Post-Doctoral Fellowship

Brochures

Overview

AMANI Clinical Services is a private, boutique-style private practice in Hinsdale, Illinois, about 30 minutes outside of Chicago. Our space is a cross between a spa and an art gallery, space-planned with exceptional detail to spaces for a wide variety of populations that are easy to navigate for providers. We provide psychotherapy, emphasizing systemic analysis and treatment, across the lifespan with specialized training in Pediatrics, Families & Couples. We also focus extensively on psychological and neuropsychological assessments and are well-known in the community for our personalized attention to each case including conceptualization. We deeply value, and have focused on, providing high-quality training and supervision for the next generation of professional clinical psychologists and licensed clinical counselors. We value a rigorous training experience based on a scholar-practitioner model while deeply valuing and honoring the self-of-the therapist, work-life balance, and personal life development.

Post-Doctoral Fellowship

The full-time Post-Doctoral Fellowship at AMANI Clinical Services is a cross-specialization experience aimed at helping the post-doctoral fellow develop exceptional assessment, testing, clinical skills working with a wide variety of populations. We aim to support the post-doctoral fellow in growing into an independent professional psychologist who functions as a valuable part of a clinical team. We stress competence in APA’s core areas of competency including, professional values and attitudes, individual and cultural diversity, ethical and legal standards, consultation and interprofessional/interdisciplinary skills, communication and interpersonal skills, intervention, assessment, supervision (as appropriate), and the use of research in practice. The post-doctoral fellowship is designed to successfully prepare the post-doctoral fellow licensure at the Clinical Psychologist level in Illinois by completion of the experience.

Stipend & Benefits

$55,000 year W2 salary/stipend paid bi-weekly (this is NOT based on commission, nor based on receivables from insurance companies or patients)
Excellent Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO health insurance, 2 plan options, with $200 per month site contribution; deducted pre-tax which may lower your tax liability
Dental PPO
10 days of paid time off (PTO)
8 paid holidays
$500 training stipend
Opportunity to acquire short term disability insurance including maternity coverage, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, and cancer protection. All plans are transportable and can follow you to next place of employment.
Opportunity to contribute to retirement savings account
AMAZING full administrative staff support for scheduling, case load managementand coordination, charting/medical record keeping, new patient set up, etc. They genuinely approach their support of providers with a concierge mentality to ensure you are best supported in the provision of care.
All required technology to support your clinical work and streamline medical record keeping

How Will I Spend My Time?

38 hour per week position. Flexible scheduling. 20-25 psychotherapy hours. 4 hours per week direct psychological/neuropsychological testing. Vast exposure to many different assessment measures across the lifespan and variety of batteries administered. Learning assessments, report writing and documentation of services support provided. Time is spent in a beautiful office. 3 evenings until 9pm and 1 weekend day or 4 evenings until 9pm are required for our populations (schedule will depend on licensure/lack thereof and site supervisor schedule). Time spent growing in a warm, supportive, and challenging atmosphere with a vibrant (but small and personalized) training program with trainees at different levels.

As a small and growing training program, as well as a high ratio of supervisors to trainees, we have the unique option to explore and invest in the interests and ideas of our trainees. Have an idea? Let’s hear about it and we’ll see what we can craft for you! Our boutique/concierge style approach applies not only to our patients, but to our trainees as well!

Supervision & Structured Learning Opportunities: 2 hours weekly individual supervision. 2 hours weekly group supervision (assessment and therapy). 1 hour weekly didactics. Many opportunities for live supervision including 2 observation rooms with audio, video, wireless mic, and wireless ear buds/also set up for Parent Child Interaction Therapy. Frequent opportunities to chat with other members of the team. We are also happy to provide supervision for developing the post-doctoral fellow as a supervisor and opportunities to informally supervise if that is of interest. The Systems: Pediatrics, Family, & Couples track will train you to immediately help ameliorate symptoms in pediatrics and families through our extensive emphasis on parent training and Exposure Response Prevention Therapy. Support for developing a study plan for the EPPP.
Quarterly consultation with a pediatric psychiatrist
Training program sponsored attendance at the Illinois Marriage & Family Therapy Conference
Training program sponsored attendance at the International Family Therapy Association Conference (if Fellow sponsors own travel)
We are passionate and involved in supporting the Ilula Orphan Program in Ilula, Tanzania (in East Africa). Interested Fellows may have the opportunity to travel to Tanzania and experience a culturally immersive experience while focusing on the effects of poverty on life and orphaned children. A large portion of the trip will be sponsored by AMANI (See separate handout for more information).
- You’ll support the IOP Center through various volunteer projects while receiving daily group supervision and didactics.
- Opportunities to experience: Tanzanian culture
- Mental health and human services professions in Tanzania
- The Ilula Orphan Program, subprograms, schools, and farms
- Safari at Ruaha National Park
- Maasai Tribe cultural visit
- Visit to Isimila Stone Age Site
- Extensive learning about trauma, institutional settings, and child development
The Training Program will sponsor conference fees for the Fellow for any other conference they wish to attend if they have an accepted poster or talk presentation that they have personally authored. The Director of Training has extensive experience in presenting and has been published and will provide additional supervision to support the Fellow in this process.
Opportunities for the team to interact and have fun outside of work hours. We are really proud of the culture we have built and have a team that genuinely enjoys one another. Never mandatory- you do you – but offered.

Populations/Specializations

Diverse referral questions for neuropsychological and psychological testing
Children, Adolescents, Families; Family Therapy; Parent Training
Pediatric neuropsychological evaluations
Complex Trauma
Perinatal Mental Health
Couples
Infertility
Adoptees and their unique needsFamilies formed through adoption
Health Psychology
Addiction Psychology

Unique Professional Development Opportunities

Help us build our didactic presentations schedule to ensure diversity of topics, special populations, and cutting edge treatment approaches.

Opportunity to travel for international conferences and opportunity to co-author domestic and international presentations.

Opportunity support Dr. Hastings’ & Mr. Hastings’ work in Ilula, Tanzania with the Ilula Orphan Program. This is an exceptional cultural experience that we especially encourage for all White employees so they experience immersion in being “the other” and learn from being immersed in a collectivistic culture, gain in-vivo experience working with a sustainable NGO which meets the needs of the poorest region of Tanzania, and gain in-vivo experience addressing the complex needs of children who have been orphaned and are in community care.

We are a practice that is focused on support of the most vulnerable. If the post-doctoral fellow has a particular charitable interest, we would love to discuss and explore ways to support that interest.

Opportunities for Early Career Psychologist

We are a small practice that has big dreams for building APPIC accredited doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship programs. In order to do this, we need to continue to grow our amazing supervisor team. We currently have a supervisory team that we are very proud of and feel that we offer trainees a diverse range of expertise. Each supervisor has been hand picked due to their professionalism, interpersonal skills, passion for supervision and training, reliability, and general awesomeness. We continue to look for trainees that have a path forward and that we feel are a good fit to add to our Supervision Team. We are personally invested in discovering the strengths of our trainees, helping them grow, and creating new opportunities for them to challenge themselves and meet personal career goals.

Our Values

A scholar-practitioner model based on an intellectually stimulating and challenging environment.
A planned and sequenced model of supervision that supports the developmental progression of the Fellow.
We highly value diligently legal and ethical care.
The pursuit of personal and professional growth which is supported in a warm and friendly, collaborative, and respectful environment.
We chose AMANI as our new name because of its meaning in multiple languages, and how those meanings capture our mission.

In Sanskrit, AMANI means road and way

In Swahili (a language spoken throughout Eastern Africa and is deeply important to Dr. Hastings), AMANI means peace, safety, and security

In Inuit, AMANI is a suffix that notes presence and location.

In Arabic, AMANI means love

Our value is to work with people of all ages (starting with newborns in parent-child dyads, all the way to geriatrics) to help sift through their life circumstances and symptoms.

We help people find their way to a sense of peace, security, and wellbeing.

Each one of us works hard to help our patients find peace, presence, and love in their most important relationships.

We also talk a lot about cultivating each patients’ “emotional GPS,” so that patients learn to locate themselves, their needs, and the driving forces of their symptoms.

Our Patients Get Better. We are warm, understanding…AND results-oriented. Our patients enjoy watching themselves change over time and we enjoy celebrating with them! Everyone’s journey towards change, symptom reduction, and well-being is different. We tailor each patient’s treatment plan to best fit their unique style of growth, goals, and life circumstances.

Ideal Candidate for the Child, Adolescent, & Family Systems Track: The following statements describe you:

I have completed an APA accredited PhD or PsyD program. Applicants from non-APA accredited programs will be considered.

I have completed, or am in the process of completing, an APA or APPIC accredited internship. Applicants who have completed, or are completing, doctoral internships which are not APA or APPIC accredited will be considered.

Illinois licensure at the Licensed Professional Counselor or Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor level are strongly preferred. Pre-licensed applicants will be considered.

I love psychotherapy with children and families.

I have experience working with children in a clinical setting. I have experience providing direct clinical psychotherapeutic services to children and families.

I feel a genuine delight in the magic of childhood, authentically enjoy treating children, and speak “childese.”I am also fluent in “parentese” and in the process of child-parent dyadic work (translating “childese” to “parentese” and visa-versa.

I am fluent in systems work (family therapy, parent-child dyadic work, couples’ work, parent training).

I am intrinsically motivated towards excellence in the provision of clinical care and seek out research, training, and educational opportunities.

I am independent and enjoy working with little direction, but receive training and feedback well.

I perceive myself as having a well developed work ethic and have received positive feedback about my work ethic in professional settings.

I build strong, caring, and trusting therapeutic relationships and am liked by my patients.

I pride myself in timely and accurate completion of medical records and genuinely view record keeping as an ethical and legal responsibility to my clients.

I am a clear, direct communicator and am polite, kind, and respectful.

I have experience with administration of pediatric neuropsychological assessment batteries, scoring, interpreting, and report writing.

In summary…

We are SO excited about the upcoming training year, the opportunity to meet new, developing professionals, and to make your important post-doctoral year a year to remember– full of intellectual challenge, professional and personal growth, and the beginning of long-lasting professional relationships.

Dr. Kroencke’s Experience

As I reflect on saying yes to joining AMANI Clinical Services five years ago, I am filled with immense gratitude. Work/life balance has been a critical talking point for decades. It is something we as mental health providers discuss with our patients/clients regularly. Without a doubt, Dr. Hastings has developed a culture for our patients and her staff to embrace and model this concept. The environment is serene with attention to so many details. As clinicians we are supported in a variety of ways administratively (scheduling of our appointments, documentation transcription requirements, and billing) which allows us to focus on the top priority of patient/client care. This practice fosters a calm and fulfilling place to participate in psychotherapy and work alongside amazingly talented clinicians. As I move into almost 23 years of practice as a licensed psychologist, with a history of working in a variety of other settings, I know AMANI Clinical Services will be where I round out my career.

Dr. Daniels’ Experience

I recently joined Amani Clinical Services, after working for a number of years in a high stress system. I am grateful for the opportunity and support Dr. Massey-Hastings has provided me to grow as a professional and as a person. I have never experienced an environment in which the culture is centered around clinicians’ well-being (despite ubiquitous claims of such in other systems). The administration here is second to none in listening to and providing for my needs. They are immediately responsive and relentless in caring for staff. The support staff are also exemplary in their ability to anticipate my needs and ensure all runs well. The clinical team are strong and compassionate, and I am honored to be surrounded and supported by such amazing people. Dr. Massey-Hastings has thoughtfully created an extremely warm work/therapeutic environment, while also expertly developing the most streamlined documentation process with which I have worked.

I know there are a lot of options for professionals in the field. I am grateful for my good fortune to have found and joined this team.

Lidia’s Experience (our amazing Patient Happiness & Scheduling Concierge)

I have felt very blessed working at Amani Clinical Services because ALL of the staff and therapists are so gracious, supportive and encouraging. It’s a very uplifting environment to work in.

Erin’s Experience (our amazing New Patient Concierge)

Hello, my name is Erin Rollins. I am the new patient coordinator for Amani Clinical Services. I have worked here for a year and a half and I have to say this has been one of my favorite jobs. The staff is incredible, the owner being so hardworking, caring, talented, and a BOSS. We work with individuals of all ages and I love to see how highly recommended all of the members of our staff are in the community, because of how skilled, dedicated, and evidence-based the treatments are that are used here. I cried reading about all of the success stories on the testimonials page. I have to say Dr. Nikki Massey-Hastings and her husband throw the best, and most creative, work parties and the comradery with the other staff members is top-notch. Anyone would be happy to work here independently but with a lot of support and training an employee can only dream of.