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All of the senior staff at AATC are specialists in the cognitive behavioral treatment of the anxiety disorders and OC spectrum disorders. Each senior staff person has trained at the leading graduate, post-doctoral and internship programs in the United States and Canada and continues to undergo continuous post-graduate education and clinical training in order to stay on the cutting edge of science and treatment for the anxiety disorders. All of our senior staff have been mentored by the leading experts in the research and treatment of anxiety disorders. We are proud to be carrying on their tradition of excellence. Our goal is to provide you with the most advanced and compassionate assessment and treatment available. Many of our senior staff and graduate students maintain an active teaching, writing and research career which further sharpens our ability to stay on top of the latest advancements in our specialty.
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Dr. Karen Cassiday received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1990 from the University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School (now known as the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences). She is the owner and Clinical Director of the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center. Her research and publications have focused upon information processing in posttraumatic stress disorder and cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders in children, teens and adults. She has also developed and written treatment manuals for cognitive behavioral treatment of seizure disorders while an undergraduate and for eating disorders while a graduate student. Dr. Cassiday has served as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of OCD Chicago since 1994. She is on the Clinical Advisory Board of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America since 1996. She is a popular speaker at local, regional and national professional meetings. Dr. Cassiday leads training workshops on the assessment and treatment anxiety disorders for mental health and medical professionals at national and international meetings. She is clinical assistant professor at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences and an instructor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Rush Medical School. She is a founding fellow in the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. |
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Dr. Erica Wagner-Heimann joined the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center in 2008 as an advanced student clinician. She completed her doctoral internship at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in anxiety and depressive disorders, and earned her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Wagner works collaboratively with her patients utilizing empirically supported interventions to treat symptoms of anxiety and other related disorders across the lifespan including obsessive-compulsive disorder, specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, depression, and trichotillomania/chronic skin picking. She has specialized training in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), as well as in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) through the Behavior Therapy Institute and Trichotillomania/Chronic Skin Picking through the Professional Training Institute. Dr. Wagner has provided services to children, adolescents, and adults and has significant experience across outpatient, inpatient hospital, in-home intensive, forensic, group home, university, athletic, and specialized settings. She also developed treatment manuals for parental anxiety and depression in the ABA setting, as well as group treatment modules for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors while a doctoral student. Dr. Wagner has special interest in the integration of research and clinical practice as applied within real-world conditions and has presented her research at regional and international conferences. Additional interests include the advancement and dissemination of behavior therapy, as well as Athletic Performance Enhancement, Motivational Interviewing, and the treatment of OCD and Trichotillomania/Chronic Skin Picking in young adults. |
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Dr. Andrea Barmish Mazza completed her doctoral training at Temple University under the mentorship of Philip C. Kendall, Ph.D., an internationally recognized leader in the research and treatment of children and teens, where she specialized in the empirically supported assessment and treatment of youth anxiety disorders. She also has experience working with school-avoidant behavior/school-refusal and selective mutism. Dr. Mazza completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Children's Memorial Hospital where she conducted individual, family, and group therapy with youth of all ages, specializing in CBT for anxiety and depressive disorders. Dr. Mazza enjoys using her creativity to make empirically supported treatment fun for families and children. Dr. Mazza has presented posters at National research conferences and has co-authored several chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of anxiety disorder in youth. |
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Dr. Heather Chik is the clinical program director of the Chicago downtown office of the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center. She also leads the Chicago support group for OCDChicago. Dr. Chik has trained with the leading experts in the field of anxiety disorders and obsessivecompulsive disorder, including completing her doctorate with Dr. John Calamari at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, a clinical internship with several anxiety experts at Vancouver Coastal Health in Vancouver, BC, and a post-doctorate fellowship with Dr. Alec Pollard at the Anxiety Disorders Center at the St Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute. Dr. Chik has expertise in working with adults, adolescents, and children with anxiety, mood, and related disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder and hoarding, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, specific phobias, major depression, separation anxiety, selective mutism, trichotillomania, injurious skin picking, body dysmorphic disorder, and health related anxiety, utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy and other empirically-supported treatments. Dr. Chik emphasizes a collaborative relationship with her patients, and strives to create a warm, safe, and hopeful therapeutic environment. She encourages her patients to access their own strengths to develop new skills in managing their anxiety, mood, and behavioral difficulties. |
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Arthur L. Cantos, Ph.D.
Dr. Cantos received his doctorate in clinical psychology in 1989 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology in four different countries, Spain, Gibraltar, England and the USA and he is currently licensed to practice psychology in the UK (EEC), New York and the State of Illinois. He has worked in the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders since 1981 when he completed a one year Diploma course and internship with Dr. Vic Meyer at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London. Dr. Meyer was the first clinical psychologist to write a paper on clinical applications of exposure and response prevention to the treatment of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder. Dr. Cantos also has extensive experience working with affective disorders, having received specialized training in cognitive therapy of depression. He has also been practicing cognitive behavioral marital therapy since 1982 when he first started seeing patients at the University Marital Therapy Clinic at SUNY Stony Brook run by Dr. K.D. O'Leary. He has worked extensively with both adults and children for many years, having worked in the department of child psychiatry at Columbia University from 1985-1990. He also specializes in the assessment and treatment of domestic and family violence, having published research articles in peer reviewed journals. He has made presentations and delivered training workshops both in the USA and internationally at professional meetings. Dr. Cantos was more recently Director of Mental health Services and Head of Psychology and Counseling in Gibraltar, a country with a population of 32,000.
Dr. Cantos is Director of Clinical Training in the department of psychology at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. He has also taught in a Masters programs in Clinical and Forensic Psychology at La Universidad Autonoma in Madrid, La Universidad de Granada and La Universidad de Huelva in Spain. His areas of special interest are individualized formulation based treatment of anxiety, affective disorders and domestic violence in both adults and children. He also has an interest in Disaster Mental Health having had experience in assisting in the 911 disaster in New York.
Dr. Cantos has two children and coached a youth soccer travel team for 7 years in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. His favorite pastimes are spending time with his children, and, needless to say, soccer.
Read Dr. Cantos' Curriculum Vitae
Contact Info:
Voicemail: (847) 578-8750
e-mail: ACantos@anxietytreatmentcenter.com
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Dr. Brian J. Schmaus earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at Vancouver Coastal Health, where he primarily worked in the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Schmaus specializes in the use of cognitive-behavioural therapy in the treatment of children, adolescents and adults with anxiety and stress related disorders, including panic disorder, specific phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, depression and trichotillomania. Dr. Schmaus also specializes in the use of CBT in the treatment of patients with autistic spectrum disorders. Additional clinical interests include addressing anxiety related to cognitive decline in older adult populations. |
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Dr. Jennifer Keller completed her doctoral internship at UCLA, a nationally recognized program for the cognitive behavioral treatment of Anxiety and OC Spectrum Disorders, and intensive treatment of children and teens. She enjoys working with youth and young adults who suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Tic Disorders, Selective Mutism, Social Phobia, PTSD, and autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Keller completed her doctoral training at Northwestern University where she provided empirically supported treatments to children, adolescents, and young adults with anxiety, depressive, and behavioral disorders (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder) at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Dr. Keller is passionate about working with youth and their families and strives to create a warm and collaborative therapeutic environment that encourages hard work, fun, and a lot of humor! She places great importance on working with parents to help them to respond to anxiety effectively and to successfully support their child as they learn to overcome anxiety, tolerate distress, and develop the self-confidence to face their fears. Dr. Keller’s research focuses on cognitive and temperamental risk factors for the development of anxiety, depression, and behavioral disorders in children, as well as on improving outcomes and dissemination of empirically supported treatments. Dr. Keller has presented her research at national conferences. |
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Karin Schroeder-Nothaft, M.S., LPC earned her Master’s Degree in Psychology - Clinical Counseling from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL. Working with children, adolescents, adults and families Karin specializes in empirically supported cognitive-behavioral treatments for anxiety spectrum disorders such as social anxiety, GAD, OCD and body focused repetitive behaviors. She has a special interest in treatment of Selective Mutism and Body Dismorphic Disorder. She provides socials skills training for individuals of all age. She strongly believes in using creative, engaging and developmentally appropriate methods treating children and adolescents. Karin places great empathizes on a warm and collaborative therapeutic relationship with her patients and their families. |
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Brandon L. DeJong, M.S. is currently earning his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL. He works with clients of all ages, from young children to older adults, using empirically-supported, cognitive-behavioral treatments to manage a variety of anxiety disorders, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia, Social Anxiety, and impulse-control disorders. He has worked under John E. Calamari, Ph.D. for the past two years, working to help expand knowledge about risk factors for late-life anxiety, and contributing to research studies, articles, and book chapters. He emphasizes a strong, collaborative therapeutic relationship with liberal doses of humor, in order to best help his patients improve their quality of life on a tangible, day-to-day basis. |
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Jami Socha, M.A. received her master’s degree in psychology from the City College of New York in New York, NY. She is currently earning her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science in North Chicago, IL. A native Midwesterner, Jami spent several years in New York City working as a research assistant in the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University. During that time she developed a passion for studying the phenomenology and treatment of anxiety and co-morbid disorders. Jami works with clients of all ages using empirically-supported cognitive-behavioral treatments for a variety of anxiety disorders, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, and impulse-control disorders. Her research interests include: understanding and identifying differences in OCD symptom motivation (i.e. “just right” feelings vs. harm avoidance); factors influencing adherence to empirically-supported treatments for OCD; and the relationship between family functioning and anxiety disorder symptomology. Jami strives to create a warm and collaborative therapeutic environment in order to help clients and families successfully overcome the difficulties they are experiencing. |
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Dr. Anna Flynn offers psychiatric care and consultation for those in need of medication to assist them in improving their mental health. Read more |
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