Family Therapist

Do you want to do impactful and meaningful work in the daily lives of young people and families? Come and strengthen our MDFT team in the Youth Services subunit of the City of Helsinki's child welfare and family social work. We are looking for five new MDFT therapists for permanent positions in our growing team. MDFT therapy (Multidimensional Family Therapy) is an evidence-based, intensive and outreach-oriented family and system-oriented working method. As an MDFT therapist, you will work with 11-17 year old youth with severe and long-term behavioral and/or substance abuse challenges and their families and networks in the open and substitute care of child welfare. Family therapeutic work is carried out in the youth's own daily environment and lasts about 4-6 months. The work is intensive (2-3 meetings per week) and multidisciplinary. The goal is to support homecoming, strengthen family interaction and functioning and prevent foster care. In the position, you are responsible for the implementation of MDFT therapy based on the client plan of the social worker responsible for the child's affairs in child welfare. The work includes independent therapeutic work with youth and their families, crisis and trauma work and close and planned multidisciplinary network cooperation. The work includes real-time recording as well as the preparation of plans and summaries. We also use Fit feedback-informed work. The MDFT team currently consists of two method managers and two MDFT therapists. The work of an MDFT therapist is multi-site and the therapist meets clients in their living environment or at the office. Working hours are 38.15 hours per week and working hours are 7 am to 10 pm, occasionally also on weekends. Work mainly focuses on the period between 8 am and 6 pm. Youth services moved in the spring to new premises with the Toivo social work teams to Silkkikutomo in Herttoniemi. MDFT therapists have their own team home base and therapy room. Silkkikutomo is located within easy reach at Laivalahdenkatu 2b, 00880 Helsinki. Support for the work is provided by the supervisor, the team, cooperation with social workers and group supervision. You will receive a comprehensive induction to the work from the method managers and the supervisor. To work as an MDFT therapist, the person must undergo training lasting about 9 months. The training is carried out mainly remotely. The European SJI Institute is responsible for the training, whose trainers come from the Netherlands and Finland. Client work begins during the training with a limited number of clients. The training is conducted in English, and Finnish is used in client work. Succeeding in the training requires fluent oral and written English skills. Training starts in September. The selected employee must be able to start employment by September 21, 2026 at the latest. In addition to interesting and varied work, we offer you extensive training and development opportunities. As a city employee, you can apply for a rental apartment from Aurora Linna, whose apartments are cheaper than market level and our employees' apartment applications are prioritized. Because life is not just work, we also take care of the balance between work and leisure. You will have access to the Epassi Flex package including sports, culture, commuting and wellbeing benefits. A benefit of up to 550 euros per calendar year can be obtained. The available balance is determined by the length of your employment. In addition, a lunch benefit is available. As a staff benefit, you will also have access to a city bike and can visit the city employees' own recreation island if you wish. Group interviews will be held on August 14 from 10-12, August 17 from 14:30-16:30 and August 20 from 10-12 at Silkkikutomo at Laivalahdenkatu 2b B. Possible individual interviews are in weeks 34 and 35. Eligibility requirement: An undergraduate professional degree suitable for the social field (social worker or rehabilitation instructor) in accordance with the Social Welfare Professionals Act 817/2015 (Section 8) or a healthcare undergraduate professional degree (nurse) or an earlier institute-level degree in the social and health field. A person who has completed a suitable social and health care undergraduate professional degree preceding an undergraduate professional degree, an institute-level professional degree in the social and health care field, e.g., social educator, social instructor, instructor for the developmentally disabled, social field instructor, nurse, public health nurse, etc., before August 1, 2005, is also eligible for the position. The position requires registration in the professional register of the License and Supervision Authority (formerly Valvira). Language skill requirement is good oral and satisfactory written skills in Finnish. In addition, we require: The person selected for the position must present a certificate regarding a drug test to the employer before the employment begins. Before the selection decision, the applicant must present an occupational health care assessment of their ability to perform the tasks involved in the work. The position requires vaccination protection in accordance with Section 48 of the Communicable Diseases Act and a tuberculosis investigation in accordance with Section 55. The position requires the presentation of a criminal record extract (Act on the investigation of the criminal background of persons working with children 504/2002). - readiness for intensive, outreach and mobile work in the daily environments of young people - ability for independent and responsible work and goal-oriented management of client processes - good interaction and cooperation skills, readiness for multidisciplinary network work and excellent teamwork skills - documentation skills - fluent English language skills (completion of MDFT training) - knowledge of social welfare and child welfare law. We consider as an advantage: - previous experience of home-based services for families with children (SHL family work, enhanced family work, professional support person work) - experience of a systemic approach and/or family therapeutic work - experience of working with highly symptomatic youth (substance, mental health or behavioral challenges) - knowledge and/or experience of evidence-based methods and the use of feedback-informed work (FIT) - other language skills.