Athena Family Services Hiring for Therapeutic Mentor for Teens & Young Adults at Santa Barbara, CA Full Time

About us

Athena Family Services is a small business in Los Angeles, CA. We are innovative, challenging and our goal is to help clients build meaningful, fulfilling lives that they want to engage in and help them develop the tools to live autonomous lives. We want our mentors to always be learning and collaborating to develop their own skills as clinicians and get a unique experience helping others the way so many of us have been helped by mentors along the way in our own lives. .

Our work environment includes:

• Lively atmosphere
• On-the-job training

Mentoring Job Description

Athena Family Services is looking for therapeutic mentors to work with our clients in a big brother or big sister capacity. Our mentoring program services clients of all genders, ages, and diagnoses, but typically we work with clients ages 12-35 who suffer from mild anxiety, depression, ASD-1, light substance misuse and/or failure to launch issues. We deal with clients who are just beginning to struggle with social anxiety and dabbling in pot use to the client who is transitioning home from a wilderness or residential treatment program for self-harm, suicidal ideation, or behavioral issues- and everything in between.

Typically, we prefer to use clinical mentors, meaning mentors who are either in graduate school to become a therapist or social worker, or have finished their graduate programs and are now working towards accruing hours for licensure. Each case looks different depending on the client details, but most cases are between 4 to 8 hours per week and involve taking the client out into the community to engage in various activities that will help them develop skills, begin learning how to self-regulate emotions, build self-esteem, and work towards self-sufficiency. All expenses are reimbursed, and we offer competitive pay based on level of experience. We typically use a DBT approach but will collaborate with a clients existing therapist/psychiatrist to help clients practice the skills they learn in the office out in the real world and serve as an advocate/confidant for our clients.

The biggest difference between therapy is that mentors can use self-disclosure to build rapport and discuss their own struggles with clients. We try to pair mentees with mentors who share similar interests or who have struggle with similar issues so that they can authentically speak about their own experiences with the problems our clients are facing. We are a very collaborative team, and you will have ongoing support, supervision, and collaborative training the entire length of the relationship. We try to take a very strengths-based approach and we also encourage our parents to sign up for parent coaching so they have their own support and learn healthy communication skills, effective boundary setting, and grow alongside their children.

Below are some examples of activities:

• Taking a client with anxiety to a flea market and helping them practice DBT/mindfulness/grounding skills when their anxiety gets triggered

• Helping a client draft a resume and cover letters, take client to pass out resumes or apply for jobs online and help practice interviewing
• Take a client to lunch to practice ordering if they have social anxiety and just being a sounding board listening to the client’s issues
• Taking a client on a hike or to do yoga on the beach to get them moving and in touch with their somatic sensations
• Working out with a client and providing psycho-education about the positive benefits of movement on mental health- explaining how dopamine and serotonin are produced

• Taking a client surfing or skateboarding
• Bringing a client to an AA meeting and helping them fellowship so they develop a sense of community
• Building a budget with a client and helping them learn how to appropriately spend
• Taking a client grocery shopping and teaching them how to cook some easy to prepare meals
• Creating a weekly schedule with clients and blocking out each hour of the day so they have a regular routine to adhere to
• Attending school with a client to make sure they make it to classes/logging into a students class portal to make sure they are up to date on assignments and sitting with them while they do homework
• Taking a client to see an art exhibit or doing art with a client
• Taking a client to volunteer walking dogs or making sandwiches and passing them out to the homeless
• Helping clients reframe fights they get into with their parents or friends and walk them through the dynamics so they understand how to avoid them in the future and what more effective communication skills look like
• Talking to the clients therapist, psychiatrist, or parents to make sure everyone is on the same page
• Working with ASD clients on their social skills by engaging in role plays or real life situations
• Taking a client to get their nails done and to get spa treatments for self care
• Taking a client with disordered eating to a restaurant or to try on clothes and talk through what issues come up
• Engaging in any specific interests the client may have- from polka dancing to crocheting sweaters for penguins, we want to encourage our clients to embrace their uniqueness and passions and ideally help them find a community of like- minded peers who they can interact with face-to-face on a semi-regular basis

Please check out our website at www.athenafamily.com for more information and to learn more about your program

We are always hiring and looking to grow our team so if you or anyone you know is interested or you think would be a good fit, please send them our way! Thanks!

Job Types: Part-time, Contract

Pay: $30.00 – $50.00 per hour

Benefits:

COVID-19 considerations:
Activities are typically done outdoors while social distancing, masks and gloves encouraged and our clients and mentors should be vaccinated.

Education:

Experience:

• working with youths or young adults: 1 year (Required)

License/Certification:

• Driver’s License (Required)

Work Location: Multiple Locations