PsychFit Mixes Psychotherapy and Physical Conditioning to Defeat Depression, Addictions, Anxiety
Can exercise during psychotherapy sessions really help patients overcome depression, shed their addictions and adopt a healthier, more optimistic lifestyle? Absolutely, says Jane Baxter-Cibel, Ph.D., C.P.T., founder of PsychFit, Inc. The American Medical Association and other leading health organizations agree.
PsychFit, Baxter-Cibel’s innovative treatment program, combines traditional psychotherapy with fitness instruction to help individuals retrain their brains and bodies in healthy, positive and constructive ways. What makes PsychFit different is that the two are performed at the same time.
Forget the clichéd image of a patient lying on a therapist’s couch. PsychFit patients are more likely to be on a treadmill or doing slow-motion weight training in Baxter-Cibel’s combination office-gym. During a typical session, she conducts traditional talk therapy while clients complete an invigorating workout that boosts their heart rate and metabolism and lifts their mood.
“PsychFit has proven especially helpful for those recovering from eating disorders, addictions, depression and anxiety disorders,” she says.
Blending physical and psychological healing
PsychFit’s psychotherapy component utilizes a process called Challenge and Correct. Working together, patient and therapist identify, challenge and eventually change the habitual negative and self-sabotaging thinking that feeds depression and drives self-destructive behaviors.The fitness element is called Deliberate Motion, a safe, efficient weight training and cardiovascular workout. “Weight training is the most effective way of building lean muscle mass and metabolizing fat, so it’s the foundation of PsychFit’s exercise component,” says Baxter-Cibel, who became a Certified Personal Trainer after earning her Ph.D.
PsychFit encourages a slow, deliberate pace of the repetitions, similar to yoga and tai chi. Instead of traditional up-and-down reps, Baxter-Cibel emphasizes an unhurried, cyclical rotation of the weights. “The slower the movement, the better,” she says. “An eight- to twelve-second count is ideal.”
Latest research confirms benefits
Her patients’ physical accomplishments and improved appearance quickly demonstrate that they are capable of self-bettering behavior. People also talk more freely when they’re moving, which expedites the psychotherapy, Baxter-Cibel said.The latest scientific research supports the PsychFit approach.
American Medical Association president Ronald M. Davis insists, “We need to get doctors to prescribe exercise more, and we need to get patients to follow that advice.” Robert Sallis, president of the American College of Sports Medicine, says physicians “have a moral responsibility to inform patients of the danger of inactivity and the health benefits of being more active.”
Exercise improves mood and generates positive emotions by increasing levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine – the same brain chemicals affected by antidepressant medications like Prozac. Positive thoughts triggered by exercise-driven higher levels of brain chemicals help reinforce positive emotions and behaviors.
Regular physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. Yet more than half of us fail to get the 30 minutes of daily physical activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There’s even a name for our epidemic of inactivity: Sedentary Death Syndrome. Baxter-Cibel says SeDS helps shorten an estimated 250,000 lives in the United States every year.
“When I first developed PsychFit around 2001, I was going on instinct,” Baxter-Cibel says. “But science has totally confirmed my methodology.”
PsychFit’s origins
Everyone’s heard of “runner’s high.” Most of us have personally experienced the exhilaration that exertion can trigger. So the interconnected nature of mental and physical health might seem obvious. Yet Baxter-Cibel was the first to unite them in a structured program in 2003, when she launched PsychFit.She started developing the basic concepts in the early ’90’s while working as a counselor for addicts, DWI offenders and runaway youths. “We train our bodies to perform better. I thought, Why not our brains?” Then as now, the standard treatment for self-destructive behaviors and the resulting depression and anxiety is psychotherapy and, if needed, medication.
“Exercise was always mentioned as being important, of course, but it was never really stressed as a necessary component,” Baxter-Cibel remembers. “Nutrition and eating habits were practically ignored as a way of helping with mood problems. Now Harvard Medical School is even teaching physicians about healthful cooking.”
The good news, says Baxter-Cibel, is that we can train our brains the same way we train and strengthen our bodies. PsychFit is the medically-recognized program that does it.