Irreducible tensor representations with "covariant" indices
As a follow-up of my question on the "most general" $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-symmetric interaction of two spin 1/2 particles, I ponder the following question:
Consider an operator acting just on one particle of spin 1/2, and just on the spin part. In second quantization, it can be written as $$\sum_{\alpha\beta} \psi^\dagger_\alpha V_{\alpha \beta} \psi_\beta$$
Now, under $SU(2)$, the operators will transform as $$\psi^\dagger_\alpha = \sum_{\alpha'} \psi^\dagger_{\alpha'} D_{\alpha\alpha'}$$ with $D \in SU(2)$.
I can move this transformation to the operator and conclude that it transforms like $$V_{\alpha\beta} \rightarrow \sum_{\alpha'\beta'} D_{\alpha\alpha'} V_{\alpha'\beta'} D_{\beta\beta'}^\dagger$$.
(I might have gotten some of the daggers and indices backwards, but the important point is that one matrix is the adjunct of the other).
Now if I understand correctly, this allows me to conclude that $V_{\alpha\beta}$ transforms "reducibly like a tensor product of two spin 1/2 representations", i.e., like $\frac{1}{2} \otimes \frac{1}{2}$. From that, I conclude that $V$ should decompose into one component that transforms like a spin $0$ particle and one component that transforms like a spin $1$ particle.
Indeed, as $V$ is a $2\times 2$ matrix, I can write it as a linear combination of the unit matrix and the pauli matrices. The former transforms like a scalar, i.e., like spin $0$, whereas the latter transform like vectors. 656
However, I have trouble relating this to what I know about combining spin $1/2$ particles using Clebsh-Gordan coefficients, where I have, e.g., for the singlet $$|0 0\rangle = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \left( \uparrow \downarrow - \downarrow \uparrow\right)$$
Because of this conceptual problem, I also have trouble generalizing this to the case of two interacting spin 1/2 particles, which then should lead to an interaction that transforms reducibly as $1/2 \otimes 1/2 \otimes 1/2 \otimes$ and gives rise to two different singlets.
I'd appreciate it if someone could disentangle my misconceptions...
EDIT: I forgot to specify what I mean with "covariant" in the title: I think an important thing to notice is that the matrix elements $V_{\alpha\beta}$ are not the 4 elements of a "cartesian" tensor of rank 2. The entire operator $V$ might be an element of a tensor of higher rank, or even the sum of elements of tensors of different rank. A simple example for such a thing would be an operator "1 + x", which is the sum of a rank zero tensor (scalar) and the element of a cartesian tensor of rank 1.
Now, what I mean with covariant is that one of the indices of $V_{\alpha\beta}$ transforms with matrix $D$ and the other with matrix $D^\dagger$.
Also important is that the components of the operator transform with the actual $SU(2)$-matrices and not with some rotation matrix $R \in SO(3)$. I guess this is why I have trouble translating the standard literature on tensor operators to my situation... 656