Khalil Center (KC) is a community mental health center with three locations in Chicagoland (Glen Ellyn – Primary Site, Lincolnwood, and South Chicago). Khalil Center provides an array of psychological services to diverse populations, especially American Muslim clients. Khalil Center is the largest provider of direct services to the American Muslim population nationwide. Khalil Center also specializes in spiritually integrated psychotherapy within an Islamic context. Other areas of practice at Khalil Center include individual, family, couple, and group therapy, psychological testing, services to local private schools, as well as community preventative educational seminars and workshops. Services conducted at Khalil Center include therapy, assessment, groups, and consulting.

VALUES

• Providing an accepting and nurturing environment.
• Belief in the inherent good nature of human beings and actualizing potential.
• Holistic care that acknowledges the historical experiences of individuals, present environment and facets of their personality and personal values that has shaped who they are today.
• Strengthening communities, as this is the outer layer of the system and setting in which individuals have come from and will have to return to despite their personal progress and growth.
• Spirituality – A part of human existence that is commonly neglected in mainstream psychology. 95% of Americans believe in a higher power or God (Gallup, 2002) and the majority of clients in mental health settings would like to discuss their spirituality in psychotherapy (Rose, Westefeld & Ansley, 2001).
• Culture – is not limited to ethnicity, religious background or race. Rather, culture encapsulates the environment in which the individuals have been raised in and those set of practices, values and beliefs that they have internalized on account of that interaction between the individual and environment. Khalil Center is interested and invested in uncovering and helping clients identify their personal culture and how they integrate this as a part of who they are in the present.

For more information about Khalil Center Visit us at www.khalilcenter.com

Graduate Internship Training

Please note that the APPIC match number for Khalil Center is 215812.

Khalil Center consists of personnel that are professionally and formally trained in the areas of mental health. Our therapists are graduates of accredited institutes such as the APA and CACREP and licensed from the respective state and provincial governing bodies. Some of our providers and board members of the institution have also been trained in seminaries providing spiritual consultation for incorporating spirituality into the psychotherapeutic encounter. Spiritually integrated psychotherapy is NOT to be equated with proselyting, as our approach works within the frame of reference of clients interested in incorporating spirituality into psychotherapy.

At Khalil Center, two Licensed Clinical Psychologists (Dr. Fahad Khan and Dr. Samar Harfi) maintain overall responsibility for Interns’ training experiences. Dr. Fahad Khan serves as the Clinical Director of Khalil Center and works with Dr. Samar Harfi in overseeing all functions of the clinical practice, including referrals, assignment of cases, assessment, treatment, and evaluation of students. Dr. Gregory Sarlo plays a supportive role in clinical training

Staff members carry clinical responsibility for the cases being supervised and provide supervision. Drs. Khan, Harfi, along with postdoctoral supervisors Drs. Quadri and Syed, provide required regularly scheduled supervision (individual and group). Supervision is provided with the specific purpose of addressing and evaluating psychological services rendered directly by the trainee.

Interns not only gain experience with a diverse array of presenting concerns, but are also encouraged to personally and professionally grow as a clinician, finding their assortment of skill sets that are unique to them. Interns will have the opportunity to serve diverse populations, most especially American Muslim clients and learn about offering service at a community oriented treatment center. Interns will also learn about spiritually integrated psychotherapy and potentially have the opportunity to participate in some grant funded applied research on spiritually integrated psychotherapeutic modalities and attend related academic conferences. Interns will provide individual, family, couple, and group therapy, psychological testing, services to local private schools as well as community preventative educational seminars and workshops. Clients’ typical diagnostic presentations may vary from acute to chronic difficulties. Khalil Center is a not-for profit 501c3 and has a ‘services over finances’ policy, providing services to all irrespective of financial circumstances. These include clients who are insured, uninsured or not covered by their insurance.

Additionally, given the community oriented culture of the center, interns will be required to correspond with local community leaders, centers, agencies in setting up and planning community based programming on and off-site. These may include arranging for and conducting speaking arrangements, trainings, providing support services or community prevention services. Interns will also participate in data collection and program evaluation of our clinical program. Interns are also given the opportunity to provide direct weekly clinical and administrative peer supervision for therapy externs training at Khalil Center. Interns typically engage in at least 15-20 hours of direct service weekly. The remaining clinical hours during the week are spent in supervision, research, assessment administration, community programming or program development, scoring, and report writing.

At the completion of the internship experience, interns will demonstrate competency in domains set forth by APA in the treatment, assessment, group work, case management, and consultation. The ideal at the end of Internship is to attempt to produce through Khalil Center excellence in training the best possible readiness for professional practice as a doctoral level psychologist candidate. Additionally, interns will have an appreciation for and specific competencies in spiritually integrated psychotherapy, cultural competency particularly in working with American Muslims.

Please consult the Training Handbook for more information about the training schedule and trainee benefits at Khalil Center.