Inside Story

My morning ritual, journal and be sane. Not a complete sentence, but what the hell. Speaking of What the Hell, it is a good thing I checked my email yesterday for Drexel, because my new professor sent the class a message that three chapters of the book are to be read and three quizzes are to be completed, and email by Saturday's class. This is a first for me and God knows, I have taken many many many classes in my life. I have not even been to the first accelerated class, and quizzes are already due? I think this guy places an entire new meaning to accelerated and if you are like me, I generally do not read my Drexel email until the morning of, just to make sure the class was not cancelled. So I send my coworker, John a text message that reads, "So I read my email and find out my new class has me completing three quizzes by Saturday. Mind you, it is the first class and my text book sits on my desk at work, Nerd that I am, I think WTH let me take two tonight, and one tomorrow without reading one word b/c book is on desk. Chapter One I got 100%, Chapter Two I got 90%. How is that possible? I am the Poster Child for NERD. Naturally, NERD with a Mental Breakdown". John's response, "Perilously close to crossing over from nerd territory into profound dorkdom. Steady---Patty and you might want to have a stiff drink, just to be safe".

John follows the path of Jung's therapeutic approach. I follow Beck's CBT approach. John has a Psychology background. I have a Behavioral Health background. Then there is Sarah, the Social Worker who I spoke with last night about therapy, and approaches and she blew me out of the water by recommending, I call Judy Beck, daughter of Aaron beck who still practices over on City Line. Aaron Beck founded CBT. He is my hero, a word that makes the Jung John just cringe. Sarah was born and raised on the Main Line. I do not think her mother really understands the type of work Sarah does and meeting her just confirms it. Sarah went to boarding school in Switzerland, a Penn graduate, has a weekday nanny and a weekend nanny. While I was growing up playing soccer, she was playing cricket at the club. Both of us lived sheltered lives, however, very different sheltered lives. These are the coworkers who want to start a private practice and we will start that practice, if I do not escape and live in Florida.

I mentioned CBT several times in this post and I know I have spoken about it in the past on this site. I will briefly go over it again.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Therapy (CT), or Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), is a form of psychotherapy in which the therapist and the client work together as a team to identify and solve problems. Therapists use the Cognitive Model to help clients overcome their difficulties by changing their thinking, behavior, and emotional responses.

A System of Psychotherapy
Cognitive therapy is a comprehensive system of psychotherapy, and treatment is based on an elaborated and empirically supported theory of psychopathology and personality. It has been found to be effective in more than 400 outcome studies for a myriad of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse, among others, and it is currently being tested for personality disorders. It has also been demonstrated to be effective as an adjunctive treatment to medication for serious mental disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Cognitive therapy has been extended to and studied for adolescents and children, couples, and families. Its efficacy has also been established in the treatment of certain medical disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypertension, fibromyalgia, post-myocardial infarction depression, noncardiac chest pain, cancer, diabetes, migraine, and other chronic pain disorders.

If you want to contact the Beck Institute for an appointment or if you are a therapist and want to learn more and attend Beck's work shops, below is the information.

Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy
One Belmont Avenue, Suite 700Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004-1610
Phone: 610-664-3020