Shari Jacobson, LCSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Shari Jacobson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and co-founder and partner in Associates in Therapy and Assessment, LLC. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Sexual Abuse Network of Lake County (SAIN).

Prior to establishing Associates in Therapy and Assessment as partner and co-founder, she was co-founder and President of Associates in Family Therapy in Lake Bluff, a private group practice with a rich tradition and excellent reputation for serving the needs of children, adolescents, adults, couples and families since 1986. She offers her clients an abundance of professional experience developed as a clinician over the past 25 years. Such experience and expertise has been established both in inpatient hospital work early in her career as a member of the Pediatric Evaluation and Treatment Team of Hartgrove Hospital and since 1986 in private practice.

Having achieved her Masters of Social Work degree (MSW) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983, Ms. Jacobson has been a regular participant in formal post-graduate education. She studied the complex dynamics of family and marital therapy during an intensive summer program at the Family Institute of Chicago now affiliated with Northwestern University. In 1986, Ms. Jacobson completed a comprehensive twelve-month training program in Structural/Strategic Family and Marital Therapy at the Institute for Juvenile Research, Family Systems Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Since that time, she continues to enjoy and benefit from regular workshops in marital, family and individual therapy. Furthermore, Ms. Jacobson has had specific training in understanding the impact of sexual abuse on individuals and families and has participated in numerous training workshops and programs with some of the leading researchers and trainers in the field. Ms. Jacobson has also completed a rigorous training program in Cognitive Therapy at the Cognitive Therapy Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Ms. Jacobson's talents have been recognized as a board officer in professional organizations including the Sexual Abuse Intervention Network of Lake County (SAIN), and The Family Systems Alumni Association of the Family Systems Program – Institute of Juvenile Research. She has been a regular contributor to the dissemination of information to the mental health field by helping to coordinate conferences on a local and national level. She served as co-chairperson for the Fourth Annual Family Therapy Symposium and spring conference of the Family Systems Program of the Institute for Juvenile Research, and as Masters Series Coordinator for the annual conference of the American Association of Marital and Family Therapists (AAMFT). In addition, as part of her chairing the training committee of the Sexual Abuse Intervention Network of Lake County (SAIN), Ms. Jacobson was co-chairperson of several conferences featuring renowned experts and lecturers in the field of sexual abuse and trauma including, Eliana Gil, Anna Salter and Barbara Bonner.

Ms. Jacobson has shared her knowledge and expertise with other clinicians and the community in her numerous presentations on subjects including marriage and intimacy, adolescent development, sexual abuse and trauma, adoptive families and family therapy to groups such as Bensenville Home Society, North Shore Academy of Highland Park, Highland Park Hospital, Moms of Multiples support group, Lake County Court Services – Adult Probation, Great Lakes Naval Training Center, University of Illinois – Chicago's Institute for Juvenile Research, Lake Forest High School, Hartgrove Hospital of Chicago, Plainfield Community Consolidated School District, and the Chicago Board of Education.

Ms. Jacobson's clinical interests include the treatment of individual adult and adolescent clients, pre-marital and marital/couples therapy, family therapy and group work with survivors of sexual abuse. Her expertise and areas of clinical interest are employed in working with clients challenged by depression, anxiety, grief and loss, mid-life transitions including perimenopause and menopause, chronic illness, and childhood abuse including sexual abuse and trauma.