4025 N. Sheridan Road
Chicago, IL 60613
773-388-1600

Clinical Training Opportunities

Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) is the Midwest’s largest health care organization that primarily targets the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), and HIV-impacted adolescent and adult communities. Founded in 1974 to provide testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases within the gay male community, it has since expanded in its scope of services and communities served. Today, the community health center serves over 36,000 clients annually and includes the following programs: primary medical care, behavioral health services, case management, and research.

Behavioral Health Services (BHS)

The Behavioral Health Services of Howard Brown Health Center provides a range of diagnostic and psychotherapeutic services for the agency’s target population. The BHS staff works particularly closely with medical, psychiatric, and case management staff to provide comprehensive integrative care.

The typical presenting issues of clients who access BHS services include anxiety and depression, relationship problems, sexual identity, transgender identity, substance abuse, trauma, and domestic violence. As such, in addition to providing general services, BHS also offers the following specialized services:

The Recovering with Pride Program is licensed by the IL Department of Human Services and provides individual and intensive outpatient treatment for those dealing with substance, especially crystal methamphetamine, abuse.
The Violence Recovery Project provides services to survivors of all types of interpersonal violence that impact the communities served, including hate crimes and domestic violence.
The Youth Program works closely with the Broadway Youth Center and provides services to LGBT youth to the age of 25.

The distribution of HBHC clients by race/ethnicity is as follows: 63% Caucasian, 13% African-American, 9% Latino(a)/Hispanic, and 14% Other. The distribution by gender is 74% male, 21% female, and 5% transgendered.

BHS Clinical Training Program

Practicum training opportunities will be available at both the doctorate and masters levels. For the 2010-2011 clinical training year, the plan is to offer three doctorate-level and one to two masters-level practicum positions.

The 2010-2011 clinical training year will begin in mid-July. Practicum students will be expected to be on-site 20-24 hrs/wk. The end date is individualized depending on the practicum hour requirements of the academic institution of each practicum student as well as the practicum hour requirements of HBHC. Typically, practicum students complete their clinical training early- to late-June. Half-time arrangements may be made available.

Direct Clinical Services

Practicum students will be expected to devote 50% of their practicum hours, or 10-12 hours, in the provision of direct clinical services. Typically, a practicum student’s weekly provision of direct clinical services will be distributed as follows:

2 hrs initial assessments/phone screens
6-8 hrs individual, couples, and family therapy
1-2 hrs group therapy (during second half of training)

The provision of direct clinical services can be tailored to the individual interests and training needs of the practicum students in conjunction with the agency needs.

Supervision

Each practicum student will be assigned a primary supervisor, and will meet with that supervisor individually once or twice a week to address overall training needs. Weekly group supervision is also provided, in which all practicum students will meet as a group with a group supervisor different from the primary supervisor. Furthermore, all staff members with varied interests and specializations are also available as added resources, and single-case supervision can be arranged on an as-needed basis. This supervisory arrangement allows each practicum student exposure to a variety of clinical styles and approaches.

The clinical staff members of BHS are all licensed professionals in various disciplines and represent a diversity of theoretical orientations, sexual identities, and gender expressions. Some of the highlights of the staff include:

A combined total of over 55 years of post-licensure clinical experience
A combined total of over 45 years of experience supervising practicum students
Additional credentials (e.g., CADC, CGP) and training (e.g., EMDR, Domestic Violence training)

Orientation and Weekly Didactic Presentations

From mid-July to late-August, the practicum students of Howard Brown Health Center will attend weekly orientation on policies and procedures that are specific to HBHC, such as training on the department’s phone screen process, crisis intervention procedures, and the agency’s computerized system of scheduling of and charting on clients. In early September, the practicum students of HBHC join the practicum students of Center on Halsted and Valeo/Lakeshore Hospital in a consortium and attend weekly didactic presentations on topics that are of specific interest in working with the LGBTQ community. Some of there topics include: Racial/Ethnic Minority LGBTQ Issues, HIV Grief and Loss Issues, and Kink Issues in the LGBTQ Community. Additionally, the practicum students of all three agencies comprising the consortium are expected to submit a group project of relevance to the community.

Weekly Staff Meetings

Lastly, as part of the BHS staff, practicum students are expected to attend weekly staff meetings. This will give the students exposure to administrative and other issues impacting the department, the agency, and the community and that will have direct bearing on their clinical services with their clients. Case and topic presentations are also included in the staff meetings.

Application Procedure

Individuals who are interested in pursuing practicum training are encouraged to apply by submitting the following:

Cover letter
Resume/Curriculum Vitae
Letter of readiness written by the Director of Training or his/her equivalent
Two (2) letters of recommendation from academic and/or clinical staff (preferably from clinical supervisors who has familiarity with applicant’s clinical skills)
Any additional documents that will strengthen applicant’s application

Please submit the above documents, ideally in one application packet, to:

              Edward J. Fajardo, PsyD
              Clinical Psychologist/ Director of Clinical Training
              Howard Brown Health Center
              4025 N Sheridan Road
              Chicago, IL 60613

Interested applicants may also contact Dr. Fajardo at (773) 388-8909 or edwardf@howardbrown.org.

The HBHC BHS Clinical Training Program abides by the guidelines set forth by the Association of Chicagoland Externship and Practicum Training (ACEPT). As such, the following timetable will be followed:

Fri, February 12 –Practicum student applicants can begin to submit their applications
Fri, March 12 –Practicum student applicants can begin to contact HBHC regarding status of their application
Mon, March 29 –Practicum student applicants will be given formal offers of practicum positions by phone beginning at 9:00 am