Company Profile

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a United States-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering, and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. IPA designs, rigorously evaluate and refines these solutions and their applications together with decision-makers to ensure that the evidence created is used to  improve opportunities for the world’s poor.

Job Description

IPA Ghana seeks to hire two short term Psychotherapy Counsellors who will support a pilot project that aims to provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to psychologically distressed people in the Tamale metropolitan area. This project is a collaboration between the University of Ghana Medical School, The Department of Economics at Yale University and Innovations for Poverty Action.

The period of employment will be for 4 months, starting in April 2015. The position is based in Tamale.

Job Description: 

The Counsellors, working closely with the IPA Research Associate and senior researchers, will be trained in providing CBT in group settings by accredited counsellors. Upon successful completion of training, they will provide group counselling sessions to psychologically distressed people from selected peri-urban and rural communities, near Tamale for a period of 12-16 weeks

Specifically, the Counsellors will:

• Provide two counselling sessions a day, following the CBT curriculum provided by the researchers;
• Ensure adherence to the CBT guidelines and field protocols;
• Maintain good, professional relationships with the communities and the program participants;
• Report any issues or concerns immediately to the Research Associate;
• Take records of these meetings and submit regular reports to the project team;
• Participate in weekly meetings with the project team and partner organizations; and
• Maintain compliance with all company policies and procedures.

Required Skills or Experience

• At minimum,  Bachelor's degree with majors/concentration in  Psychology
• Fluency in Dagbani and English
• Excellent communication and group facilitation skills
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
• Willing and able to use a motorbike to travel to the communities, access to a motorbike is preferred
• Knowledge of the CBT is strongly preferred