Lecture Highlights Courtesy of Ben Heinrichs, Urban Balance Student Intern
UB's Joyce Marter Speaks To NU Graduate Students
Urban Balance Co-Owner Joyce Marter was asked to guest lecture at her alma mater to educate graduate students on the features, assessment, and treatment of Bipolar Disorder last week. Joyce has extensive experience in her practice treating people with the disorder with success. The three-hour presentation and discussion took place at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, where Joyce received her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology in 1996.
The presentation for the masters students addressed many of the symptoms and treatments associated with the various forms of Bipolar Disorder, formerly known as Manic Depression. These forms of the disorder include Bipolar I (history of a major depressive and manic episode), Bipolar II (history of a major depressive episode and hypomanic epidisode), and Cyclothymia (a less intense form of the disorder termed “Bipolar Lite” that is more common in women).
Throughout her discussion, Joyce emphasized that this is a medical disorder and is not the person’s fault or something that they can simply work through. This medical disorder can be successfully treated and managed through medication and therapy.
Because many people incorrectly believe people with this disorder are “crazy” or low functioning, Joyce shared that many extremely brilliant and successful people have lived with this disorder. Obviously, whether these famous people sought treatment or not may have impacted their level of functioning and life outcome. The following website lists famous people with the disorder: http://www.mental-health-today.com/bp/famous_people.htm.
Joyce showed the following videos from YouTube to illustrate her points about Bipolar Disorder:
Music Video that illustrates nature of Bipolar Disorder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtVTmi1TCVI
Case example of Bipolar II:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiGRi0kGg_s
TV Segment about Bipolar I:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKm526pnMSg
Resources for clients dealing with bipolar disorder were also provided, for example the organization Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home.
Joyce continues to give back to the community by mentoring therapists-in-training and will next visit Northwestern at their annual Career’s Night on November 11th,2010.
For More info on The Family Institute see: