Dear Midwest Center,

Melissa Burke

I'm learning and growing more every day. My positive attitude has rubbed off on my family and friends...I have a summer job selling produce at a Greenhouse and in a tough situation I had to be assertive. A customer came in cursing at me and rushing me to get her checked out. Normally I would have cursed back at her, but I stepped back, took a time out and responded assertively. I simply told her that there was no need for rudeness...I felt a weight come off of my shoulders...I think back sometimes to the person I once was, a troubled teen in need of a miracle and some motivation to change. You, Lucinda, and the people from the infomercial were my miracle. I believe God works in mysterious ways...

I'm one teen that took a stand against fear and pain
I'll never go back to that ever again.
I don't need reassurance I get that from myself,
I know I'm beautiful; who cares about the opinions of everyone else.
Your beauty only goes as deep as your skin,
Because true beauty lies deep within."

Melissa Burke, Ohio

...I think of you often, not to mention I use the skills daily... I've told so many people about your program, and my only prayer is that they make the call. The resistance to receiving help is interesting; I guess timing is everything.

Linda Johnson

I have three flights in front of me, my second year of grad school, an aging father I'm taking care of, a daughter going into middle school, and oh, yes, my poor husband who puts up with all of us...all I can say is-Thank God for all of you. You changed my life, by giving it back to me!

Love, and warm regards,
Linda Johnson, MI

Marsha Marcoe

Ms. Marcoe is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in the treatment of Anxiety and Panic Disorder. She offers a clinically proven 15 week individualized program utilizing specific tools for gaining control over stress and anxiety and the associated symptoms.

Marsha is an affiliate of the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety, Inc. She maintains a private practice in Santa Barbara where she is available for individual consultation and individual therapy. (805-692-5078)

After treating Anxiety and Panic Disorder for almost 15 years, I have discovered that those patients who stick with a cognitive talk therapy program have success, and now there is neuro-scientific research that shows that cognitive talk therapy program produces changes in the areas of the brain. In other words, conscious mental effort induces a biological effect on the brain. I call that success, and deep second order change.

A full course of cognitive therapy to treat anxiety disorder may require up to 15 sessions and the completion of the Attacking Anxiety tapes. I have treated patients that only want to rely on drug therapy and not do the hard work of the cognitive therapy or the behavior modification tapes. Those patients are usually not as successful at living the life they deem as abundant.

I am not against drug therapy, but I want to stress the importance of the conscious mental exercise that will give one second order change instead of first order change (Paul Watzlawick, Ph.D., John Weakland, Ch.E, and Richard Fisch, M.D.) The shift of perception and understanding is deeper with second order change. First order change is change within the same system that one has created with all the myths and lies regarding anxiety disorder. Second order change is the change of the system itself. It allows new information to push out old perceptions and lies.

Changing the disorder takes a second order change, and the conscious mental exercise is the only way I know to make that deep change.

Allowing information to become part of your true perception takes a process of assimilation and accommodation. One must take in information and accommodate it to what they already know. A patient with anxiety disorder has false information about the disorder that needs to be challenged before they can accommodate the truth about the disorder. This process takes time and hard work. The new information must be part of what we actually believe before it can produce change.

I have a dear friend who took the board exams to become a practicing attorney. She failed the exams five times. When she asked me for help to get through the exam, I discovered she had not done the conscious mental effort to understand the material she needed to know before taking the exam. She highlighted the material with color markers, punched holes in the pages to create a very organized notebook, carried the book with her on her errands but didn't do the hard work of making the information relate to her cases. She did not assimilate or accommodate the new information so she could not pull up the correct information when taking the test. The information didn't belong to her because it was not accommodated in her brain. The system was the same without the true conscious mental effort and therefore second order change had not taken place.

Lucinda Bassett has given her life work to helping people assimilate new information that can be accommodated toward second order change. Having the tapes and making therapy appointments is opening the door to health. Sticking with the program is the key to success. Resistance to change is natural but staying the course yields second order change and the abundant life.

If you live in the Santa Barbara area and would like some help with the program, consider calling Marsha Marcoe, MFT.