Longtime Highland Park Resident Wears Many Hats Providing Mental Health Services
A 37-year resident of Highland Park, Edward Kaufman, MSW, LCSW, BCD, has been in private practice in the Chicago area for nearly 45 years and in Highland Park since 1976, specializing in child and adolescent psychotherapy. Mr. Kaufman's civic and cultural involvement in Highland Park includes serving on the Mayor's Commission on Vandalism, the Youth Commission Board of Directors, and the Apple Tree Theatre Board. Mr. Kaufman may be a familiar face to fellow cinema lovers on the North Shore, having led professional discussion groups for many years on psychoanalytic perspectives in film. The group currently meets at his Central Avenue Highland Park office, generally on the third Thursday evening of the month.
Mr. Kaufman wears many hats at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis in downtown Chicago. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, he is director and faculty member of the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program (CAPPT). He embraces the longstanding mission of the Institute to provide innovative pro bono or sliding scale therapeutic services to underserved populations in Chicago communities. Among the Institute's community outreach projects in which Mr. Kaufman has been involved include the CAPPT Program option to provide mental health services to children, adolescents and their families at Casa Central, the Beacon Therapeutic School and A Home Within. The newest Institute outreach project is with the Family Court of Chicago in collaboration with the Institute's Barr-Harris Children's' Grief Center and Adult Psychotherapy Clinic, providing custody evaluations to families who have limited financial resources.
Mr. Kaufman was instrumental in the Institute's launch of the Engelwood Project, providing therapy to young residents of this urban war zone scarred by drugs, gangs, and the highest murder rates in Chicago. Since the Project's inception in 2007-2008, approximately 750 school children have received pro bono therapeutic services at four elementary schools.
Established in 1962, CAPPT is a multidisciplinary program recognized in Chicago and throughout the United States as a leading educational and training program model in the field of child and adolescent psychotherapy. Now in its 51st year, CAPPT was the first four-year postgraduate program offering psychodynamic intensive clinical training in child and adolescent psychotherapy. Since the program was established, CAPPT students have provided mental health services to more than 4,000 children, adolescents, and their families.
The CAPPT Program is currently accepting applications for its fall academic term, which starts in late September. The program is open to mental health professionals in the areas of social work, psychology, child psychiatry, counseling, psychiatric nursing and education, as well as other professionals who work with children.
For more information on the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program, contact the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis at 312-922-7474.