Couples Therapist

About North Star Psychological Services

Established in 2021, North Star Psychological Services is a private psychotherapy practice in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC. Our team works with teens, adults, professionals, parents, and families navigating a broad range of mental health concerns and life experiences, including members of the city's international and multicultural communities.

We value clinical depth, warmth, curiosity, and evidence-based care. Our clinicians bring their own areas of expertise while recognizing the importance of culture, identity, relationships, and context in psychotherapy. Independence and collaboration are both important parts of how we work.

We aim to make thoughtful psychotherapy accessible to more people by offering a range of service rates. North Star has grown deliberately and sustainably, bringing new clinicians into the practice when the fit is right both clinically and culturally.

About the role

As a couples therapist at North Star, you will provide outpatient psychotherapy to couples navigating recurring conflict, difficulties with communication, emotional disconnection, trust concerns, intimacy, and major relationship transitions. Your work will be grounded in careful assessment, a clear clinical framework, and respect for each partner's history, identity, and goals.

This is a full-time, 1099 independent contractor position with an expected schedule of approximately 20–25 hours per week. The role combines in-person work from our Dupont Circle office with virtual care when clinically appropriate. We prefer clinicians who can offer more of their hours in person; this is not a fully remote position.

Depending on your interests and the needs of the practice, there may also be opportunities to work with individual clients.

Responsibilities include

• Assessing relationship concerns and establishing thoughtful treatment goals with the couple
• Providing couples psychotherapy using an established, clinically appropriate treatment approach
• Helping partners understand recurring interaction patterns and build healthier ways to communicate, connect, and repair
• Attending to safety, coercion, intimate partner violence, and other factors that may affect whether conjoint treatment is appropriate
• Maintaining clear professional boundaries, informed consent, and appropriate confidentiality practices in couples work
• Keeping timely, accurate clinical documentation and coordinating referrals or additional care when clinically indicated
• Participating in clinical consultation and collaborating with other providers when appropriate and authorized

What you can expect

North Star is designed for clinicians who want the independence and flexibility of private practice while still having administrative support, referrals, a collaborative clinical community, and an established practice structure around them.

• Administrative support so you can spend more time focused on clinical care and less time managing the logistics of private practice
• A steady referral stream aligned with your clinical interests to support a sustainable caseload
• Flexibility to provide a combination of in-person and virtual care when clinically appropriate
• A welcoming, light-filled office in Dupont Circle
• A collaborative team culture where consultation and thoughtful discussion of complex clinical work are valued
• Opportunities to deepen your couples therapy specialty and develop areas of clinical interest
• A practice committed to evidence-based, culturally responsive, and inclusive care

What we are looking for

We are looking for an experienced clinician with an established foundation in couples or relationship therapy, strong clinical judgment, and the ability to balance a clear treatment approach with flexibility and responsiveness to each couple.

Required qualifications

• Independent clinical licensure to provide psychotherapy in Washington, DC
• At least two years of direct outpatient clinical experience
• Demonstrated experience providing couples or relationship therapy
• Training in an established couples therapy model

Additional strengths and interests

• Training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the Gottman Method, Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT), PACT, or another established approach
• Experience working with conflict, communication difficulties, trust concerns, intimacy concerns, and relationship transitions
• Strong clinical judgment about safety, boundaries, documentation, informed consent, and ethical decision-making with multiple participants
• Commitment to culturally responsive and identity-affirming care for couples with varied backgrounds and relationship structures
• Interest in participating in clinical group consultation and collaborating with colleagues
• Interest in deepening a specialty, developing groups, hosting trainings, or contributing to other professional initiatives