• Specialized treatment for Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder and variations of these disorders
• The Heart & Mind Program: Treatment for cardiac patients and their families
• Treatment of Child, Adolescent and Adult mental health issues including depression, anxiety, behavioral or academic problems, trauma, domestic violence, coping with divorce and more
• Art therapy in conjunction with psychotherapy or as the primary method of treatment
• Nutrition counseling provided by expert dietician Anne Sprenger, RD for those addressing eating, weight and medical concerns
• Individual, couple, family and group therapy

Patients come to The Heart & Mind Program for:

• Preventative Treatment: Patients learn how to make long-term lifestyle changes in order to reduce or eliminate their risk factors for heart disease.
• Pre-Surgical Preparation: Patients learn coping strategies and relaxation techniques to decrease stress and effectively deal with procedures before, during and after they occur.
• Post-Surgical Services: Patients who have had procedures benefit by learning to enhance recovery from surgery, improve quality of life and address risk factors to lessen the chance of another cardiac event.
• Family Treatment: Family members learn how to deal with their stress and how to best support the patient's recovery.

Treating the Whole Patient

Dealing with medical problems is anxiety provoking and facing heart disease is particularly stressful. It is not only difficult for you, the patient, but also for your family and loved ones.

Many patients and family members facing cardiac procedures feel panic, fear, loss of control, helplessness, anxiety and uncertainty. These emotions are normal reactions to this life threatening event, however, they can significantly affect the recovery process and the recurrence of heart disease if not addressed.

Your doctors know that state-of-the-art research shows it makes sound medical sense to treat the whole patient, not just the disease. You are more than just a heart! Your heart is affected by the way you think and process information, the way you respond to your emotions and to the way you live your life.

Promoting Healing

We want you to be as prepared as possible to recover to your fullest potential and to prevent recurrence of heart disease. To improve your quality of life, it is essential to strengthen the relationship between heart and mind.

In order to optimize your recovery, The Heart & Mind Program has been developed to help you to make positive changes that improve the physical and emotional reactions associated with heart disease and cardiac procedures.

The Heart & Mind Program focuses on helping patients and families change the lifestyle factors that contribute to heart disease. The involvement of your family in your treatment and recovery is critical to restoring overall health and wellness.

Doctor Supported

The cardiologists who refer their patients to us fully support and encourage participation in The Heart & Mind Program.  We recommend showing this information to your cardiologist, surgeon or other specialists for their opinion as to whether our services could benefit you.  Research shows that treating the mind-body connection can:

• Prepare you for surgery
• Promote post-surgical recovery and healing
• Decrease pain and complications from procedures
• Strengthen the ability to cope with a life-threatening medical event
• Reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression that complicate recovery and quality of life
• Decrease stress levels
• Include family members to help them deal with the stress of this event
• Support changes that promote a heart-healthy lifestyle

A Biopsychosocial Approach

The Heart & Mind Program takes an educational and biopsychosocial approach to wellness. To best cope with and make changes that decrease your risk factors for heart disease, you must be educated and understand what lifestyle issues need attention.

"Biopsychosocial" means treating the whole patient — your heart and other medical conditions ("bio-"), how you respond to your conditions emotionally ("psycho-") and how your conditions are affected by the way you live your life ("social").

Personalized Care

Patients will meet with a psychologist or therapist trained in cardiac psychology. Together, we will develop individualized strategies to make and maintain lifestyle changes that support heart-healthy living.

Patients can be referred to The Heart & Mind Program by a healthcare professional or may call on their own — referrals are not required. The Program accepts insurance plans with out-of-network benefits. Flexible, private pay arrangements are also available.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease

• Smoking
• Stressful lifestyle
• Type A personality
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Excess alcohol use
• Physical inactivity
• Weight
• Diabetes
• Lack of support system
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Denial of cardiac symptoms
• Multiple cardiac events

If your physician has recommended you address any of these risk factors, we are here to teach you how to make positive changes — for the long-term.

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Expert Treatment for Your Mental Health Needs

All of our patients deserve, and receive, the very best treatment from our professional, caring staff. At Lees Psychological Services, treatment is highly personalized and based on an individual's specific needs. You can have the confidence of knowing that all staff members have developed recognized expertise in their areas of specialization. We attend local, national and international conferences each year to maintain state-of-the-art knowledge in our fields. We are truly dedicated to excellence, integrity, and ethics in how we practice.

We believe in a multidisciplinary approach to wellness and maintain regular involvement with referral sources, medical professionals, educators, counselors, coaches and others as appropriate throughout the course of treatment. We have excellent relationships with local physicians, psychiatrists and hospital programs. When needed or clinically appropriate, referrals are made to other specialists and experts.

Personalized Care

We're here when you need us. All calls are returned within 24 hours, and every effort is made to get back to callers the same day.

We strongly believe that there is no place for under-qualified managed care case workers making decisions based on dollars in your personal, confidential treatment. To minimize the unnecessary interference managed care creates, we only accept out-of-network insurance benefits which are provided by the vast majority of plans.  As part of the intake process, we will call your insurance company for benefit information so you know what your cost will be prior to starting treatment. We also accept private pay arrangements. Payment plans are very flexible and are decided on a case-by-case basis with your therapist, not a billing office.

Treatment Philosophy

We believe in treating the whole person, not just their symptoms or diagnosis. This entails understanding one's thoughts, feelings and behaviors in the context of family, job, school, social life, spirituality and health status. Situations from the past can affect why various problems exist in the present. As a result, it is important to understand the impact life experiences could be having on a person's current medical and/or emotional condition.

Our expertise with eating disorders underlies our non-diet approach to the treatment of both medical and psychiatric issues. Dieting can exacerbate anxiety and depressive disorders, is a main contributor to eating disorders and is shown to increase mortality in those with medical problems. The vast majority of those who try to diet cannot maintain the artificial expectations for eating and exercise that are promoted. Repeatedly losing and regaining weight usually results in weighing more than before diets were started, thereby negatively affecting both physical and emotional health.

We advocate a non-diet approach, which focuses on eating based on appetite, hunger and fullness. When dietary intake is normalized around adequate consumption of protein, carbohydrates and fat — and when regular physical activity is based on preference and pleasure — overeating does not occur and there is no need for dieting. Weight will often decrease without dieting when intake and activity levels are adequate. Over 20 years of research shows that physical activity levels and quality of intake are much more predictive of good health than is weight.

~ We can help you or someone you love ~

• Fully recover from anorexia, bulimia and binge eating
• Make changes for a heart-healthy lifestyle
• Overcome stress, anxiety and depression
• Rely on faith to work through emotional problems
• Become a more effective parent
• Work with your children to improve the challenges they face
• Prepare for, and recover from, cardiac procedures
• Develop healthy marital, family and intimate relationships
• Build self-esteem and self-confidence
• Improve medical conditions affected by weight
• Learn healthy alternatives to unsuccessful dieting
• Resolve physical, emotional or sexual traumas

We are happy to speak with you prior to starting treatment to answer your questions about what therapy entails, how treatment can help you or someone you love, about our credentials and about any other information that will be of help to you.