General Statement of Job

The Mental Health Counselor provides one-on-one counseling to students with psychological, emotional, behavioral, social, career, and other mental health challenges. The Mental Health Counselor employs appropriate psychotherapy and therapeutic interventions within the guidelines of state mental health board requirements, professional ethics, departmental, and institutional policies, and procedures. The counselor promotes students’ overall well-being, success, and institutional retention.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

Essential Duties:

Commits to the personal growth and success of MSSU students by fostering their intellectual, personal, and psychological well-being.

Commits to student success and retention while promoting the Mission of Missouri Southern State University (MSSU)

Demonstrates knowledge of developmental characteristics of college students and the unique challenges confronting individuals in this stage of life.

Provides short-term individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, clinical assessments, consultation, outreach, training, and liaison/consultation relationships.

Provides clinical services to diverse client populations, demonstrating multicultural competency, and commitment to all dimensions of diversity.

Skillfully assesses and provides intervention on a wide range of clinical issues and complex diagnostic concerns. For example, working with students with one or multiple areas of concerns such as, depression, anxiety, acute stress, PTSD, crisis, suicidal thoughts or behaviors, grief, relationship difficulties, career decisions, difficulties with adjusting to new environments, body image issues, LGBTQ related challenges, and other mental health challenges.

Serves as student advocate to coordinate required services in addressing and/or resolving crisis situations by appropriately referring student to on-campus or off-campus services as needed.

Assists Lead Mental Health Counselor with wellness and outreach programming, and psychosocial presentations to students and staff on issues specific to college students’ mental well-being.

Maintains appropriate documentation of all client contacts in accordance with professional standards of care and Counseling Services policies and practices.

Performs their duties with professionalism and according to the ethical and legal standards which govern their practice and institutional policies.

Counselors may be requested to be involved in training and supervision activities.

Counselors provide consultation services to the university community and maintain appropriate documentation of consultative activities.

Demonstrates best practices in “customer service” for their areas to address the needs of various constituencies who utilize their programs and services.

Represents Counseling Services on departmental and other university-wide committees as requested by the Dean of Students.

Mental Health Representative on Financial Aid Suspension Appeals Committee and Wellness Committee.

Serve as proxy for Lead Mental Health Counselor on Behavior Intervention Team (BIT) as needed.

Assists Lead Mental Health Counselor with Counseling Services administrative duties.

Performs other duties as required or assigned.

Education, Experience, and Licenses

Minimum Qualifications

Active full license as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), or other related mental health licensed therapists, licensed in the state of Missouri. Provisionally Licensed Professional Counselors (PLPC), and Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) will be considered. If hired, full licensure will be required within two years of hiring. Valid documentation is required at time of hire and on-going.

Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in Counseling, Social Work, Psychology, Counselor Education, or closely related fields.

Current with Missouri Licensure requirements, by maintaining appropriate Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Experience with current edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders.

Valid Driver’s License and ability to meet the University’s insurance requirements for driving university vehicle or driving for university sponsored trips.

Preferred Qualification

At least one year of counseling experience in a college or university counseling center or comparable mental health setting.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

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, skills, and/or abilities required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Must be clearly student success and retention focused on both philosophy and approach.
• Must be able to serve the mental health needs of students with minimal supervision and display advanced clinical judgment.
• Computer proficiency necessary to fulfill this position include working knowledge of Electronic Medical Records, such as Titanium, email communication, web pages, PowerPoint and/other presentation mediums, web-based surveys, etc.
• Must have strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Ability to present before groups of people.
• Must have strong organizational skills.
• Must be energetic, highly motivated, and team/collaborative oriented.
• Must be flexible to adapt to changing demands of the day.
• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and professional journals, and legal documents.
• Ability to consult with, and respond to common inquiries from all university populations, such as, faculty, staff, administration, parents, students, and the general population.
• Ability to write articles for publications that conform to prescribed style and format.
• Ability to participate in assessments by defining problems or goals, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions, write reports, and present findings.

Physical Demands/Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel including the use of a computer keyboard; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear including the use of a telephone. The employee is frequently required to walk. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. Requires the ability to see, hear, and speak.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

NOTICE: The above job profile does not include all essential and nonessential duties of this job. All employees with disabilities are encouraged to contact Human Resources to review and discuss the essential and nonessential functions of the job. An employee with a disability can evaluate the job in greater detail to determine if she/he can safely perform the essential function of this job with or without reasonable accommodation.