Banner University Medical Center – Behavioral Health Services

Looking at the Unilocal*categories for this kind of business I see psychiatry is excluded but Sex Therapists are a main category. My wife wishes…
I am not hanging myself out like this to be funny or cool. I am honest on this page because there are people in psychological pain who search for effective treatment. In the most acute cases, all hope is lost and help is imagined as non-​existent, sometimes by humans barely out of the starting gates of life. They steal their own lives, leaving friends and family in grief and nearly endless emotional pain. If these words help one person establish a surer footing on life’s path; my personal honesty here, and the social jeopardy I create for myself writing this publicly is worth it.
The best all-​round personal care physician I ever had, Dr. Frank Capobianco of Sacramento, CA. recommended I find behavioral health support in a training institution associated with a university. Banner Behavioral is that. This office has practicing/​teaching psychiatrists and counselors, and a variety of residents and interns.
I can speak in detail about one Counselor, George Joumas. George knows psych testing, the most recent ideas in brain science, specializes in alcohol and substance use recovery counseling, can support his science with religion when desired, plus has a full life with many interests.
I’m mildly bipolar. To function fairly well in life, I take low dosages of two medications. The first suggestion that I seek counseling was 40 years ago. 32 years ago I slept the better part of six weeks. A rural Physician’s Assistant said I had mono. That saved me in the workplace. A doctor prescribed old-​style anti-​depressants for me 31 years ago. I couldn’t function in the spaced-​out state of mind they gave me so I stopped using them.
Thirty three years ago I spent 45k in a manic roll, and have been treated by many mental heath pros since. A psychiatrist and counselor, or someone who is both have been on my medical team ever since. I see a counselor about monthly, a psychiatrist a minimum of twice a year.
I’ve grown to understand each person entering behavioral health is fairly unique. 150 milligrams of your most effective mood med may not affect me at all, even me taking 1.5 grams. I’ve been fortunate in having understanding friends and a trusted supervisor in my last job.
If all this seems like a bunch of rubbish and you imagine I’m a wuss who just needs to get it together and soldier on, or drink kale smoothies and exercise, then you’re decently mentally healthy and have slight knowledge about the struggle some of us have being solid worker bees in life for hours, days, months and years. You do not know the irrational fears paralyzing some of us, or the mental state of those of us seeing death as the best solution for how we feel. Some days, a very long nap and lots of prayer are this broken-​winged bird’s best solution for staying alive.
I’ve been under the counseling care of George Joumas for seven years. We started off with testing, but in my management training and people managing me, Ive had many many personality tests. I’ve tended to talk too much. But we’ve forged a working relationship. One of the most interesting helps George has brought me is EMDR. It’s a very simple technique to help sections of the brain reconnect or connect more effectively. It has helped me balance and be a more effective human.
When I felt great for a long time, I told George I wasn’t sure why I needed to keep coming. More than one doctor has hinted I could try and stop meds. That doesn’t work well for me. George said, «I’m not here for when you’re feeling great, I’m here for those crashes.» And sure enough, the crashes arrive; the last one from a year of insane work. My medical team and I put me back together, a pretty balanced and functioning human being.
What can a person like myself contribute? My ancestors have been corporate officers and owners, accountants, engineers and community leaders and caring mothers and grandparents. Some relatives own vast expanses of rural America. I retired from a 37 year career in the military and U.S. government. I’m in demand as a teacher of technical skills, and am called up regularly by Incident Management Teams to work extremely long shifts doing mapping.
Maybe not after these words hit the web.
I visit Banner Behavioral Services about once a month. My Counselor is George Joumas. For the past seven years George has effectively helped me keep my feet on the path of life.
Don’t check out of Hotel Life. I promise you, there’s always a day you’ll stand on a mountain top and rejoice to be alive.
Arizona Behavioral health services can be difficult to match with insurance and patient loads. Keep trying, be polite, do homework to find good or excellent support and stay with it once things click into place.