The Ives Wellness Group

    

    A few years ago, I (Tim Ives) completed my training to become a New York State licensed psychoanalyst.  Being a therapist, I have found, is richly rewarding and yet somewhat troubling.  I find mental health care is too often not effective in our society.  It is not being funded enough by the government or by insurance companies.  When people do get help it is often the wrong kind of therapy that is offered.  That is why I have founded a not for profit.  It is called The Ives Wellness Group and the aim is to raise money to be used for enabling anyone to get as much psychotherapy as they need. 

 

     Even when people can afford to get mental health treatment they are too often funneled into medication therapy for their problems. (1 in 4 women; 1 in 11 men; 1 in 9 children are on medication for mental or emotional troubles.)  Such therapies are mostly ineffective and dangerous, and can lead to worse mental and emotional problems that are almost always treated with more medications.  Many lives are being hurt and destroyed by this approach.   What is needed instead is psychotherapy that relies on a healing relationship, and not drugs, to treat problems.  I have had very good outcomes with this approach and believe that it is the most effective approach to mental and emotional health.  The problem with psychotherapy is that it usually takes time and so can be expensive.  Most health insurance has very limited coverage for talk therapy if it is covered at all.

 

     I am raising money so that those who need treatment can get as much as they need or want. Our mental health care system seems to be especially neglectful of veterans, young people, the elderly, and the poor.   Veterans have to wait for treatment that they need desperately and when they are treated it is usually with medications.  Those medications too often exacerbate the problem.  Young people are being labeled as mentally ill and then being medicated at epidemic rates. They are then labeled for life as 'sick'.  Teens are not sick, usually. They are often difficult, but will grow out of it with help and good therapy.  The elderly are especially prone to depression and often need the kind of acute therapy we advocate.  And the poor are always neglected. 

 

      The members of The Ives Wellness Group will be able to provide low-cost therapy with the help of your donation.  The members of The Ives Wellness Group will also dedicate a certain amount of time to teaching the public about the best therapies, good parenting, healthy lifestyles, how to intervene when a loved one needs help, and the dangers and problems of treating mental and emotional illness with medications.

    

     We need to offer an alternative.  The Ives Wellness Group is a step in that direction.  I hope that you will help us supply low cost therapy to the many people who need it and want it. 

 

       If you want to support this effort please make a tax deductible donation through this site or by mailing a donation to The Ives Wellness Group, 66 Main Street, Bedford Hills, New York 10507.