Dr. Baker is originally from the Peoria area. He attended Bradley University, graduating in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Rather than choosing a minor field of academic study, he “double majored” in psychology, graduating with nearly twice the number of psychology credits required, and graduated with honors.
After graduating from Bradley, Dr. Baker was accepted into the Bradley Psychology department’s community-clinical Master of Art’s program (1984). Following a full academic year of coursework, Dr. Baker secured a paid internship at the Tazwood Center in Pekin and East Peoria, IL. During this Master’s Internship, he worked as a Crisis Intervention Counselor in the Emergency Response Program (ERS) providing a mobile 24-hour assessment and invention of family disputes, suicidality and suicide attempts, drug/alcohol intoxication and overdose, and psychiatric and emotional problems including emergency psychiatric evaluation and hospitalization.
He also had the opportunity to begin conducting marital and relationship counseling in the Center for Assessment and Relationship Enhancement (CARE) program as a psychotherapist where he conducted marital and sexual dysfunction therapy, taught communication skills, conflict containment, and child management skills.
During this year of training, Dr. Baker also worked in the Adult Mental Health program where he conducted intake evaluations, developed treatment plans, and conducted follow-up services,
provided individual outpatient psychotherapy with symptomatology including: affective and anxiety disorders, phobias, personality disorders and thought process disorders
In 1986, Dr. Baker had the opportunity to work in a community mental health program as a psychotherapist in a Stress Management and Biofeedback program where he trained with 2 clinical psychologists and learned about the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders, phobias, headaches, and chronic pain, with interventions including relaxation training, biofeedback, hypnosis, meditation and cognitive behavior therapy. He also conducted psychoeducational stress management and community presentations. It was during this time that his interest in the psychophysiological correlates of stress on the human body began.
Dr. Baker also had the opportunity to work as a psychotherapist in the OSF Eating Disorders Program providing consultation, assessment and treatment of inpatient and outpatient populations within the context of the multidisciplinary team that included psychiatrists, physicians, psychologists, nurses, dietitians, and counselors.
With the encouragement and support of family, friends, and supervisors, Dr. Baker decided to pursue his lifelong desire to become a clinical psychologist and the doctoral program at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) was a strong choice. IIT is a research-based clinical training program that utilizes the scientist-practitioner model. Moreover, Chicagoland, with its many wonderful academic institutions of higher learning and concomitant research opportunities, made IIT the obvious university and Chicago the hands down place to pursue his educational dreams.
Research opportunities included working at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC, which is now the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab) on a federally funded research program involving the Assessment and Prevention of Chemical Dependence Following Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) examining the natural history of substance use following SCI; the efficacy of rehabilitation staffed by individuals with histories of chemical abuse; relationship between rehabilitation outcome and substance use; and the success of referral for treatment of substance use.
Additionally, Dr Baker had the invaluable opportunity to work as a graduate research assistant on a federally funded sister project entitled Psychosocial Aspects of Functional Electrical Stimulation designed to: define and evaluate the utility of screening criteria designed to maximize the appropriate involvement research participants; evaluate in detail the immediate and long-term effects of functional stimulation (FES) participation on participants; contribute to an understanding of the process of adjustment following severe traumatic injury; the adjustment process accompanying return of physical function.
Dr. Baker was also research assistant and clinician in the Eating Disorders Program at Northwestern University Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences under the direction and supervision of Daniel Kirschenbaum, PhD. working as a research assistant and clinician in the People at Risk (PAR) Program, a nationally recognized weight control program. The opportunity to work as a research assistant and clinician in a project titled Computer Assisted Therapy in the Treatment of Obesity and Smoking Cessation, a federally funded project examining the extent to which computer-assisted therapy could enhance cognitive behavioral treatment of obesity and smoking addiction was a great addition.
Dr. Baker capped off "the Chicago years" of training by completing the APA approved Pre-Doctoral Clinical Internship at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the Department of Psychiatry within the Consultation-Liaison and Behavioral Medicine Section. This Internship emphasized specialty training in Behavioral Medicine/Health Psychology with a wide variety of medical and clinical populations. Specific 6 month rotations chosen by Dr. Baker included:
Prior to completing his predoctoral internship at the University of Chicago Medical Center, he was fortunate to meet a group of exceptional internal medicine physicians in Peoria (Associated Internal Physicians of Peoria) who were embarking on a research and treatment program (Health By Design) committed to a biopsychosocial paradigm to address obesity and the complicated concomitant medical issues (hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, hypertension). Dr. Baker and his colleagues published three peer-reviewed research studies during this time while documenting treatment efficacy of the Health By Design program.
Returning to Peoria in 1992 allowed Dr. Baker to return to his alma mater to teach courses in the psychology department for 12 years as an adjunct professor. During this time, Dr. Baker regularly taught Human Sexuality as well as Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Abnormal Psychology, Health Psychology and a seminar titled Understanding Obesity and Eating Disorders.
In 1999, amidst the paradigmatic changes in the healthcare and behavioral health, Dr Baker decided to venture back to academia to fill the open position as the director of the Center for Wellness and Counseling (CWC) at Bradley University.
Bradley's Center for Wellness and Counseling allowed Dr. Baker to work with a gifted group of clinicians (counselors, social workers, peer educators) and collaborate with a wellness coordinator who had already established a nationally recognized alcohol-related intervention program on campus. In fact, the Wellness Program was recognized as being one of the 10 best Alcohol Prevention programs in the nation for 5 consecutive years by the Inter-Association Task Force on Alcohol and Other Substance Abuse and Received numerous grants from the Illinois Higher Education Center (IHEC) for alcohol related programs and interventions.
Dr. Baker created an online, self-help recess for Bradley students, parents, faculty, and staff; entitled "the CWC Wellness Web” that received national attention among college counseling centers, with some "the CWC Wellness Web" on their home page.
Although only a part time instructor in the Psychology Department, Dr. Baker was chosen by a Summa cum laude honor student as “Most Influential Professor or Instructor” and recognition from the Parent's Association Board.
In 2004, Dr. Baker decided to finally pursue his desire to offer mental health and behavioral health services outside the mental and behavioral healthcare delivery system and began his independent practice utilizing the skillset he had developed over the previous 20+ years of academic and clinical training.