monthly to provide a safe and supportive space.
Employee Gifting: CARE loves to recognize the hard work our team does. So you can expect thoughtful gifts and awesome swag throughout your time at CARE above and beyond a competitive salary and bonuses.
Work culture: Being with an amazing community of clinicians passionate about what they do!
Open door environment: Have a difficult session? Want to connect about a case? Care to see if anyone is up for a social event? Support one another by helping up build a community to support the community. We encourage our team to connect with one another in informal ways, as well.
Beautiful offices and clinics around the cities.
Retirement: 401(k) & 401(k) match contributions/profit sharing
Comprehensive benefit package: health, dental (covered 100% by employer), vision (covered 100% by employer)
Short- and long-term disability (covered 100% by employer)
Paid Time Off
Parental leave
Pawternal leave (1 day off for adopting an animal 😊)
Additional information on CARE’s Benefits can be found here.

Requirements:

Education and Experience

Masters Degree in behavioral science/related field (psychology, counseling, marriage and family therapy, social work, education, etc.)

Certifications/Licenses

Must be in the process of working toward independent licensure and be in good standing with their respective licensing board.

Maintain an active, unrestricted clinical license as a mental health practitioner in the State of Minnesota (LPC, LGSW, LAMFT).

*Also hiring Independently Licensed Therapists, Practicum Students, Post-Doctoral Internships as well as Administrative Staff. We're Growing! New Locations Now Open.

* Due to the selective nature of our hiring process we spend a significant amount of time screening prospective team members so please set your expectations to allow for 2-3 weeks prior to an invitation to interview. We will carefully consider your application during this initial screening and contact you if you are selected to continue in the recruitment process. We wish you every success.