Fellows at Light On Anxiety participate in a structured, immersive training experience focused on the evidence-based treatment of anxiety, OCD, and related disorders across the lifespan. Training is grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP), with an emphasis on helping fellows develop both clinical depth and flexibility when working with complex, real-world presentations.
The fellowship is designed to provide a balanced and intentional training experience, with approximately 50% of time devoted to psychotherapy, 30% to psychological and diagnostic assessment, and 20% to supervision, didactics, and professional development. Fellows work with children, adolescents, adults, parents, and families presenting with a wide range of anxiety and OCD-related concerns, including generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety, phobias, separation anxiety, school refusal, illness anxiety, perfectionism, intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, body-focused repetitive behaviors, and related emotion regulation challenges. Fellows also gain experience working with clients who present with comorbid conditions such as ADHD, depression, trauma-related symptoms, autism spectrum-related needs, executive functioning challenges, and stress-related concerns.
As a Chicago-based practice that offers both insurance-based and private pay services, with opportunities for reduced-fee/sliding scale care, fellows work with clients from a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of access to care. While Light On Anxiety does not formally collect or track detailed demographic statistics, fellows are consistently exposed to a clinically and culturally diverse patient population across racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, and family structure backgrounds. Fellows also gain experience working with underserved and historically marginalized individuals and families seeking specialized evidence-based care for anxiety and OCD-related concerns.
Across both outpatient therapy and comprehensive psychological and diagnostic assessment, fellows are exposed to a clinically diverse population that reflects the complexity of real-world community practice. This includes clients across developmental stages, family systems, and levels of treatment readiness, allowing fellows to strengthen their ability to tailor evidence-based care to each individual’s needs, goals, strengths, and cultural context.
Training occurs within a highly collaborative team environment and includes weekly individual supervision, group supervision, case conference, and didactic seminars (“Learning Lab”), as well as structured and self-paced training through the Light On Anxiety Clinical Training Institute. Across these experiences, fellows are supported in developing strong case conceptualization skills, delivering high-quality evidence-based care, and growing into confident, independent clinicians.
The fellowship includes the following core training experiences:
Direct clinical service
Fellows provide outpatient psychotherapy to children, adolescents, adults, parents, and families. Treatment is grounded in CBT, ERP, ACT-informed interventions, mindfulness-based strategies, and other evidence-based approaches. Fellows gain experience treating anxiety disorders, OCD, panic disorder, social anxiety, phobias, school refusal, perfectionism, intrusive thoughts, body-focused repetitive behaviors, and related comorbid presentations.
Assessment training
Approximately 30% of the fellowship is devoted to psychological and diagnostic assessment. Fellows participate in intake evaluations, diagnostic clarification, symptom-specific assessment, and comprehensive psychological testing, depending on referral needs and fellow training goals. Fellows are trained to integrate clinical interview data, standardized measures, behavioral observations, and collateral information into clear, useful, and treatment-informed recommendations.
Supervision
Fellows receive weekly individual supervision from licensed psychologists, as well as group supervision and case consultation. Supervision focuses on case conceptualization, treatment planning, exposure design, risk assessment, ethics, cultural humility, assessment interpretation, and professional identity development. Fellows are supported in moving from close supervision toward more independent clinical decision-making over the course of the training year.
Didactics and seminars
Fellows participate in regular didactic seminars through Light On Anxiety’s “Learning Lab” and the Light On Anxiety Clinical Training Institute. Didactic topics include CBT and ERP for anxiety and OCD, assessment and diagnosis, risk assessment and management, culturally responsive care, family-based interventions, treatment of comorbid presentations, ethics, documentation, consultation, and professional development.
Rotations and specialty experiences
The fellowship does not use a traditional hospital-based rotation model. Instead, fellows receive broad outpatient training through several integrated clinical experiences, including psychotherapy, psychological assessment, intake/diagnostic evaluation, parent/family work, and specialty anxiety/OCD treatment. Fellows may also have opportunities to develop focused experience with areas such as pediatric anxiety, OCD and intrusive thoughts, school refusal, panic disorder, perfectionism, health anxiety, or assessment, depending on client needs and fellow interests.
Professional development
Fellows receive training in professional communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, consultation, documentation, ethical decision-making, and preparation for independent practice. The program emphasizes both technical competence in evidence-based care and the flexibility needed to apply these interventions effectively with diverse, complex, real-world clients.
Fellow Rights and Responsibilities
Fellows have the right to clear expectations, regular supervision, timely feedback, fair evaluation, access to due process, and the opportunity to raise concerns without retaliation. Fellows also have the right to be informed of concerns regarding their performance and to receive reasonable support and guidance to address identified areas of concern.
Fellows are responsible for participating actively in supervision and training, responding professionally to feedback, meeting clinical and administrative expectations, following ethical and legal standards, maintaining appropriate documentation, and engaging in remediation efforts when concerns are identified.
Program Rights and Responsibilities
The program has the right and responsibility to maintain high-quality clinical care, uphold ethical and legal standards, ensure client safety, evaluate fellow performance, and determine whether fellows are meeting expected competencies for successful completion of the fellowship.
The program is responsible for providing clear expectations, appropriate supervision, formal and informal feedback, written evaluations, and access to due process and grievance procedures.
Fellows are evaluated through ongoing supervision, direct observation, review of clinical documentation, case consultation, and formal written evaluations. Evaluation is designed to support fellow development, ensure competency growth, and provide clear feedback regarding progress toward successful completion of the postdoctoral training program.
Formal written evaluations are completed during each training year.
Additional informal feedback is provided regularly during weekly supervision and training meetings. If concerns arise between formal evaluation periods, the Training Director and/or primary supervisor will meet with the fellow to review the concern, clarify expectations, identify needed supports, and create a written remediation plan if appropriate.
Evaluation forms include ratings and narrative feedback in the following areas:
Evaluation Rating Scale
Fellows are evaluated using the following rating scale:
1 = Needs Improvement
2 = Meets Expectations
3 = Exceeds Expectations
A rating of 1 indicates performance below the expected level for the fellow’s stage of training and may result in additional supervision, a remediation plan, or initiation of the program’s due process procedures.
Due process may be initiated when concerns arise regarding a fellow’s clinical performance, professionalism, ethical conduct, documentation, administrative responsibilities, responsiveness to supervision, or other training-related expectations.
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