Child Therapist

Jakarta Interdisciplinary World Atelier (JIWA); Jakarta Utara; On-site; IDR 167,400,000 - 256,680,000; Full time

Job summary

Jakarta Interdisciplinary World Atelier (JIWA) in central Jakarta seeks an experienced clinician to lead play-based therapy with children from six months to eight years, reporting to the Clinical Director and working with the Principal and learning support team.

You will build the service, set up a confidential records system, train the founding team on regulation and attachment, and agree on caseload thresholds before opening.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree minimum in Psychology or related field.
• Master’s-level professional qualification strongly preferred (Indonesia Magister Profesi Psikologi).
• Registration and license matching the scope you will practice at (HIMPSI registration and SIPP).
• Five years post-qualification practice with children under eight.

Responsibilities

• Observe in classrooms routinely and work with children six months to eight years.
• Deliver play-based individual and small-group therapy.
• Support events such as family transitions, bereavement, and sibling changes.
• Provide clinical input to student support plans with the learning support team.
• Coach families on sleep, boundaries, and parent–child interactions.
• Consult with teachers to adapt classroom approaches for challenged children.

Skills

Observation in classrooms

Counseling families

Parent coaching

Team collaboration

Clinical input

Education

Bachelor's in psychology or related field

Master's degree preferred (Magister Profesi Psikologi)

Job description

Jakarta Interdisciplinary World Atelier (JIWA) View all jobs

School Levels: Infant to Primary 2 (6 months – 8 years)

Opening: August 2027

Start Date: April 2027

JIWA is a new premium school in central Jakarta, led by the ISMILE Family of Schools, which currently operates seven preschools across Jakarta, Bali, and Bandung. Serving children from six months to Primary 2, JIWA will be our flagship international campus.

The Role

You report to the Clinical Director for supervision, caseload, and practice standards, and work day-to-day alongside the Principal and the learning support team.

From June 2027 Before Any Children Arrive

Build the service: referral pathway, consent and confidentiality framework, records, and the threshold for referring out.

Set up a therapy room equipped for play-based work with children from six months to eight years.

Train the founding team on regulation, attachment, and separation, ahead of the first weeks of school.

Agree on the caseload ceiling and triage rule with the Clinical Director, before demand exists to argue with.

Work with Children

Observe in classrooms routinely and unremarkably, so observation never itself marks a child out.

Deliver individual and small-group play-based work — developmentally pitched, time-limited, reviewed.

Support specific events: a new sibling, a bereavement, a family separation, a move between countries, the transition into Primary 1.

Give clinical input to individual support plans with the learning support team, and review whether it worked.

Work with Families

Hold parent consultations, scheduled and at short notice when something has happened.

Coach parents on sleep, separation, boundaries, sibling conflict, and screens, in terms they can use that week.

Prepare and accompany families through referral when a child needs specialist assessment beyond our scope.

Run a short program of parent sessions across the year on the themes that recur.

Work with Teachers

Consult on individual children, and turn that into something the classroom can do differently.

Coach teachers on handling a disregulated child and on difficult parent conversations.

Contribute to both professional development weeks a year.

Watch for staff strain. Early years work is emotionally heavy, and you will see it first.

You Will Need

A bachelor’s degree minimum in Psychology, Child Development, Counselling, or a related field. A master’s-level professional qualification is strongly preferred — in Indonesia, the Magister Profesi Psikologi route.

Registration and a licence matching the scope you will practice at. Independent clinical practice in Indonesia requires HIMPSI registration and a valid SIPP. Overseas-qualified candidates must hold home-country registration and be eligible for Indonesian practice. We sponsor permits; we do not shortcut registration.

At least five years post-qualification practice with children under eight and their parents. Adolescent-weighted experience is not a substitute.

Training in a modality for young children — play therapy, filial or dyadic parent–child work, attachment-based practice, or CBT genuinely adapted for early years.

Parent work as a discipline in its own right, not feedback appended to a child’s session.

English to professional standard. Teaching is in English; family work happens in whichever language the parent is most honest in.

Experience inside an institution — school, clinic, or hospital — holding a clinical boundary under operational pressure.

International or English-medium school experience

• infant mental health or under-threes training
• neurodevelopmental and SEN experience
• building a service from scratch.