Starting Treatment
To set up an appointment, please call (215) 898-4506, and ask for the Center for Cognitive Therapy intake coordinator who will gladly answer your questions, and assist you in getting started with cognitive therapy.
Intake Evaulation
The first appointment that each patient has is an initial, diagnostic and intake evaluation. This is not a therapy session, but rather a lengthy interview that involves at least two clinicians, a pre-doctoral clinician in-training and a licensed therapist who serves as the supervisor (the cost of this appointment includes all procedures and all clinical personnel). Patients should expect to spend between two to three hours in this interview, with at least one brief break.
Benefits of the initial meeting include:
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Collection of clinical information, which provides the therapist a thorough and clear picture of the patient's life.
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It allows for the best clinical decision-making possible about each individual patient. For example, does this patient also need medication? Does this patient require specialized attention for such problems as suicidality or substance abuse?
- It gives the patient the opportunity to get a feel for the operations of the center as a whole, to determine if this is a comfortable place in which to receive therapy.
- It gives the patient the opportunity to ask many questions of the therapist who meets with them.
- Enables the center to make an informed and preliminary diagnosis.
- Enables the center to determine whether alternative, or additional forms of care are required (for example, does the patient need to be in detox, or does the patient need to have a neurological exam, etc.?)
The intake evaluation is unlike a therapy session in that its chief goal is to collect as much information about the patient as possible, in an efficient and timely fashion. Therefore, the patient may not necessarily feel the same degree of support and connection with their intake therapist as they will with the assigned, regular therapist.
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