Starting Treatment

To set up an appointment, please call the intake line at (215) 898-4506, and leave a message stating your interest in starting cognitive therapy and/or asking your questions pertinent to making a decision about getting started. Dr. Newman or Rebecca Keiser will return your call in order to field your questions and/or get you set up for your initial diagnostic evaluation.

Intake Evaluation

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:

  • Collection of clinical information, which provides the therapist a thorough and clear picture of the patient's life.
  • 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, rather than to establish a therapeutic relationship. However, you will still be treated with the respect and sensitivity you have a right to expect from clinical professionals.

Click here to access the patient questionnaire.


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