Senior Psychotherapist, Varsity Mental Health and Performance

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Posting Reason:

New Position

Job Type:

Employee

Anticipated Duration in Months (for contracts and temporary assignments):

N/A

Job Family:

Student Health and Wellness

# of Open Positions:

1

Faculty/Service - Department:

Varsity Sports High Performance Athletics

Campus:

Main Campus

Union Affiliation:

SSUO

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/10/05

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/10/16

Hours per week:

35

Salary Grade:

SSUO Grade 11

Salary Range:

$95594.00 - $120750.00

About Student Affairs:

Student Affairs is at the very heart of the student experience at the University of Ottawa. We recruit the very best future students support them throughout their university years and leave them well-prepared for fulfilling careers and future studies. Our team of more than 600 dedicated staff provides the services that keep students happy well and thriving as they pursue their ambitions. We help them apply and enrol for courses we oversee 11 residences and an award-winning Dining Hall we organize fun events we provide extensive recreation program opportunities and varsity sports activities we run an innovative career development and experiential learning program and much more!

Theres nothing more rewarding than helping future generations reach their full potential at a world-class university. With our wide variety of career opportunities and professional development pathways were sure that youll enjoy the experience as much as our students do.

Position Purpose

Provide psychotherapy and mental performance support to varsity student-athletes for the duration of their University of Ottawa career. Offer tools resources counseling and psychotherapy to help them develop the skills abilities and habits that promote their mental health and wellness while competing at the highest level of Canadian University Sport. Provide mental performance support as a certified mental performance consultant to varsity student-athletes in a primarily one-on-one environment. Work closely with members of the Integrated Support team to determine the best plan for student-athletes from a holistic approach.

In this role your responsibilities will include

• Deliver Clinical Psychotherapy Services : Provide evidence-based psychotherapy to student-athletes across the mental health continuum including those experiencing distress as well as those seeking to proactively maintain wellness resilience and balance in order to support psychological health sustainable performance in support of their academic athletic and personal development.
• Deliver Mental Performance Consulting: Design and implement mental performance interventions (goal setting focus confidence motivation stress regulation) to enhance athletic performance resilience and consistency in training and competition environments.
• Advisory Role: Act as an advisor to the supervisor and Head Coaches to support the development of safe supportive and psychologically healthy varsity sport environments that promote the well-being and safety of student-athletes in the daily training environments.
• Varsity Integrated Support Team (IST): Collaborate with members of the Varsity Integrated Support Team to deliver holistic individualized care for student-athletes and provide guidance on Safe Sportinformed best practices to ensure varsity environments policies and procedures are psychologically safe inclusive and free from maltreatment and psychological harm.
• Coach and IST Education: Assess learning needs and design lead and recommend training and/or psychoeducation for full-time coaches and Integrated Support Team members to ensure consistent knowledge and shared standards related to mental health wellness and psychological safety. Coordinate and deliver onboarding and ongoing education opportunities for new sport leaders within the sector to promote informed safe and supportive sport environments.
• Collection and Analysis of Mental Health Information: Collect and analyze aggregate mental health data including urgency and frequency of interventions and environmental factors impacting student-athlete well-being to inform service planning and delivery. Share nonconfidential insights with Integrated Support Team members to provide continuous improvement of supports and flag emerging or concerning trends to the supervisor in accordance with consent and privacy requirements.

What you will bring

• Be a certified member in good standing with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO).
• Be a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) in good standing as per the Canadian Sport Psychology Association.
• Postgraduate degree in counseling psychology or another related discipline.
• Bilingualism: French and English (spoken and written) to be considered for this position candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.
• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) or equivalent.
• Five (5) years of experience in a similar role.
• Knowledge of mental health issues in post-secondary environments.
• Experience working in university sport or equivalent.
• Skills in offering various modalities of psychotherapy founded on evidence-based practices.
• Knowledge and experience in the use and interpretation of the latest psychometric tools.
• Eligibility for professional liability insurance coverage as an independent practitioner.
• Strong interpersonal communication and customer service skills.
• Awareness of confidentiality informed consent accessibility and diversity-related concerns.
• Experience in developing and facilitating psychoeducational workshops.
• Knowledge and experience with computer systems and software such as Windows word processing spreadsheets databases the internet and email.
• Ability to work evenings and weekends as needed.
• Lived experience as a member of an equity-deserving or underrepresented community is considered an asset and supports culturally responsive inclusive and psychologically safe engagement with a diverse student-athlete population.

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa:

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect teamwork and inclusion where collaboration innovation and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons racialized persons persons with disabilities women and LGBTQIA2S persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1 2022 the University required all students faculty staff and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.