One hour bi-weekly seminar highlighting Emotion Focused Couple Therapy. This didactic, interactive seminar helps clinicians build their confidence providing couples therapy, including helping couples decrease conflict and enhance their emotional connection. Other special topics include conducting comprehensive intakes, cultural considerations, communication challenges, infidelity, and trauma considerations.

Dr. Johanna Strokoff is a licensed clinical psychologist in Illinois and received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Louisville. Johanna provides individual and couples therapy through her private practice. Her experience working with couples includes training and supervision to masters- and doctoral-level psychology students, being showcased in an APA instructional video titled Couples Experiencing Commitment Uncertainty, and publishing research on romantic relationships in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, andEncyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy.

One hour bi-weekly seminar highlighting group therapy theory and approaches. The history, theory, methods, and applications of group psychotherapy and modern analytic group therapy are examined, discussed, and demonstrated. The development of competency in group methods is enhanced through didactic presentation, interactive discussion, and experiential group consultation. The varied nature of discussion evolves from issues that emerge from the group processes. Topics will include but not be limited to: forming a group, power and privilege dynamics in group, transference and countertransference, models of co-leadership, and the evolution of developing one's group leadership style.  Group sup hours can count towards the certification of becoming a certified group psychotherapist (CGP).

Dr. Heather Frank earned both her Masters of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) from the APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology program at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.  Dr. Frank is a licensed psychologist in the state of Illinois and Florida and a certified group psychotherapist (CGP).  Dr. Frank founded Chicago Counseling Collective PC in 2019 and provides individual, couples, and group psychotherapy.  Dr. Frank also co-leads modern analytic training groups for therapists and enjoys teaching and mentoring on the subject of group therapy.

1.25 hour bi-weekly training group led from a Modern Analytic frame and focused on development of emotional availability of the members as well as development of the professional ego. In many ways the group will function in a similar way to a psychoanalytic process group. Members are responsible for talking about the emotionally relevant parts of their clinical practice and their lives, and attention is paid to the induced feelings, objective and subjective countertransference, and the resistances that arise. Discussion flows according to what group members bring into the room and the leader helps members explore and broaden their understanding of self. The idea is that in group therapy our effectiveness as group leaders is in direct proportion to our emotional availability and our feelings are our principal guide to engaging clients. Training group gives members a chance to begin to see their resistances to specific feelings and to increase their emotional range.

Jim O’Hern received his Master’s in Social Work from Eastern Washington University. He has extensive training in modern analytic group psychotherapy. He is a graduate of the Center for Group Studies and is a Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP) through the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA). Jim has been leading both long-term and short-term groups and meeting with individuals since 2006. Currently, he facilitates both in-person therapy groups and several online training groups for therapists interested in advancing their skills as group therapists. He has presented experiential trainings in group therapy at local and national conferences and continues his own training through group work.

One hour weekly seminar focused on solidifying professional identity and fostering connection among supervisees within a cohort. This seminar is both didactic, including learning about various aspects of private practice and approaches to therapy, as well as process-oriented, including discussion of intra-cohort dynamics and adjustment to full-time clinical work. Exploration of multicultural identities and dynamics of power and privilege within clinical work and among supervisees within a cohort provides a foundation for safety, learning, and growth. Topics are drawn from the interests of each training cohort, and often include early career therapist identity, self-disclosure and therapist-use-of-self, marketing and networking, broaching race and culture with clients, processing billing and fees with clients, and imposter syndrome.

Dr. Stephanie Dykema obtained her Masters in Education (MEd) in Psychological Counseling from Teachers College Columbia University and PhD in Counseling Psychology from The University of Akron. She finds immense value in being trained as a therapist during her masters program and as a psychologist during her doctoral program and connects with the values and identities of both counseling and psychology. These dual training experiences inform her passion for fostering the professional identity of early career therapists and psychologists. She enjoys connecting supervisees to their personal and professional values, deepening their confidence, and mentoring them throughout their training process within a private practice. She has obtained additional experience and training in the provision of supervision and has served on dissertation committees for doctoral students researching supervision.