Erica Aten, PsyD
Licensed Psychologist & Director of Intensive Outpatient Programs
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
I am a clinical psychologist and earned my doctoral degree in clinical psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. I completed my doctoral internship at Jewish Child and Family Services and my post-doctoral fellowship at Compass Health Center, both in the suburbs of Chicago. Thus far in my career, I have held clinical and/or leadership roles in a variety of settings, including partial-hospitalization, intensive outpatient programs, community mental health, residential facilities, and school systems. In addition to clinical work, I enjoy teaching, supervising, training, and program development.
My clinical specialties include:
- OCD and related complex anxiety disorders (panic, phobias, social anxiety, hoarding)
- Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (skin picking, hair pulling)
- Tics/Tourette’s
- Depression, self-harm, suicidality
- Disruptive behaviors in youth
Other specialties include:
- Identity development & exploration: LGBTQIA+ and poly communities
- Neurodivergence (Autism, ADHD, learning differences)
- Body Liberation & Fat Liberation (Health at Every Size, all bodies are worthy)
- Family-of-origin challenges
As a therapist, I am warm, engaging, active, and collaborative. At my core, I believe that human beings are doing the best they can, with what they have, and what they know, at any given moment. Additionally, I ascribe to the belief that people have an innate capacity for growth and change, if provided with environments that promote attunement, understanding, nurturing, and greater awareness of their internal experience, behaviors, and their contexts. I aim to help people build awareness around their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, relational patterns, intersecting identities, and life experiences, in order to co-create opportunities for change. Human suffering is inevitable AND humans can live authentic, values-congruent lives despite their suffering. My goal as a psychologist is to flexibly utilize evidence-based theories and interventions to meet each individual patient’s needs and preferences. I am actively engaged in social justice efforts and practice from a place of cultural humility rather than cultural competency.