[sadie08]

So I'm really excited and wanted to share with everyone here about a place I found that offers one on one intensive outpatient CBT/exposure therapy. It is in Saint Louis, MO called the Saint Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute. They have a specific program for anxiety disorders, such as general, social, and also OCD. You go like 4 - 5 hours a day and work on both CBT and exposure stuff, with homework to do in between some guided some on your own. It's 5 - 6 days a week if you want.

I live 4 hours away so I have arranged to go there for 3 weeks and get as much as I can out of it. They said they can't see anyone getting much better after less than 2 - 3 weeks - there are programs out there that claim they can help you in five days, cramming 16 sessions into one week I don't know how you could process all that.

They take a lot of major insurance and you can find housing on Craigslist or they will help you find temporary housing. It's still not super cheap but if you are looking for something intensive it might be something to give you hope!

I'm doing this because my SA was getting much much worse very quickly, and I wasn't getting much out of 1 hr a week sessions. I need to go and focus solely on this to finally get better. Arranging time off from work through sick time/vacation/FMLA and short term disability. Not easy but hopefully worth it.

I will be reporting back after my experience. Not expecting to be a totally changed woman but I hope to finally have the coping skills to deal with all this SA stuff!

If you want to check it out its http://www.slbmi.com/Intensive/index.htm

 

[strawberryjulius]

Good luck! I can't wait to see how it went.

 

[sadie08]

Update!

Hey all! I am here in St. Louis, now immersed in the intensive outpatient option at SLBMI. I know I said I would post an update afterwards but I actually started a little blog to help me get out my thoughts and chronicle what will hopefully turn out to be a turning point for my life.

Now see, this is SA - I don't even want to give out the link for fear people will see my blog as just being self absorbed - LOL! But hopefully it will help someone else maybe have the courage to seek treatment or see another option available, whatever.

Feel free to read if you like - be nice if you leave me a comment ( :

http://breakawayintothelight.blogspot.com/

 

[Drew]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

I'd not heard of a program this intensive. Someone was just asking about something along these lines on the forums recently.

 

[sadie08]

This type of program is definitely NOT easy to find in my opinion, part of why I wanted to throw it out there for others who feel they are making little progress in 1 hr per week typical sessions. There are a few other programs out there but this one seemed the most legit and reasonable to me although taking this much time off of work would not be easy for a lot of people.

I did find a week long program in DC at a place called the Ross Center for Anxiety but I had doubts about cramming basically 17 therapy sessions into a five day period - sounds overwhelming and I don't know how you could process it all that quickly!

Not to mention this option in St. Louis was cheaper and takes many insurance providers.

 

[mountain5]

You have to give us a trip report when you're done. This might be something I actually end up doing. St. Louis isn't TOO far away.

 

[sadie08]

I will definitely give a sum up after I'm done - if you want to read about it now you can do that here - I'm posting about it nightly http://breakawayintothelight.blogspot.com/

 

[mountain5]

Interesting, thanks for posting your link to the blog. How is St. Louis? I might be spending a couple days of my vacation there in August. Not really sure what I want to do there yet.