Social Worker - Therapist

About the Organization:

The Barrie Area Native Advisory Circle (BANAC) is an Indigenous governed, Indigenous led regional social planning and development organization. The BANAC service region now covers Simcoe County, Muskoka, and York region. BANAC works in cooperation with Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous organizations to address community-identified priorities through coordinated planning, implementation and evaluation. BANAC has a mandate to support the continued promotion of Indigenous lifelong learning and community wellness through self-determination and community participation.

BANAC offers many innovative programs and services including Aging Well Senior Supports, Bebminot Family Wellness, the Biinoojinsauk Child Care Centre, Maapii Enjii Zaagi Gaazwad and the Mamaway Wiidokdaadwin Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Team. Mamaway Wiidokdaadwin offers a wholistic approach to wellness that includes traditional healing practices in primary care, community clinics, addiction and recovery services, counselling programs, midwifery, land-based healing programs, and community health promotion.

This position operates within an Indigenous-led and Indigenous-governed organization that is accountable to the communities it serves. Work is grounded in the principle of Indigenous Health in Indigenous Hands, ensuring that all programs and services are developed, delivered, and evaluated under Indigenous governance structures and community direction. In alignment with Indigenous and provincial standards, the organization upholds excellence in care, accountability, and compliance while centering on Indigenous knowledge systems, cultural safety, and self-determination in health and social service deliverables.

All employees are required to participate in organizational Indigenous Cultural Safety training and to engage in ongoing reflexive practices as part of their professional development. This includes a commitment to examining personal and systemic biases, deepening understanding of Indigenous histories and experiences, and ensuring that service delivery aligns with the values of respect, reciprocity, and wholism that guide the organization’s work.

The Social Worker Therapist is a key member of the integrated Indigenous primary care team, providing trauma-informed, culturally safe addictions and relapse prevention support for clients at various stages of recovery from substance use and concurrent disorders. The therapist completes culturally grounded assessments and works closely with an interdisciplinary team to collaboratively develop holistic case conceptualizations and treatment plans. Using a two-eyed seeing approach, the practitioner integrates Indigenous ways of knowing with evidence-informed clinical practice, delivering individual psychotherapy using evidence informed approaches such as NET, culturally adapted approaches to CBT, DBT, ACT, and trauma-informed care.

A key responsibility of this role focuses on preparing community members for the intensive “Live in Healing program”, providing accessible information regarding rTMS, addressing participant inquiries and assessing treatment readiness in collaboration with the interdisciplinary team.

The Social Worker Therapist will deliver culturally relevant psycho educational group programming that supports individuals through their recovery journey, fostering knowledge, self-awareness, and connection to cultural well-being practices and sustained sobriety.

• Provide comprehensive mental health interventions and therapy specific to addiction, trauma recovery and relapse prevention
• Independently complete a variety of psychosocial assessments and collaborate on the development of psychotherapeutic intervention and treatment plans that are culturally grounded and safe
• Participate in case conferences and communicate appropriate patient information within the circle of care
• Establish and maintain regular effective therapeutic relationships with…