Counseling/Psychotherapy With Real-Time Video Conferencing From The Comfort Of Your Own Home
| I am writing to inform all of you what a difference the experience of Tele-Behavioral Medicine |
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I am writing to inform all of you what a difference the experience of Tele-Behavioral Medicine and my ongoing therapy relationship with Dr. Schwager has favorably impacted my life as a whole. I feel that I must write with the hopes of helping others who may be struggling with their addictions. I have been addicted to all sorts of “mind altering substances” since the age of 13. As with probably a majority of clients, I started out experimenting with substances at a young age. Then, we all know how the story progresses from there to where experimenting turns into addiction. This process happened very quickly with me. I began going to 12 step meetings when I was 14 years old and had maintained that pattern of going to meetings, therapists, etc… throughout my life. There were intermittent periods of sobriety and then once I put a mind-altering substance into my body, it was all over. The vicious cycle of addiction!! In April of 2007, I was introduced to a colleague of Dr. Schwager’s in Phoenix Arizona by the name of Dr. Suzanne Sisley. I was again at my lowest point and had tried everything, so I thought. Dr. Sisley introduced me to Suboxone a treatment alternative for opoid dependence. As a requirement of the Suboxone Treatment, she told me I needed to see a Therapist to help me get through my present “mindset” and to assist me with titrating off of the Suboxone, when that time was right. Dr. Sisley suggested that I contact Dr. Schwager and said that “he lives and works out of Alaska”. I laughed and said, “don’t you think that’s a little far to travel”? She told me about the “Tele-Behavioral Medicine” program that he had set up and at first I was very reluctant to try it. I finally did what was suggested of me in May of 2007 and contacted Dr. Schwager first via a phone call. After our first phone conversation, he explained to me that I didn’t need to come to Alaska to see him but that we could actually have our “Therapy Sessions” online, using a secure HIPAA compliant video conference application, in our case using a program called “Skype”. Since May of 2007, Dr. Schwager and I have engaged in Therapy Sessions via “Skype” one to two times per month. The relationship that we have developed has really changed my life in many ways. The fact that I did not have to go to a Doctor’s Office and wait to be seen was a big plus for me. Although I had done such in the past with Doctors who were prescribing me narcotics, this opportunity to visit with Dr. Schwager online was part of me being willing to go to any length to “recover” from my addiction. I have to say that the “Tele-Behavioral Medicine” aspect of this program has been very convenient for me plus allowing Dr. Schwager to enlighten me in many ways as to my addiction, behaviors and my ultimate recovery from Narcotics, all in a safe, secure, professional environment. I look forward to our meetings online and it is amazing to me that I can actually see and hear Dr. Schwager as if we were meeting face to face, yet with me being in Arizona and Dr. Schwager being in Alaska. I appreciate the honesty in our relationship and the guidance and suggestions that are given to me. Dr. Schwager is always on time with our appointments and he spends however much time with me that I need in order to get to the bottom of whatever “my current issue” may be. He maintains close contact with my prescribing Suboxone provider. A virtual team is in place! As a result of the “Tele-Behavioral Medicine” program and my relationship with Dr. Schwager that has developed since May of 2007, I have gone from being “Hopeless” with regards to my recovery to being “Hopeful” that I can pass this treatment experience on to someone else who may be, at what they believe to be the “End of Life”, as they have known it. I am now Self Employed and own a successful Nationwide Commercial Company. This is something that I could never have imagined until I began the Suboxone Treatment and my therapy sessions with Dr. Schwager. Suboxone has done wonders for me however; the addition of my relationship with Dr. Schwager via “Tele-Behavioral Medicine” sessions has given me hope, strength and courage (that no medication alone could) to face the day that lay in front of me. Dr. Schwager told me in the very beginning that “we would do whatever it takes to get this done”. He has certainly lived up to his end of it and I will continue to strive to live up to my end of it. I hope this helps others that may be struggling, hopeless or even reluctant to try the “Online Tele-Behavioral Medicine” program. Thank you, Dr. Schwager, for your encouragement, honesty, and hard work in advocating, on many different levels, to make sure that we have the option of a “Tele-Behavioral Medicine” program, like that you are pioneering, as first line treatment of substance abuse issues and other mental health problems. Respectfully, Jay S. AZ. |