Employee Assistance Counselor
Listed compensation
$80k-$130k
The week · per this posting · Monday – Friday
Ask the employer about the work setting, call expectations, nights and shift pattern and time off.
Job Description
Inova Center for Personalized Health is looking for experienced Employee Assistance Counselor to join the team. This is a full time, Monday - Friday position with some flexibility depending on organizational needs.
Employee Assistance Counselor provides accessible, confidential, in-the-moment emotional and behavioral health support to Inova team members and leaders across the IFMC and ICPH campuses.
The role is designed to be a visible, proactive presence within the workplace, providing brief individual support, crisis response, leader consultation, team support following difficult events, and connection to appropriate longer-term resources through Lyra and other Inova programs.
The counselor does not function as a traditional outpatient therapist or maintain an ongoing therapy caseload. The focus is early intervention, brief support, stabilization, resource connection, and strengthening team member wellbeing and resilience.
Inova is consistently ranked a national healthcare leader in safety, quality and patient experience. We are also proud to be consistently recognized as a top employer in both the D.C. metro area and the nation.
Featured Benefits
- Committed to Team Member Health: offering medical, dental and vision coverage, and a robust team member wellness program.
- Retirement: Inova matches the first 5% of eligible contributions – starting on your first day.
- Tuition and Student Loan Assistance: offering up to $5,250 per year in education assistance and up to $10,000 for student loans.
- Mental Health Support: offering all Inova team members, their spouses/partners, and their children 25 mental health coaching or therapy sessions, per person, per year, at no cost.
- Work/Life Balance: offering paid time off, paid parental leave
The Employee Assistance Counselor serves as a clinical leader, assessing and diagnosing mental health and/or substance use disorders through a bio/psycho/social department specific and evidenced based assessment identifying team member goals and needs.
Integrates assessments using information related to cultural, clinical, ethnic, age and other factors. Coordinates crisis intervention, counseling consultation and team member support for all Inova team members at assigned lnova System location(s).
Assesses and provides ongoing Employee Assistance Program (EAP) responses tailored to the ever-changing needs while using a collaborative delivery of lnova resources.
Employee Assistance Counselor Job Responsibilities
- Establishes on-site resources to all team members. Collaborates with hospital system resources.
- Establishes and fosters relationships with hospital units, HR and all levels of management.
- Evaluates and coordinates appropriate incident response.
- Provides individual team member counseling support and referral. Refers team members to needed resources.
- Supports critical incidents. Supports unit teams by rounding, visibility and collaboration.
- Participates in on-site engagement including HR meetings, management meetings, unit meetings and health fairs etc.
- Consults with management by suggesting work environment improvements.
- Presents to team members on topics of health and well-being. Facilitates individual assistance for team members.
- Provides documentation and performs administrative functions appropriate to clinical role.
- Adheres to lnova Health System's Culture of Safety and participates in maintaining a professional culture throughout the organization.
- Serves as mentor to new staff.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
- with someCertification: Basic Life Support within 3 months
- Licensure: Licensed Professional Counselor {LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), or Licensed Clinical Psychologist (LCP)
- Education: Master's Degree, PhD, PsyD, EdD in mental health, social work, Counseling, or behavioral health related field or degree.
- Experience: 5 years relevant experience; for example mental health/substance use disorders, psychoeducational programming including brief, targeted, evidence-based interventions (crisis intervention, trauma, integrative therapies)
Preferred Qualifications
- 3–5 years of post-graduate experience in behavioral health, EAP, healthcare, crisis intervention, employee wellbeing, or a similar setting.
- Experience with crisis assessment, suicide-risk assessment, psychological first aid, critical incident response, grief/trauma support, and brief solution-focused interventions.
- Experience working within a hospital or healthcare environment, particularly supporting healthcare workers.
- Strong plus: CEAP (Certified Employee Assistance Professional) because of the workplace/EAP nature of the position.
We are Inova, Northern Virginia’s leading nonprofit healthcare provider. Every day, our 26,000+ team members provide world-class healthcare to the communities we serve. Our people are the reason we're a national leader in healthcare safety, quality and patient experience.
And from best-in-class facilities to professional development opportunities, we support them at every step. At Inova, we're constantly striving to be ever better — to shape a more compassionate future for healthcare.
Inova Health is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, pregnancy (including childbirth, pregnancy-related conditions and lactation), race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristics protected by law.
Key Responsibilities
The Employee Assistance Counselor provides accessible, confidential emotional and behavioral health support to team members and leaders through crisis intervention and brief counseling. They also foster relationships with hospital units and management to suggest work environment improvements and facilitate resource connections.
Requirements
Candidates must hold a Master's degree or higher in a mental health field and possess a valid clinical license such as LPC, LMFT, LCSW, or LCP. A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in mental health, substance use, or crisis intervention is required.
Qualifications
- Education
- Master's degree (postgraduate degree)
- Experience
- 5+ years of experience
Certifications
Key Skills
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) — Counselor Career Context
Of the 50 active Counselor listings this role was benchmarked against, 50% are remote, 34% have no call, 64% require no weekends.
In Virginia, the Counselor weighted monthly median benchmark on WeekdayDoc is ~$79k (263 salary observations; 1,184 listings), vs ~$73k nationally (8,708 salary observations; 41,241 listings). Monthly aggregates cover 2025-12-01 through 2026-10-01; these are not the modal's selected comparable-job medians.
The cost-of-living index for Virginia is 101.1 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)), so the posted ~$105k midpoint carries the purchasing power of roughly $104k in an average-cost state. 61.1% of Virginia clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).
Inova ranks #2 of 17 employers hiring Counselor on WeekdayDoc by average advertised pay.
Counselor pay on WeekdayDoc is up 1.9% vs. the prior quarter (through Sep 2026).
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