Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can create profound change, a deeply felt shift that opens us up to living with authenticity, vitality, and purpose.
My approach is experiential, attuned, and focused on transformative change. My therapeutic orientation is grounded in the scientific research on emotion and attachment. I support patients in accessing core emotion in order to develop a greater sense of meaning and coherence in their lives. Patients’ natural capacities for integration, healing, and resilience can be restored in the context of a responsive therapeutic relationship.
I am a practitioner of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), a demanding and effective treatment approach that draws from affective neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, somatic psychology, trauma psychology, transformational change studies, and the research on memory reconsolidation and positive neuroplasticity. AEDP is an experiential and contemplative practice that enables patients to “unlearn” the emotional schemas which generate persistent and long-standing suffering.
Consultation
Consultation and deliberate practice can generate quantum change for clinicians and their patients.
I offer consultation to licensed clinicians who are seeking to improve their therapeutic effectiveness. I maintain an active teaching schedule, training clinicians in an integrated model of transformative change.
In consultation, I focus on the procedural mastery of skills that have been empirically associated with therapeutic excellence. In brief consultations aimed at addressing patient nonresponse to treatment, the consultation I offer focuses on the identification and creation of what is referred to as “sudden gains” in the psychotherapy outcome literature.
Deliberate practice can be demanding, as it requires clinicians to confront our own experiential avoidance. However, it is the only evidence-based method of which I am aware that rigorously and systematically improves clinicians’ therapeutic effectiveness. I find it deeply meaningful to be involved in training the next generation of master clinicians.
Consultation
About
I received my J.D. from Cornell Law School in 1993 and my Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1999. I was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in mental health services research and policy studies. In 2000, I established my private psychotherapy practice in order to specialize in treating complex trauma and developmental posttraumatic stress. Currently, I am a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I am certified as a clinical practitioner of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). I’m also a volunteer clinician at the Marjorie Kovler Center, where I work with survivors of war, terrorism, and politically-sponsored torture. I offer consultation to licensed mental health professionals who are seeking to improve their therapeutic effectiveness, and I train attorneys in the neuroscience of emotion, attachment, and trauma through my courses at Greenwood. I am licensed as a Clinical Psychologist in the state of Illinois, and I hold an Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology (APIT) license that enables me to provide telehealth services to residents of participating states. I continue to maintain my own rigorous program of deliberate practice, because I’m deeply committed to the lifelong process of getting better at getting you better.
Contact
Dr. Dana Baerger
Office in Evanston, Illinois
Phone: (312) 342-4034
Email: drbaerger@drbaerger.com
For Current Patients: Patient Portal