David Hoover, PsyD

About David

I’m a licensed clinical psychologist and the director of Chicago Clinical Associates. I completed my doctoral training in clinical psychology at Wheaton College, where I graduated as an endowed academic scholar based upon my contributions to research and teaching, academic and clinical proficiency, and commitment to the integration of spiritual, ethical, and clinical development. My doctoral dissertation research explored relationships between experiences of isolation, spirituality, and interpersonal attachment. I completed my doctoral internship in contemporary psychoanalytic and existential therapy at Boston University’s Danielsen Institute and furthered my graduate training through a fellowship at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. I returned to Chicago in 2010 and eventually established Chicago Clinical Associates in 2014.

I have a breadth of experience working with a diverse range of individuals, couples, and groups. I’ve worked as a therapist in hospitals, community clinics, college counseling centers, and private practice settings. In addition to pursuing ongoing clinical consultation with numerous clinicians of considerable expertise in the field and involvement in psychoanalytic formation and training,  I participate in various professional organizations and communities on the local, state, national, and international level.

When I’m not working, eating, or sleeping (or doing something related to those things), I enjoy reading, watching TV, cycling, spending time with friends and family, and exploring all the wonderful restaurants and activities the beautiful city of Chicago has to offer.

I work well with individuals from most walks of life – at this point, it’s mainly adults between the ages of 18 to 65, involved in some form of schooling or in various phases of a professional career. Whether you are single, partnered, married, divorced, widowed, and with or without children, I enjoy the diversity an urban setting affords and believe we will recognize and meaningfully integrate those numerous factors that make you unique into your therapeutic work.

Moreover, I work well with people looking to increase their emotional understanding and interpersonal awareness in life – not just those wanting symptom relief. I believe a great deal of the transformative power of psychotherapy involves your self-reflective engagement in a professional relational process, which allows for deeper insight into conflictual and self-defeating thoughts, beliefs, states-of-being, interpersonal patterns, and as well as a fuller understanding and integration of the unconscious within your life. These elements often fuel the psychosocial “symptoms” with which we struggle, and therefore understanding and treating them can ultimately allow for a greater sense of freedom, stability, connection, and meaning in our lives and relationships.

I specialize in helping those whom are struggling with some aspect or a blend of the following:

Anxiety and depression – recent, recurrent, or longstanding
Interpersonal conflicts, or struggles to form and maintain more intimate and meaningful relationships
Addictive or compulsive tendencies
Tensions inherent within the overlap of your sexuality, identity, and/or spiritual beliefs
Histories and experiences of varying degrees of verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, and/or spiritual abuse and neglect
Incessant shame, insecurity, self-criticism, and/or self-hatred
The interplay of the above while navigating various developmental seasons in life (ie launching from your family of origin, finding a career or calling, dating, navigating relational commitment(s) and/or marriage, having children and childrearing, changing careers, navigating significant losses, retirement)
Additionally, I provide professional consultation to other psychotherapists and helping professionals upon a variety of matters.

What I’m like as a therapist:

Technically-speaking, I rely heavily upon Freudian, Lacanian, and contemporary “relational” psychoanalytic theories (object-relations, self, interpersonal, attachment, and intersubjective) to inform how I think about psychotherapy and the therapeutic relationship, the nature of human experience and emotions, the nature of the unconscious in our experience, relationships and intimacy, trauma, and what constitutes psychosocial health and well-being. Though this may sound intellectualized – in actuality, I strive to distill the abstract into the practical, and have been told I’m a laid-back, authentic, engaging, warm, empathic, and humorous person to work with.