Karen L. Cassiday, PhD - Past President

Karen Cassiday headshot (2)_0.jpgClinical Director and Owner, The Anxiety Treatment Center, Deerfield & Chicago, Illinois
Clinical Assistant Professor, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences

Twitter birdy_0.JPG@DrKarenCassiday

Dr. Cassiday’s areas of interest are anxiety disorders in children and teens, social anxiety disorder, treatment-refractory OCD, and working with children and teens who suffer from both developmental concerns and anxiety disorders.

Her research has focused on information processing in posttraumatic stress disorder and cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders in children, teens, and adults. Dr. Cassiday also leads training workshops on the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders for mental health and medical professionals at national and international meetings.

LOGO_Clinical_Fellow_ADAA-01.jpgDr. Cassiday has been an ADAA member since 1991 and was ADAA President from 2015-2017.

Why am I an ADAA Member?

I joined during graduate school from the advice of my supervisor, Richard McNally, PhD.  I kept renewing my membership because I quickly discovered that ADAA was the one professional organization that reflected my real life multidisciplinary experience.  ADAA has been a place for me to network with the scientific and clinical leaders whose research and ideas inspire me to be creative and dauntless in my work.  

What do I value about the ADAA mission and how does my work fit into the ADAA mission? 

The ADAA mission. The ADAA mission is who I am!  I come from a long line of people who make it their life's work to leave the world a better place than the one into which they were born. I get up each day with the belief that it is my purpose to both alleviate and prevent the suffering caused by mental illness.  ADAA allows me to extend this goal beyond the confines of my office or home community and into the world.  How great is that?

What is the thing that I think is most exciting/interesting about what is currently happening in my lab or workplace?

The mental health field has had an explosion of science the past 15 years that has been fun to observe and fun to utilize as a clinician.  I love the way that basic science and clinical science have become better integrated.  I also have been thrilled by the integration of non-western treatments and positive psychology into clinical work.  I love the idea of having simple, easy to learn and easy to deliver treatments that any person can access.