Community, Care, and Nourishment for Providers: Will You Join Us?
Our vision for Tend and Cultivate includes fostering an environment of deep care, connection, nourishment, and support for our team.
We strive to nurture a culture of belonging, growth, and play; where team members look forward to the work (even when it’s tough) and never feel alone.
We know that solo practice can feel isolating and lonely, plus it means handling all the business, tech, and marketing which takes away from the work. Meanwhile, agency work can be dehumanizing, overworked, and lead to burnout when you can’t be the kind of therapist you want to be.
If you want to focus on providing excellent care while leaving the business stuff to us, keep reading!
Our values are anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist, anti-fatphobic, anti-patriarchy and pro fat liberation, disability justice, trans and queer justice, reproductive justice, and more.
We strongly believe in taking a de-pathologizing approach to mental health and practicing from a feminist, queer, and radical ethic.
We believe rest and relationship are crucial parts of sustainable work – while working hard and hustling may occasionally be a part of growth, we are far more focused on moving at the pace that serves our bodies, minds, lives, and future.
We are currently seeking associate counsellors (RCC and/or CCC) who are committed to fat liberation and who specialize in any of the following:
Tend and Cultivate strives to be the kind of employer that you trust. A place that allows you to grow, dream, learn, and feel appreciated.
Why join our team?
Just a few reasons you may love
being a part of Tend and Cultivate:
Fun-loving workplace
Play is one of our core values. Plus, we know that having fun is crucial for sustaining this work. We laugh, we dream, we prioritize joy.
Collaborating with others
We figure hard things out together, practice new modalities to feel more proficient, and co-create new offerings.
being a part of a team
Working alone can feel isolating, lonely, and make us feel stagnant. With a private Slack channel & peer supervision, you’ll know you’re part of a team.
continuing education
Get the training & support you need to become a more effective & confident provider in a range of modalities & approaches.
honouring your boundaries
Yes, we are a business operating inside of capitalism which means certain minimums need to be met, but we are also deeply committed to rest & sustainability in this work. The time you spend away from work is sacred and necessary.
beyond dei to justice-doing
Too often diversity, equity, & inclusion are buzzwords companies use to try to benefit from the labour of activism without enacting real change. We are committed to radical justice-doing, reciprocity, and actually building relationships with the community.
supportive environment
We are building a culture that celebrates each person’s accomplishments while honouring the challenges and tender places. We want you to bring your humanity to work. Plus, we are working on offering profit sharing as soon as it’s financially possible.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR COUNSELLORS WHO ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT:
- Dismantling diet culture, fatphobia, and ableism – bodies come in all shapes, sizes, and abilities and you celebrate that
- Anti-racist practices and willing to do the work
- Neurodiversity and all the ways our brains work differently
- Queer, trans, nonbinary, Two Spirit, asexual, and kinky populations
- Multicultural and radical approaches to healing and mental health that include mind, body, spirit, intergenerational, systemic, and cultural perspectives
- Harm reduction and moving away from one right way of recovering, healing, and doing the work
We are also seeking an anti-diet, fat liberation oriented dietitian who has experience working with fat, disabled, and chronic pain bodies to join our team.
WE CELEBRATE OUR TEAM MEMBERS BY OFFERING:
- An anti-racist, inclusive, and care-filled environment (play, laughter, & joy are most welcome)
- Competitive IC split
- An environment that welcomes tattoos, fashion colour hair, gender-affirming & gender-defying clothing, and anything else that supports you in being your true self
- Marketing & referrals
- Practice Management Software (Jane App) & practice-related secure email address*
- Work from home (telehealth) (& once we open a physical space, the option to offer in-person sessions, groups, and workshops)
- In-house training, workshops, and speakers throughout the year
- Peer consultation group
- Support creating a compelling online profile (TherapyDen, Psych Today, etc) and social media plan (if that’s your jam)
- Team building activities, dinners, and retreats in order to foster connection, relationship strength, and a sense of belonging
Requirements:
– Masters degree in Counselling Psychology (or equivalent)
– RCC and/or CCC designation
– Tools & private space for conducting virtual at-home counselling sessions
– Ability to support a minimum of 10 clients per week
– Professional liability insurance & business in good standing
Future transition to employee:
We hold a vision of offering sustainable, supported employment to team members who would prefer to have all of the business (taxes, marketing, insurance, etc) managed for them.
We dream of offering training stipends, paid non-client work that is creative and fun, and much more. As we grow, this will become an option for ICs to transition to employment.
You are not a good fit for our team if:
— You are a practicuum student (we will be taking students on in the near future, but cannot currently accommodate them at this time).
— You have not done self-work around internalized anti-fat bias, white supremacy, transphobia, ableism, and more. We don’t need perfect, but we do need a certain level of compentency to start.
— You do not have a quiet, private workspace with a door that can be closed for confidentiality.
— You engage in passive-aggressive behaviours or cannot engage in healthy, open conflict and accountability.
— You only practice from a manualized, rigid perspective that does not consider larger cultural and systemic forces.
— You don’t enjoy connecting with your colleagues, play, and laughter. We like to have fun!
— You are looking for a short-term opportunity. We are seeking to invest time, energy, and money into people who are in it for the long-haul. This is about relationships and nurturance!
— You don’t love learning. We are geeks for training, learning, and growth.
MEET THE owner and care lead
Hi! I’m Dawn Serra.
Dawn Serra
I’m touched that you’re here. I care deeply for the ways I show up in the world, the relationships I cultivate, and honouring my superfat, disabled, queer, perimenopausal body and mind. I spent years working in jobs that crushed me, exploited me, and discarded me. My dream is to be part of a team of people who care as deeply as I do, who celebrate each other’s wins, mourn each other’s losses, and who are eager to practice radical, collective healing. My hope is that each and every person involved with Tend and Cultivate will feel respected, supported, seen, and valued.
Learn more about me, my ethics, and my values by checking out @dawn_serra on Instagram.
