Mental Health Therapist, Contractor - LA / (Remote)

Join Cartwheel to help tackle the student mental health crisis.

Cartwheel is an early-stage company building a new kind of mental health program for kids that puts schools at the center. We see our role as supporting school staff who see kids every single day. Instead of going around them, we collaborate with them. This means:

• Earlier intervention
• Higher student and family engagement in care
• Better coordination among the trusted adults in a student’s life

Kids shouldn't just aspire to get out of bed and drag themselves to class. They should be able to experience joy. They deserve to envision and build a life they’re excited to live. If you join Cartwheel, you’ll help make this vision a reality for millions of students across the country.

About the Role

We’re looking for team-oriented and mission-driven therapists who believe in the power of collaborative care to join our amazing and interdisciplinary care team of psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, therapists, and school health professionals. As a Mental Health Therapist, you'll work directly with school staff, students, and families in our partner school districts to build stronger systems of mental health support.

Role type: 1099 independent contractor (10-20 hours per week) Location: 100% remote in the United States Start date: Rolling start dates through Spring 2027

What You’LL Do

• Provide excellent care, including mental health assessments and skills-based teletherapy, to elementary, middle and high school students in Cartwheel’s partner school districts (typically 2-4 months per student with possible extension up to 6 months)
• Collaborate closely with referring school counselors and other relevant providers at start of treatment and over the course of a student’s care journey (including through regular phone calls, emails, and virtual meetings)
• Build trusted relationships with school staff and families to support a student’s mental health needs, school engagement and engagement with school-based services, as applicable
• Provide regular psycho-education and support to parents and caregivers to enhance a student’s mental health needs and individual therapy work
• Collaborate with Cartwheel MDs/NPs on treatment planning, care delivery and transition planning over a student’s care journey
• Partner with the External Referrals team to support the identification of referrals to community mental health and primary care providers
• Have the opportunity to participate in case consultations and discussions with other Cartwheel team members
• Help to further build Cartwheel’s clinical programming and wonderful Care Team

Who You Are

Must Have…

• Passion for working in close partnership with schools on mental health
• Master’s Degree or higher from an accredited school of Social Work, Psychology, Counseling or Marriage, or Family and Child Counseling.
• Active license in Louisiana to deliver mental health care independently without supervision (LCSW, LPC, LMFT, or PhD/PsyD, etc.)
• Experience with CBT, DBT, ACT, solution-focused therapy, and/or motivational interviewing
• Experience delivering care via telehealth
• Strong technological skills and learning new systems, including Zoom, GSuite (Google Calendar, Gmail, etc.), electronic health record systems, and other collaboration tools
• Access to a reliable, high-speed internet connection (50 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload - you can test your internet speed at speedtest.net )
• Excellent organization, communication, and collaboration skills
• Ability to deliver care during our peak hours (Mon-Fri 3-8 pm ET and Sat 8-5)
• NOTE: As long as you have an active license in the above state, you can live and deliver care from anywhere in the United States

Extra Credit…

• Fluency in other languages (e. g., Spanish, Portuguese)
• Experience working in a shorter-term model of care delivery (e. g., 2 weeks to 6 months)
• Experience with parent guidance
• Active NPI number (Need to apply for your NPI? Visit this link:

nppes.cms.hhs.gov. It takes about 2 to 4-weeks)

• CAQH credentialing set up (Need to apply for CAQH? Visit this link:

caqh.org. It takes about 3 to 4-days)

• Excitement to join an early stage start-up and help bring Cartwheel to more students and school districts

The above is a summary of the role, not an exhaustive list. If you think that you have most of the above but not everything, please apply. We'd love to hear from you.

Why You’LL Love Cartwheel

At Cartwheel, you’ll have an unmatched provider experience.

• Flexible and 100% remote role (8-20 hrs/week)
• Competitive compensation ($60-$70/hour base hourly rate + up to 5% quarterly Mission Bonus for Master’s-level clinicians, dependent on licensure, experience, language, etc.)
• The Mission Bonus of up to 5% is paid quarterly for serving higher-need populations ( based on the % of students you see who have Medicaid, are uninsured, or speak a non-English language)
• Access to free online accredited continuing education and a CEU stipend
• Administrative support from our experienced, full-time Care Coordinators, and optional access to an AI-enabled medical scribe that saves you hours of documentation time (this is used and loved by the majority of Cartwheel clinicians!)
• Team-based care with mission-driven colleagues building a truly innovative school-community partnership model
• Opportunities beyond clinical care, including working closely with schools on staff support, workshops, and other programming