See other campuses

dir

Associate Department Chair

Professor
Associate Program Chair
Clinical PsyD Department

Department: Clinical Psychology
Address: 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza
Office Location
Office Phone
On-campus Ext.
Email: fmccallister@thechicagoschool.edu
Website

Biography

Frank Gruba-McCallister is a Professor and Associate Program Chair in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. He received his B.S. from Loyola University of Chicago where he graduate summa cum laude and received the award of outstanding graduate in psychology. He also received honorable mention in the Danforth Fellowship competition. He then attended Purdue University where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. After completing his internship at Hines Veterans Administration Hospital, he held a number of clinical positions in the area of health psychology and had a small private practice.
He has thirty years of experience in teaching and administration at professional schools of psychology in Chicago. He spent seventeen years at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology-Chicago where he developed the first minor or concentration area of study integrated into a Psy.D.curriculum in Health Psychology with Dr. Judy Flaxman. He served as the Associate Dean of Student Life while teaching in areas of history and systems, health psychology, and existential psychology. His next position was as Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Adler School of Professional Psychology where he led a curriculum revision integrating socially responsible practice into all degree programs. In recognition of this, the doctoral psychology program received the 2007 American Psychological Association’s Board of Education Affairs Award for Innovative Practices in Graduate Education in Psychology. He also was one of the developers along with Dr. Bill Powers of the first Master’s in Police Psychology program in the United States. He joined the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in August 201l where he currently serves as Associate Department Chair and continues to teach history and systems and courses in health psychology, humanistic-existential approaches, and psychology and spirituality.
Dr. Gruba-McCallister’s professional and scholarly interests include the following areas: the integration of psychology and spirituality; the relevance of mystical traditions to the healing process; the use of meditative techniques and altered states of consciousness in healing; the nature of suffering and its relevance to the therapeutic process; ecopsychology and the impact of overconsumption on sustainability; and the role of psychology in promoting justice and social change.

Education

B.S., Psychology, Loyola University of Chicago
M.S., Clinical Psychology, Purdue University
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Purdue University

Licensure(s)

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, IL

Areas Of Expertise

Select Presentations

Gruba-McCallister, F. P., & Philpott-Jones, S. Cultivating critical consciousness in future clinicians: Linking individual and collective well-being through service learning. Presented at the 5th Annual Conference of The Society for Humanistic Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA, 2012.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P., & Paszkiewicz, W. Educating for liberating: Continuing Adler’s vision for a socially responsible psychology. Presented at the Annual Conference of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology, Chicago, IL, 2006.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P., & Paszkiewicz, W. Using service learning to develop socially responsible graduate students. Presented at the National Conference of the Higher Learning Commission, Chicago, IL, 2006.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P. Existential therapy: Still meaningful after all these years. Presented at the Chicago Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology, Chicago, IL, 2003.

Select Publications

Gruba-McCallister, F. P. (2007). Narcissism and the empty self: To have or to be. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 63 (2), 182-192.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P. (2002). Education through compassion: The cultivation of the prophetic contemplative. In J. Mills (Ed.), A pedagogy of becoming. New York: Rodopi Press.
Levington, C., & Gruba-McCallister, F. P. (1996). Suicide and transcendence: Crossing the great divide. In Sacred sorrows: Embracing and transforming depression. (J. Nelson and A. Nelson, Eds.). N.Y. Tarcher.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P., & Levington, C. (1995). Suffering and transcendence in human experience. Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, 22, 99-115.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P., & Levington, C. (1994). Authenticity as open existence. Advanced Development, 6, 1-10.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P. (1993). The imp of the reverse: A phenomenology of the unconscious. Journal of Religion and Health, 22, 107-120.
Gruba-McCallister, F. P. (1992). Becoming self through suffering: The Irenaean theodicy and advanced development. Advanced Development, 4, 49-58.

Community Involvement

Serve as chair of an advisory taskforce for the Chief of Police of Park Ridge, IL on police-community relations.

Q & A

Q: Please describe your teaching philosophy.

A. Education should be a transformative and liberating experience. To achieve this, teaching must be more than the mere transmission of information from the presumed expert (Teacher) to the passive recipients (Students). Instead teacher and students must be engaged in a dialogue and function as co-investigators of important questions that offer the opportunity for everyone to question the taken-for-granted, critically examine assumptions, and openly explore alternative views. Teaching must also engage all aspects of the learner so that growth can occur for the whole person through the education process.

Q: Please describe your philosophy regarding the practice of psychology.

A. Among the health professions, psychology is unique because of the integral role of the person of the practitioner in providing services to those in need. Thus, the professional and personal aspects of the practice of psychology are integrally interconnected. Though psychology alone cannot provide answers to the most pressing problems facing contemporary society, it offers valuable insights on all of them. This capacity of psychology to be applicable across such a broad range of problems and issues is what makes it a thriving and vibrant profession.

Q: What advice would you give a student entering the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

A. See your education as an opportunity to challenge yourself on all levels and to learn how to weave personal and professional growth into the learning process.

Campus Affiliation

The Chicago School Chicago

When War Comes Home

For the thousands of U.S. children who have a military parent stationed overseas, homecomings can be hard. In a new program developed by The Chicago School and staffed by Chicago School students, children express themselves and their fears through music, drama, and art.
More about the Home Again project.

Bringing out "True Colors" in CPS Students

Chicago Public School students are literally reaping the rewards of applied behavior analysis. Prizes, privileges, pop songs, and bright colors are just some of the components of a behavioral intervention program implemented by Chicago School alumna Lorena Arevalo in low-performing schools to encourage academic achievement and good behavior.
CPS Students Show Their True Colors

Twitter LinkedIn
Follow us