Summary

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Duties

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VA Careers - Psychologist: https://youtube.com/embed/77qHlLw9Xck

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Set in Arizona's "Valley of the Sun" just a stone's throw from Phoenix and the rocky San Tan Mountains, Gilbert is the biggest small town you'll ever meet. Laced with 217 kilometers of equestrian and cycling trails and expansive enough to include five lauded golf courses, Gilbert's made the most of its spacious borders, agricultural roots and scrappy Western culture. It's got farmland, cutting-edge art and a heritage area that keeps the town's rustic soul alive, even as it welcomes the new. The sun is always shining here, making every season the best season.

Our outpatient clinic provides primary care and specialty health services, including mental health care, dentistry and oral surgery, laboratory services, women's health services, and more. The Psychologist position is assigned professionally to the Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI) - Health Psychology Service of the Phoenix VA Health Care System located at the South East CBOC - Staff Sergeant Alexander W. Conrad Veterans Affairs Health Care Clinic and will function as a full member of the Mental Health Medical Staff. This position serves the outpatient primary care clinics and works closely with primary care teams.

Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Provides a range of clinical services (e.g. group and individual), consultation, and functional assessment for Veterans for same-day and time-limited treatment formats.
• Provides education to patients, family members, and significant others. The psychologist will provide time-limited, evidence-based psychotherapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression (CBT-D) and/or insomnia (CBT-I), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), or Problem-Solving Therapy (PST), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression (IPT). The psychologist may also be asked to conduct Health Psychology duties including Medical Psychology Consult management, individual therapy for health-related concerns, and pre-surgical evaluations (pre-transplant and bariatric surgery).
• Assists the Psychology Section Chief in the design, development, and implementation of clinical programs.
• Provides consultation to PACT teams, professional staff within Phoenix VAMC, and community providers, concerning the behavioral health care needs of the Veteran population, served.
• Develops, implements, and documents the psychotherapeutic treatment plan for an assigned caseload of patients, including prompt completion of clinical reminders.
  
  

Work Schedule: Flexible Monday-Friday 7:30 am to 6:30 pm and based on clinic needs

Compressed/Flexible:Authorized at Supervisor's Discretion.

Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): May be authorized for highly qualified candidates.

Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact VISN22HREducationReimbursementTeam@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more

Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).

Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year). Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.

Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Telework: This position is telework eligible but may be required to return to the office permanently at a later date.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 000000

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• You may be required to serve a trial period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
  
  

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

• 
  
  United States Citizenship:
• Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• 
  
  Licensure:
• Applicants must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia.
• Education:
• Applicant must have a doctoral degree in psychology from a graduate program in psychology accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS), or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) at the time the program was completed. The specialty area of the degree must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicants are to be employed. For the purpose of meeting this requirement, the term "specialty area" refers to the specific specialty areas recognized by the accrediting body and not to specific job duties that might require special skills. Currently, APA accredits doctoral programs in the specialty areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, or combinations of two or more of those areas. PCSAS accredits doctoral programs in psychological clinical science. CPA accredits doctoral programs in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and school psychology; OR
• Have a doctoral degree in any area of psychology and, in addition, successfully complete a re-specialization program (including documentation of an approved internship completed as part of the re-specialization program) meeting both of the following conditions:
• The re-specialization program must be completed in an APA or a CPA accredited doctoral program; and
• The specialty in which the applicant is retrained must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed; OR
• Have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution, with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature.

AND

• Internships:
• Applicants must have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program that was accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed and that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed OR
• New VHA psychology internship programs that are in the process of applying for APA accreditation are acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement, provided that such programs were sanctioned by the VHA Central Office Program Director for Psychology and the VHA Office of Academic Affiliations at the time that the individual was an intern OR
• VHA facilities that offered full-time, one-year pre-doctoral internships prior to PL 96-151 (pre-1979) are considered to be acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement OR
• Applicants who completed an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed OR
• Applicants who have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature may fulfill this internship requirement by having the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience in a site specifically acceptable to the candidate's doctoral program. If the internship experience is not noted on the applicant's official transcript, the applicant must provide a statement from the doctoral program verifying that the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience was completed in a site acceptable to the doctoral program.
  

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations:

• GS-13 Experience: Applicants must have at least 2 years of experience as a professional psychologist, with at least one year equivalent to the GS-12 level. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:
• Knowledge of, and ability to apply, professional psychological treatments to the full range of patient populations.
• Ability to provide professional advice and consultation in areas related to professional psychology and behavioral health.
• Knowledge of clinical research literature.
  

Assignment: This is the full performance level for staff psychologists. At this level, psychologists are licensed to practice independently in the provision of psychological services, consulting with peers and supervisors as appropriate. They may be assigned to any VHA program and setting, such as inpatient or outpatient medicine, primary care, surgery, mental health, neurology, rehabilitation medicine, geriatrics, Compensation and Pension, Vet Centers, and the VHA National Center for Organization Development. Psychologists diagnose mental disorders, conduct psychological or neuropsychological assessments, treat mental disorders through a variety of modalities, and provide adjunctive interventions for treatment of medical disorders. Among the modalities provided are individual, family, and group psychotherapies and other interventions such as behavioral health and community interventions. Psychologists consult with medical center staff on a wide variety of patient care issues. Staff psychologists may be involved in program evaluation, teaching, training, and research activities.



Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is 13.



Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required.

Education


IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.



Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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