John F. Gottlieb

Brett Plyler

Michael Young

Katherine Meyers

Martin Kim

Deidre Poggensee

Eren Roubal

Denise Doerschel

Pooja Dave

Kevin Zalizniak

John F. Gottlieb, M.D.
Medical Director

I received my undergraduate degree from Oberlin College in Ohio, attended medical school at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and completed my residency in psychiatry at Yale University in New Haven, CT.  In addition to my position as the Medical Director of Chicago Psychiatry Associates, I am an an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

Having trained at a large and eclectic residency program, I started my clinical practice interested in the entire range of psychiatric conditions and the full array of therapies. I loved being a broad-based clinician. The first ten years of my career were spent deepening my education in general psychiatry.

Over time, my orientation as a generalist began to change. My interest in recurrent mood disorders, especially bipolar disorders, grew. The proportion of my practice involving affective illness steadily increased. The result was an emerging clinical specialization.

Two factors reinforced this specialization. First, my need to learn about the mushrooming amount of new research in this area simply forced me to forgo a more generalist approach. Second, as my focus sharpened, I found my clinical work more and more challenging, rewarding and fascinating. As a result, I expanded and defined my practice as a mood disorders group; I organized ongoing symposia for psychiatrists to learn about new research and improve their clinical skills in this area. Our practice hired a research assistant. I joined the International Society for Bipolar Disorders and was invited onto its Education Committee.

Over the past five years, my focus on bipolar disorders has sharpened further through a deepening interest in the role of circadian rhythms (chronobiology) in the development and management of mood episodes. Chronobiology helped me better understand the pervasive shifts in mood states that occur. The application of chronobiology to the treatment of mood disorders, ie, psychiatric chronotherapy, has become a new, complementary treatment approach.

As my interest in the chronobiologic aspects of mood dysregulation matured, I was invited on to the Medical Advisory Board of the Center for Environmental Therapeutics, the leading group of international experts in chronotherapy. The directors of C.E.T. – Anna Wirz-Justice, Franceso Benedetti and Michael Terman, have each generously helped to teach, mentor and encourage my progress. Northwestern University recently awarded me a research grant to study circadian aspects of bipolar depression. Our new chronotherapy program is a natural extension of my overall focus on recurrent mood disorders combined with my growing appreciation of the role that circadian rhythms play in the emergence and treatment of these problems. (download Dr. Gottlieb's CV)

Brett C. Plyler, M.D.

I attended medical school and obtained my medical degree at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. After graduating in 1998, I then completed a residency in Family Practice at the University of Tennessee Hospital in Knoxville, TN. While I enjoyed family medicine, I found my most satisfying moments came from working with patients one on one and delving into their emotional health. Learning about their thoughts and feelings and how this inner life affected their behavior - these matters drew me in. After the completion of my family practice education and some considerable reflection, I decided that I needed to pursue a psychiatric residency and focus on my interest in emotional health.

I enrolled at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL, for my training. Psychiatry was fascinating to me. After serving as chief resident, I joined Dr. Gottlieb's practice. I am now an attending physician in the Psychiatry Department of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and board certified in Adult Psychiatry. Furthering my education, I completed the Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program at the Institute for Psychoanalysis. After completion of this program, I began supervising Northwestern psychiatric residents in psychotherapy and psychopharmacology as well as teaching a class on psychodynamic psychotherapy. It has been an incredibly rewarding and stimulating experience. Research is another area of interest for me and I now serve as a primary investigator in a number of clinical trials at the Chicago Research Center.

I am interested in recurrent mood disorders. We have focused on this area over the past ten years. Chronobiology has provided a new way to think about and treat cyclic affective conditions. I am excited about our new chronotherapy program and view it as a valuable, new tool with which to treat depression and bipolar disorders. (download my Curriculum Vitae in PDF format).

Katherine Meyers, M.S.
Program Coordinator

Michael Young, Ph.D.
Research Consultant

Michael A. Young, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology, where from 1996 to 2006 he was the Director of the Clinical Psychology program. From 1980 to 1996 he was Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Rush Medical Center. During that time he was Assistant Center Director of the Collaborative Study of the Psychobiology of Depression and Director of the Depression/Awareness, Recognition, and Treatment program, both supported by NIMH. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from Adelphi University. Dr. Young has extensive research publications in the areas of the diagnosis and course of depression, seasonal affective disorder, cognitive-behavioral models of mood disorders, and statistical modeling of psychopathology. He is Associate Editor of theJournal of Abnormal Psychology.

Martin Kim

Martin Kim was born and raised in Argentina, came to the U.S. in 2002 and received his undergraduate degree, with a major in psychology, from U.C.L.A.  He is currently a graduate student in the clinical psychology program at IIT in Chicago, IL

Deidre Poggensee, B.S.N.

Deidre Poggensee received her Bachelors of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) degree at Briar Cliff University in 2008 and has been involved in psychiatric and substance abuse care since. Ms. Poggensee plans to obtain her Masters of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) in the near future but is currently focused on the research and treatment of depressive disorders. Ms. Poggensee is looking forward to using chronotherapeutics to alleviate suffering in depression.

Eren Roubal, B.A.
Program Coordinator

Denise Doerschel, MS, AMFT
Clinical Staff

Pooja Dave, M.A.
Clinical Staff

Pooja is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology, where her primary research interest is in the study and treatment of affective disorders. She received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The George Washington University in counseling before deciding to pursue her doctoral studies at IIT. Throughout her training, she has received extensive clinical and research experience in the assessment and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders in both inpatient and outpatient settings, and with a wide variety of patient populations.

Kevin Zalizniak, B.A., B.S.
Clinical Staff

Kevin Zalizniak received his bachelor’s degrees in both Biology and Classical Civilization from Loyola University Chicago. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Clinical Psychology. With a primary interest is in neuropsychology, his clinical and research aims are to further our understanding of the cognitive, emotional, and physiological consequences of physical and psychiatric disease processes. As he is also trained in psychotherapy and assessment, he especially enjoys working closely with patients during individual chronotherapy treatments.