Dr. Carol Oster is a licensed clinical psychologist. She completed her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education at the University of Illinois – Chicago, and her Masters in Counseling and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Dr. Oster works with children, adolescents, and adults. Her primary practice interests are helping people with developmental transitions, working with students at every level to improve their academic performance and enjoyment of the learning process, helping older adolescents and adults with career decisions, working with women to enhance their careers, and helping women with “women's issues”. In addition, Dr. Oster conducts psychological assessments to help clients, therapists, parents, and teachers understand and intervene in academic difficulties, make career decisions, and understand themselves better. (See the handout on Psychological Assessment for more information about testing.)
Dr. Oster has taught psychology at the doctoral level for over 17 years. She is currently an associate professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, and was previously professor and dean at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, where she taught for sixteen years. Her courses include psychological assessment, human development, advanced therapy, clinical seminars, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. She consults with and supervises early career psychologists and advanced graduate students.
Dr. Oster's primary theoretical orientation is cognitive-behavioral. Cognitive-behavioral psychology focuses on the relationships between the stories we tell ourselves and others about our experiences (our expectations and explanations of the world, ourselves and others); our behaviors; and our feelings. Working from this perspective, she helps clients to address the meaning they attach to their experiences, and to test out those meanings and alternative meanings to find what makes the most sense, feels the most valid, and is most helpful; and to safely try out new behaviors, skills, and attitudes. In addressing behavior, feelings, and the meanings clients give to their experiences, she helps them to create a more emotionally healthy and satisfying life.
Philosophically, Dr. Oster believes that most people attempt to solve life's problems the best they can, and that problems usually occur due to lack of knowledge, skill, or emotional support. We learn our basic attitudes and beliefs in our earliest experiences with family, ourselves, and the world.