Back to jobs
New

School Based Mental Health Therapist

Baltimore, MD; Columbia, MD; Ellicott City, MD

🧠 School-Based Mental Health Clinician

Hybrid | Fee-for-Service | Howard County, Maryland

📍 Location: Howard County, MD — School-Based, Hybrid
🎓 License Requirements: Active Maryland license required
💰 Compensation: Fee-for-Service W-2 + Monthly Bonus Potential

💙🎒 Bring Mental Health Care Where Kids Need It Most

Backpack Healthcare is expanding our school-based services in Howard County! We're looking for compassionate clinicians who want to make a meaningful impact in the lives of children and adolescents while enjoying the flexibility of a hybrid model.

This role gives you the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with students in their school environment, while also using telehealth to provide continuity of care when students are out of school.

As a clinician-led, minority-owned organization, we're committed to creating an environment where clinicians feel supported, valued, and empowered to grow.

When clinicians thrive, kids thrive. 💙

💰 Compensation + Monthly Bonus Potential

This is a Fee-for-Service W-2 position designed to provide competitive compensation and additional earning opportunities.

  • 💵 $65 per session hour — fully licensed clinicians
  • 💵 $45 per session hour — provisionally licensed clinicians
  • 💵 $30 per hour — administrative time
  • 💰 Monthly bonus potential — eligible clinicians may earn additional monthly incentive compensation based on applicable clinical and performance metrics

Additional Benefits

  • 🏥 Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
  • 💼 401(k) + Company Match
  • 🌴 Paid Holidays & PTO
  • 📚 CEU reimbursement
  • 🎓 Clinical supervision for eligible pre-licensed clinicians
  • 📈 Advancement and professional growth opportunities
  • 🤝 Supportive clinical and operational team

⏰ Hybrid Schedule

Minimum of 3 in-person school days per week, 8 hours per day, with telehealth flexibility built into the role.

You'll provide in-person care at your assigned school site(s), supplemented by telehealth services to support continuity of care during school breaks and closures.

This model allows you to experience the impact of school-based care without giving up the flexibility of telehealth.

🌟 What You'll Do

You'll provide individual, group, and/or family therapy services to students both in person and through Backpack's telehealth platform.

Your day-to-day will include:

  • 🩺 Conducting intake evaluations and risk assessments
  • 📝 Creating individualized, trauma-informed treatment plans
  • 💙 Delivering individual, group, and family therapy
  • 🏫 Maintaining a consistent in-person schedule at assigned school site(s)
  • 💻 Providing telehealth sessions to maintain continuity of care
  • 📋 Maintaining accurate and timely clinical documentation in Backpack's EHR
  • 🤝 Collaborating with school staff, pediatricians, families, and Backpack's internal clinical team
  • 🚨 Supporting school teams in managing behavioral health challenges and crisis response
  • 🎓 Conducting wellness workshops for caregivers, educators, and administrators
  • 👥 Participating in individual and group supervision if pre-licensed

✅ What We're Looking For

We're seeking clinicians who bring strong clinical skills and a genuine passion for supporting children and families.

You'll need:

  • 🎓 Master's degree in Counseling, Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, or a related field
  • 📜 Active Maryland license: LCSW-C, LMSW, LCPC, LGPC, LCMFT
  • 👧 Minimum 1 year of experience providing therapy to children and adolescents
  • 🧠 Familiarity with trauma-informed care and school systems
  • 🌎 Strong cultural competence and commitment to culturally responsive care
  • 📝 Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and clinical documentation skills
  • 💙 Passion for increasing access to mental healthcare for underserved youth

🎒 Who We Are

We all walk around with an invisible backpack.

It carries our emotional experiences, traumas, and unresolved feelings. Just like a physical backpack, it can become heavy and burdensome when filled with too many things.

We created Backpack Healthcare to help lighten the load.

We're reimagining mental healthcare for children, teens, and young adults by making high-quality care more accessible and meeting kids where they are—including at school.

As a clinician-led, minority-owned company, our mission is simple:

When clinicians thrive, kids thrive.

At Backpack Healthcare, we're not just offering a job—we're offering purpose, flexibility, professional growth, and the opportunity to change lives every day.

💜 How We Support You

📚 Growth & Education
CEU reimbursement, clinical supervision, consultation, and advancement opportunities.

🤝 Supportive Team Culture
Be part of a collaborative community of clinicians and operators who genuinely care about the work.

🏡 Flexibility
Combine meaningful in-person school-based care with telehealth flexibility.

💰 Competitive Earning Potential
Competitive fee-for-service compensation plus monthly bonus potential.

🌈 Ready to Make an Impact?

If you're ready to bring mental health care directly into schools, support children and families where they live and learn, and join a team committed to helping clinicians thrive, we'd love to hear from you.

Bring your clinical expertise. Bring your passion. We'll bring the support, referrals, and opportunity to grow. 🎒💙

Backpack Healthcare is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that the strength of our care depends on the diversity and wellbeing of our team. We celebrate differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, national origin, physical and mental ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, and other traits that make each person unique. We welcome and encourage diverse candidates to apply for any position for which they are qualified and to bring their unique perspectives, experiences, and talents to our team.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Backpack Healthcare’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 07/31/2029

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.