Therapist

About Onja

Onja trains underprivileged youth into world-class software developers. Our organisation is unified by a common mission: give life-changing work through sustainable social enterprise.

We are recognised for our innovative model that finds exceptional talent where opportunity is scarce, invests in its development, and connects it directly to the global tech economy. Through an intensive two-and-a-half-year program, we co-create pathways to long-term social and economic stability that prioritise self-reliance.

We operate as one integrated organisation, where education, hiring, and partner collaboration work together to deliver high-performing tech talent with lasting social impact. Onja developers invest in their own futures and in their nation’s development, while ensuring Onja remains self-funding and scalable, paying forward opportunities to the next generation.

Onja is located in Toamasina, a lively city with beautiful beaches, nice restaurants, and with plenty to do and see. Toamasina is Madagascar’s second largest city (population 300,000) yet is surrounded by plenty of natural beauty, and even has a national park nearby. 

About the Role

In 2019, Onja developed and delivered an intensive, full-time program combining English language training and coding instruction, with 19 students from our first cohort now working for top tech teams in the US and Europe. 

We now face a strategic inflection point. While we've proven our model works very effectively, we must scale from training dozens to hundreds, then thousands of students while simultaneously diversifying our course offerings to mitigate AI-driven disruption in the software development sector. The challenge is maintaining quality and employment outcomes while expanding at this pace.

We've identified therapy and counselling as a promising alternative career pathway. We are excited at the prospect of serving people, all over the world, who are in need of mental health services. Simultaneously, we realize the field offers strong career opportunities for our students. With a growing global demand for mental health services, a viable remote service delivery model, we see a Therapy/Counselling education path creating meaningful employment opportunities for our students, while strengthening our social enterprise model.

In this role, your objective is to build and design a comprehensive training program from the ground up. This program must transform absolute beginners into professionally competent, employable therapists and counsellors capable of providing psychotherapy services, using psychotherapy methods such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), while operating at scale through an online-first delivery model.

Your responsibilities will include

• Provide expert guidance on developing engaging video lectures, learning activities and course content to build a comprehensive therapy and counseling curriculum from the ground up for absolute beginners.
• Advise on collaboration strategies with licensed mental health professionals, and subject matter experts, incorporating their specific experience into your course design.
• Recommend approaches to ensure the curriculum aligns with industry standards and provides graduates with viable routes to professional practice.
• Advise on the development of appropriate criteria used to assess learners' performance.

Requirements

• Twelve month commitment (this ensures sufficient time to make a truly meaningful impact) with potential to renew/extend.
• Active professional licensure or certification as a therapist, counsellor, or mental health practitioner and/or a university degree in Psychology/Psychotherapy
• Minimum of 3 years of psychotherapy experience

 

Why work with us

• Do impactful work:  Working with Onja gives you the ability to make a real tangible difference with your work, and have a deep sense of purpose in your every-day.  Our mission is to nurture talented, underprivileged youth to lead impactful careers in tech, unlock opportunities for others and accelerate Madagascar's development.

• Grow your skills fast: As a young fast-growing startup we are all in “over our head” and this is a great place to grow.  You will be challenged but you’ll also be part of a very supportive team and caring environment. Our social model is innovative with exciting potential to scale, so there is a great opportunity for you to grow your career along with us.

• Work with very talented individuals who are very socially inclined:  At Onja you’ll join a community of talented and passionate people from around Madagascar and the world. 

What you can expect

• You’ll join our tight-knit, committed team in Toamasina, Madagascar. 
• We know it’s a big move so we will look after you and make sure you are secure and settled. 
• We’ll provide secure, comfortable accommodation and food. 
• We are able to offer a good local salary – enough to live comfortably and have plenty left over for holidays travels. 
• Unlimited annual leave. We recommend between 30 and 35 days as a guide to give you time to explore the wonders of Madagascar
• We also offer 25% remote work, for when you are keen to get some city vibes in Madagascar.
• We’ll provide optional weekly Malagasy lessons to bring you up to speed with the language.
• Your visa will be sponsored.
• Sponsored flights

How Onja Works

Onja is a social enterprise with a sustainable model:

1. Search for brilliant minds who would otherwise be limited to low-paid, unfulfilling careers.
2. Students receive two years of English and software development instruction. Meet a developer here: https://onja.org/blog
3. Graduates earn (and continue learning) at our outsourcing enterprise. 

All profits are used to train the next wave of students and the cycle begins again. 

We want our recruitment process to be fair and inclusive, so please do let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make. For example, if you identify as neurodivergent, we can accommodate and discuss modifications to our hiring process with you.