Northern Illinois University
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Psychotherapy

In therapy, we treat problems such as emotion regulation difficulties, anxiety, depression, distress tolerance, interpersonal relationship difficulties, grief, academic and adjustment problems, school problems, sexual difficulties and family/marital difficulties. In addition to these general challenges, we also have several areas that we specialize in, and clients can receive specialty care.

Trauma Services Clinic

In the Trauma Services Clinic, we specialize in the assessment and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related disorders that may occur following trauma exposures such as accidents, disasters, combat exposure/deployment and interpersonal violence (e.g., assault, sexual abuse, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, maltreatment during childhood).

People who are experiencing distress following a trauma exposure often benefit from more specialized therapy than is available through a more general treatment method. Treatment through the Trauma Services Clinic usually consists of short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy using evidence-based methods such as prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, or written exposure therapy. These involve reprocessing the traumatic event and thus involve a substantial exposure component. Reprocessing the trauma can involve using writing or imagery to face the traumatic event and a cognitive restructuring component to change the thoughts, feelings and behaviors associated with the traumatic memories. These approaches have been shown to be very effective in treating people in the aftermath of a distressing event and are considered the "gold standard" for treatment following trauma.

The Trauma Services Clinic can also provide more extensive evaluations related to the assessment and diagnosis of PTSD for use in litigation or disability claims.

Parent Management Training/Family Therapy

Services are routinely available for parents and children struggling with managing behavior and emotional and relationship issues in the family. Individual, parent-child relationship and family therapy approaches are possible. Consultation with teachers and other school personnel are often a key component to facilitating communication and enhancing a child's experiences in home and school. The PSC offers parent education groups focusing on behavior management issues with children.

Collaboration with Schools

Our center has good working relationships with the surrounding school districts, as well as most private schools in the area. Consultations with educational personnel in schools in the broader surrounding areas (e.g., Rockford, west suburbs) are possible and encouraged.

Specific areas for consultation and classroom-based intervention include academic skills training and progress monitoring, learning disabilities, disruptive behavior problems, inattentiveness, and peer relation problems. The clinical and school psychology faculty have a wide range of interests and expertise with children and adolescents in school settings.

Please note that we typically provide short to medium-term therapy. Although we are open during the summer, many students who attend NIU terminate at the end of the spring semester. If you feel that you need long-term therapy, please discuss this matter with your your graduate student therapist. Having a pre-established understanding about the length of therapy often helps both client and therapist use the time more effectively.

Psychological Evaluation

Psychological evaluations are available to address questions about possible learning, attention, and developmental challenges, emotional difficulties (e.g. depression, anxiety), relationship problems, and anger management issues. We also provide evaluations for diagnostic clarity for those who have received several diagnoses in the past.

Please note that while we use several neuropsychological evaluation instruments and can answer many neuropsychological evaluation questions (e.g., ADHD, ASD), we are not specialized enough to evaluate for dementia or other neurodegenerative disorders, traumatic brain injury, or other questions about assaults to the brain.