Amanda S. Kleinman MD
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Training
I am an ABPN Board Certified Psychiatrist. I graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University in New York, receiving a
Bachelor's degree with a major in Art History. I received my medical degree from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. I completed my internship and residency in psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle, where I worked as a Chief Resident.

Work Experience
I worked at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for seven years as an Assistant Professor and the Director of Outpatient Psychiatry. I developed outpatient clinical training for residents and created novel clinic models to improve resident and medical student education. I was honored with the "Best Supervisor" award two separate years. I have an interest in Psychodermatology, and since 2009, I have worked in the Dermatology departments of Rush University and the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

Clinical Philosophy
I am a psychiatrist who performs Psychodynamic and Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP). TFP is a psychoanalytically based psychotherapy that has some structural elements like DBT and has evidence-based efficacy for treating clients with Borderline and Narcissistic ("Cluster B") Personality Disorders (Doering, 2010).

My preference is to work with clients who are seeking psychotherapy with or without medication support. My therapy style is influenced by psychoanalytic theories, particularly 
Object Relations and Attachment theory (Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, Otto Kernberg). This means that I seek to help clients understand a) their patterns of relating to others and themselves, b) their expectations of how things work (or should work) in life, and c) the elements that make up their personal identity. The goal is to untangle conflicts and anxieties occurring at basic and existential levels so that a person can better understand themselves and more effectively interface with others and life in general. I hope to help patients attain greater sense of self-acceptance, balanced resilience, and emotional peace.

Of note, I have a great respect for all psychotherapeutic modalities and have had training in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT, Marsha Linehan). DBT is a very important psychotherapy for addressing symptoms of Borderline Personality, and was the first evidence-based treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder. TFP is slightly newer, growing out of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic concepts instead of CBT concepts, and is also an evidence-based treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder. TFP and DBT performed similarly well in a recent comparison study (Clarkin, 2007). In my experience, some clients may receive more benefit from from TFP, since it more directly addresses the inner psychological conflicts perpetuating a person's interpersonal difficulty.

When using medications in psychiatric treatment, I always start with a careful history of a patients symptoms and then consider medications that will have the highest likelihood of addressing these symptoms. I do not prefer any one medication, rather I try to find the most helpful medication for each individual, be it an 
antidepressant, mood stabilizer or other helpful agent.

As I am primarily a psychotherapist, my care is focused on the treatment of mood, anxiety and personality disorders. These include Major Depression, Dysthymic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Bipolar disorder, Narcissistic and Borderline Personality Disorders.

If you are interested in becoming a new patient, please reach out to me through my Contact page.

Please note: I am not accepting new clients seeking ~only~ medication management services.
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Doering_2010_BrJPsych.pdf
File Size: 384 kb
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Clarkin_2007_AmJPsych.pdf
File Size: 6253 kb
File Type: pdf
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