Job Summary:

The National Clinical Director - Psychotherapy provides enterprise-wide clinical leadership for psychotherapy services, supporting Regional Clinical Directors to execute the LifeStance clinical priorities and vision. This role collaborates with the VP, Clinical Operations, and the Chief Medical Officer to define and execute the national clinical vision, establishing evidence-based standards of care, ensuring regulatory compliance, overseeing quality and risk governance, and serve as the senior clinical escalation authority for complex clinical matters for psychotherapy matters.

The National Clinical Director - Psychotherapy partners closely with executive leadership, operations, compliance, revenue cycle, and regional clinical leaders to ensure safe, high-quality, compliant, and effective psychotherapy delivery.

Duties/Responsibilities:

Enterprise Clinical Vision & Strategy Implementation

• Partner with the Chief Medical Office and VP, Clinical Operations to communicate and implement a national clinical vision for psychotherapy services aligned with the CMO organizational mission and strategic growth objectives.
• Drive enterprise-wide clinical frameworks, care models, and treatment standards grounded in evidence-based practice.
• Represent psychotherapy leadership in executive strategy discussions and organizational planning, bringing the voice of psychotherapy clinicians into decision making around policies and workflows.

Clinical Policy & Procedure Governance

• Develop, review, and maintain national psychotherapy clinical policies and procedures.
• Standardize documentation expectations and clinical practice guidelines across markets.
• Partner with Regional Clinical Directors to ensure policy alignment with federal, state, and payer requirements.
• Partner with Ops VPs, Regional Clinical Directors and other cross functional stakeholders to oversee implementation of new policies across regions, ensuring clinician education and adoption.
• Collaborate with compliance, legal, and people teams on clinical governance matters.

Quality, Compliance & Risk Management

• Provide oversight of psychotherapy quality metrics and clinical performance indicators.
• Lead initiatives to improve clinical outcomes, documentation quality, and patient safety metrics.
• Oversee clinical risk mitigation strategies and review sentinel events or adverse outcomes.
• Partner with compliance to ensure adherence to:

• CMS regulations
• State licensing requirements
• Payer contractual obligations

• Participate in peer review, credentialing oversight, and performance improvement planning when necessary.

Regulatory & Coding Guidance

• Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert on psychotherapy regulatory requirements and changes.
• Provide interpretation and guidance related to:
  
  • Scope of practice regulations
  • Telehealth laws
  • CMS and commercial payer policy updates
• Partner with Revenue Cycle and Coding teams to:
  
  • Ensure appropriate psychotherapy coding practices
  • Address documentation deficiencies
  • Support education on coding compliance
• Translate regulatory changes into operational guidance for clinicians and leaders.

Clinical Escalation & Complex Case Consultation

• Serve as the senior clinical escalation point for:
  
  • High-risk or complex patient cases
  • Ethical dilemmas
  • Scope of practice concerns
  • Inter-provider disputes impacting care
• Provide structured guidance and recommended next steps to regional clinical directors and clinical leaders.
• Support development of case review protocols and decision-making frameworks.
• Ensure patient safety and continuity of care in escalated situations.

Culture & Change Management

• Serve as a visible, engaged national leader, promoting a culture of accountability, collaboration, and clinical excellence.
• Act as a change management agent, guiding teams through growth, new systems, workflow enhancements, and organizational transformation.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Excellent verbal & written communication
• Strong executive presence and ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
• Proven ability to lead and develop clinical leaders across diverse markets.
• Demonstrated success improving quality, compliance, and clinical outcomes.
• Deep expertise in psychotherapy clinical practice and supervision.
• Ability to translate complex regulatory and clinical concepts into practical guidance.
• Commitment to continuous improvement, learning, and evidence-based care.
• Experience managing a diverse team with a track record for hiring, coaching, and retaining strong talent.
• Proven ability to improve business processes, methods, quality, and decision-making to achieve meaningful, measurable improvements.
• Effective at communicating and translating complexity to a clinical audience.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and mitigate clinical compliance risk.

Education and Experience:

• Active, unrestricted clinical license (e.g., LCSW, LMFT, LPC, PsyD, PhD) with eligibility for multi-state practice.
• Minimum 10+ years of progressive clinical experience in psychotherapy.
• 5-7+ years of senior clinical leadership experience in a multi-state or national organization.
• Deep knowledge of evidence-based psychotherapy practices.
• Extensive understanding of regulatory, licensure, supervision, telehealth, and compliance frameworks across multiple states.
• Experience leading quality assurance, audit preparation, and risk management initiatives.
• Experience managing and supporting a team of regional clinical leaders and their development.

In Office and Travel Requirements:

• Up to 25% onsite supporting clinicians and collaborating with Practice Operations and Clinical Leadership.
• Quarterly travel to attend division and national leadership meetings.

COMPENSATION: $165,000 - $200,000/annually, with 25% annual bonus potential & long term incentive plan eligibility.

LifeStance provides the compensation range and benefits that it in good faith believes it might pay and/or offer for this position. LifeStance reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant's sex or other status protected by local, state, or federal law.

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