Fourth Presbyterian Church: A Light in the City

The staff of the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being is honored by the opportunity to make a real difference in our clients’ lives, and we are humbled by those who put their trust in us. We are energized by the healing environment offered here and inspired by the process of helping others to live emotionally healthy and rich lives.

Our staff is made up of clinicians, spiritual directors, and students in clinical psychology, pastoral counseling, and social work. We come together in weekly meetings and daily interactions, creating a true community made stronger by diversity in training, spiritual backgrounds and approaches to healing, and a shared commitment to helping others. Unlike many agencies offering counseling, the Replogle Center team boasts incredible longevity. Interns return to careers that began here, just as clients come back and refer others in need.

We hold ourselves to the highest standards. Our clients come to know that their well-being matters to us. We are present and respectful and honor the preciousness of life and the human spirit. All of our personal journeys have highs and lows, and each of us can connect with sadness and loss. We strive to be the catalyst and be present as people do the work they need to change and heal.

Jump down the page to:

Thomas Schemper, PhD, Director
Elise Magers, MDiv, LCPC, Assistant Director
Carolyn Campbell, LCSW
Susan Cornelius, LCSW
Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD
Jacob Kaufman, M.A., LCP, LPC
Rabbi Ruth Mayer, MDiv, Spiritual Director
John Moulder, MSW, MDiv, MMus, LSW
Susan Schemper, LCPC, Spiritual Counselor
Bill Singerman, MA
Roger Thomson, PhD
Kate Wester, RSMT, CYT, MA, LPC

Founding Director: John H. Boyle

Who We Are

Thomas Schemper, PhD, Director
Dr. Schemper writes: “I am often asked, ‘how can you listen to people’s problems all day long?’ That’s not how I view what I do. I am entrusted with the stories of individuals who have the courage and desire to understand, heal and change their life and thereby their stories. It is an interactive creative process and I enjoy my work!”

Dr. Schemper holds a PhD in clinical psychology from Northwestern University. He works with adults and specializes in relationship problems, marital counseling, spiritual issues, and the treatment of depression and anxiety. His practice also focuses on the challenges and opportunities related to middle and later life, including the redefining of one’s sense of vocation in the middle years.

Elise Magers, MDiv, LCPC, Assistant Director
As the Assistant Director of the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being, Ms. Magers has been a pastoral psychotherapist and administrator, working with individual adults and couples for thirty years. After studying with marital experts and researchers, she developed and leads the Premarital Saturday Seminars in Prepare Enrich at Fourth Presbyterian Church.

A high priority is to help clients rebuild self-esteem, enabling them to rediscover inner strengths and balance. The work is a collaborative process focused on developing strategies that encourage innate wholeness and unlocking resilience. Elise has earned an MA from McCormick Theological Seminary and Loyola University of Chicago with post-graduate training in a variety of disciplines. She began her professional life as a contract interior designer after earning a bachelor’s degree in interior design and art history from the University of Minnesota.

Carolyn Campbell, MSW, LCSW

Ms. Campbell believes life is a process and feels it is an honor and a privilege to be invited by clients to be part of their journey. Every person has a life story and that story matters. We all grow up in an environment that is influenced by politics, religion, race, ethnicity, and economics. We develop patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving in that environment that enable us to survive and thrive. Some of these patterns give us our strengths, but some no longer work in adulthood and create problems in our relationships and general functioning. Ms. Campbell sees her role in therapy as helping identify cognitively those patterns that no longer work and gradually replace these patterns with more positive, productive ones. She strives to develop a positive therapeutic relationship including empathy, compassion, understanding, and respect to facilitate the healing process. She works with depression, anxiety, relationship issues, and issues from childhood. Ms. Campbell has a psychodynamic base but also includes object relations theory, self psychology, ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), and mindfulness. She is open to discussing faith if a client is so inclined.

She has more than forty years of experience as a psychotherapist and has been with the Replogle Center since 1978. Ms. Campbell has served as a second-year field instructor for Loyola Graduate School of Social Work for twenty-five years. She holds a master’s in social work from Loyola University Graduate School of Social Work, Chicago, and is a board-certified Diplomat in Clinical Social Work.

Susan Cornelius, LCSW

Ms. Cornelius has worked as a psychotherapist for more than thirty years and is continually impressed with the internal resources, resilience, and strength each individual possesses. Her role in the healing process is to provide the guidance and support needed to help clients discover their natural ability to repair a sense of wellness. She sees this work as a partnership. Suffering is an aspect of our common human experience; Ms. Cornelius begins from the premise that we all can find transformation through suffering and can experience growth and healing. Yet at times we can feel trapped and helpless; she uses psychotherapy as a tool to help clients move from being stuck in personal struggle to finding new strength and restored resilience.

Ms. Cornelius holds a master of social work from Loyola University Chicago. She completed a two-year graduate-level training program in marriage and family counseling at the Family Institute of Chicago, which is affiliated with Northwestern University. She also completed the clinical externship program in structural, strategic models of marriage and family therapy at the Institute for Juvenile Research, which is affiliated with University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been on staff at the Replogle Center since 1990.

Jacob Kaufman, M.A. in Counseling, LCP, LPC

Jacob Kaufman worked in the fields of law and real estate for twenty years. During that time, he realized that his great joy came supporting the growth of people he encountered. Since then he has graduated from Northwestern University with a master’s degree in mental health counseling. He now devotes his professional time to supporting clients in their movement toward growth and healing.

Rabbi Ruth Mayer, PsyD, Spiritual Director

Rabbi Ruth Mayer spent much of her professional life as a psychologist. For twelve years she had a private practice specializing in long-term adult psychotherapy. As an expression of her personal journey and to deepen her spiritual life, Rabbi Mayer began pursuing a path in the rabbinate and was ordained in 2008. She sees clients in therapy and spiritual direction, accompanying people as they seek a path to deeper meaning and spiritual connection to their lives.

Rabbi Mayer earned a BA from Yale University, a PsyD from Illinois School of Professional Psychology, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. She was ordained at Hebrew Seminary in Chicago. Read reflections by Rabbi Mayer on our blog.

John Moulder, MSW, MDiv, MMus, LSW

John is a general practitioner, who works with adults. While he draws on contemporary psychodynamic and humanistic perspectives, and skills derived from CBT, DBT and ACT, his approach is essentially person-centered. Grounded in 25 years of experience as a pastoral counselor, John works collaboratively with clients to establish a relationship built on trust and respect, which honors personal uniqueness and fosters reverence for one’s life. His practice includes those wishing to address anxiety, depression, grief and loss, spiritual concerns, loneliness, relationship issues, identity and LGBTQ issues, anger management, substance use, trauma, physical and sexual abuse as well as life transitions and vocational discernment. In the context of a relationship marked by empathy, openness, and a measure of humor, John works collaboratively as a therapeutic ally, supporting clients’ personal healing and evolution. Being a composer and jazz guitarist himself, John spent many years counseling musicians, artists and other creatives interested and involved in the arts. He sees therapy as analogous to the dialogue inherent in music, involving a soulful conversation that opens up new possibilities for wholeness, self-love, understanding, creativity, relationships and personal growth.

Susan Schemper, LCPC, Spiritual Counselor
Ms. Schemper is a licensed professional counselor and a spiritual director. She brings the gifts of deep listening and the creation of a sacred space to individuals who are seeking insight and connection for the purpose of becoming more fully their authentic self. She received training at the Institute for Spiritual Leadership and Loyola University. She offers experiential therapy using the techniques of EMDR, Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy, and Developmental Needs Meeting Strategies and has been trained to integrate energetic and holistic techniques used by healers and shamans around the world.

Ms. Schemper considers herself to be a curious, lifelong learner and appreciates the journey of walking with others as they explore and integrate different parts of themselves in order to be more fully conscious and whole. In addition to therapy and spiritual direction, she works with schools, teachers, parents, and children as a teacher, trainer, and parenting coach. Her passion has been the human potential to become more fully who God calls one to be, through education, insight, healing practices, and transformation.

Bill Singerman, MA
Bill Singerman holds two masters degrees - one in clinical counseling and psychotherapy from the Institute of Clinical Social Work, and another in education from Bank Street College of Education. Bill provides individual therapy for adults and leads groups, as well. While the foundation of his practice is psychodynamic, Bill’s approach is integrative, one in which different therapeutic modalities are interwoven to meet the needs of the unique client. Bill’s clinical interests include helping individuals with anxiety, depression, trauma, bipolar disorder, spiritual concerns, and LGBTQIA+ issues. A former middle school humanities teacher at a progressive, independent school, he especially enjoys working with individuals in the helping professions and arts.

Kate Wester, RSMT, CYT, MA, LPC
Kate is a teacher and integrative therapist who helps people to connect to their inner resources, authenticity and sense of purpose to more comfortably manage life’s challenges. Her approach combines body-centered, contemplative and expressive arts practices to support the recovery of a client’s innate resilience and to strengthen their capacities to manage anxiety, depression, shame, and loneliness through increased self-compassion, self-trust, and spirituality.

A mind/body practitioner for more than twenty-five years, Kate encourages the cultivation of somatic awareness, mindfulness and empathy to shift perspective, perceive options and enhance confidence in decision-making so that clients regain a sense of wholeness, trust in their own self-sufficiency and engage more fully and purposefully in their lives. Kate is also passionate about the potential of neuroscience and interpersonal relationship to both heal trauma and harness potential.

Currently, Kate works with individual adults and couples and leads workshops in self-care and stress management. She has a Masters of Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University Chicago, is a Certified Yoga Teacher, and is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist.

See also these pages on the Replogle Center:
Counseling
Well-Being
Events
History
Mission
FAQs
Resources
Graduate Education