Synergy Health Programs provides comprehensive mental and behavioral health services. Our care and treatment solutions are modulated to your unique needs. Whether you are battling a mental health disorder, enduring a stressful period in life, or aren’t sure what you need but know something is wrong, we’re here for you.

Our program uses elements of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), DBT, (dialectical behavioral therapy) and ACT (acceptance-commitment therapy) to help our patients work through life’s struggles and find peace. Through private and group therapy sessions with our counselors, we equip our patients with the vital tools they need to confront life’s problems without resorting to manic or erratic behaviors or substance misuse in order to cope.

Instead of searching for “mental health services near me” or “behavioral health services near me”, contact us today.

Steve Martorano 
The Behavioral Corner is produced in partnership with Retreat Behavioral Health -- where healing happens

The Behavioral Corner 
Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano, and this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the corner, the Behavioral Corner. Please hang around a while.

Steve Martorano 
Hello, everybody. Welcome again to the Behavioral Corner. It's me, Steve Martorano, your host, and guide. I hope you know what we're about here, and we like to say that we're a podcast about everything. Because everything affects our behavioral health, it's all made possible by our great partners, Retreat Behavioral Health, and we're gonna call upon them for not only their financial support today but for their tremendous reservoir of experience -- people to explain a couple of things for us. Anyway, that's what the Behavioral Corner has been doing. We talked to a lot of different people about a lot of different things, and we hope it helps you learn a little bit more about your mental and physical, and spiritual well-being. I can't believe it's an entity that we're recording this at the end of August, although I must say, this summer can't get out of here fast enough for me. Anyway, we're going to take a look at, you know, for very often when we talk about substance abuse issues, which we talk about a lot on Retreat because Retreat began as a pure substance abuse treatment facility. They have since expanded their services now to include a suite of treatments and techniques in the mental health area, which is what we're here today to talk about. It's interesting to think about what we're thinking about what we think is going to happen when we have mental health issues and what recovery would look like in that regard. So as I said, we're going to take a look at the Synergy portion of Retreat Behavioral Health, their Synergy Health Program. We'll find out the particulars about that with their clinical supervisor, who was our guest on the corner today, Stacey MaGee. Stacey, thanks so much. I know you're busy. I appreciate your time. 

Stacey MaGee 
Thank you, sir. 

Steve Martorano 
So a Synergy, as I said, grew out of work being done in the substance abuse field. For those who do not know, you do not treat substances, if you're good at this Retreat is you do not just treat substance abuse issues because there are always what are referred to as co-occurring or underlying situations that contribute to the abuse to the substance abuse. And they are often in the mental health area. But again, you would get that treatment in conjunction with a substance abuse problem. Now through Synergy, it's not necessary to treat your mental health issues. If you have no substance abuse problems. Is that pretty much the difference between what goes on between the two sides of the company?

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, well, we developed the synergy side, we had a great name for our committed team, and we had a great name just in general. So yeah, instead of it just being co-occurring disorders with substance abuse, you know, whether it was induced or whatever, we saw the need to, you know, we had a lot of patients just wanted to come in for just mental health only. No substance abuse, so...so that I guess that was the birth of that. And, and so yeah, we've...we've got our Synergy program going, and it's going very strongly.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. How long have you been associated with...well, how...a little bit about your professional background, and how long you've been involved with Synergy?

Stacey MaGee 
I've been doing this for about 34 years. And I started substance abuse in California. Of course, I got certified in addiction a long time ago. I was coming out of my own recovery and had a period of sobriety, and just kind of fell into the field and...and they said I was good at it. So, I said okay, I'll get certified, you know, and, and so that's kind of how I began. And I was fortunate in California to...to be trained under a lot of very good therapists under psychotherapy, _____ therapy, transactional analysis therapy, cognitive therapy, on and on and on. And so that's kind of where I got my start. And I've been in this field ever since and, and so at that time when I was in California, I was also a professional musician. So I went through my own treatment, you know, so that's kind of how I fell into this whole thing. And so been doing it ever since. And I enjoy it, you know, it's like a calling to me, you know, it's just I love doing it. I love helping people. And but now, of course, I've moved back to Louisiana kept doing that, you know, we can inpatient, outpatient and everything else.

Steve Martorano 
Do you mean that's a kind of California accent?

Stacey MaGee 
No, that's not a California accent. I'd tried to get rid of it, so...

Steve Martorano 
No, no, no, it's charming. What are you kidding?

Stacey MaGee 
Ten years ago, I came here to Retreat. I came out here...my family, we moved out here and came to work for Retreat, and I've been here for well over ten years.

Steve Martorano 
It's so fascinating. Just take a little side trip here now -- 35 years, you have made a career out of helping others and learning how that's done and training yourself, and it all flowed out of a bad situation. 

Stacey MaGee 
Yes, it did.

Steve Martorano 
It's remarkable how life takes you to certain places you never expect to wind up right.

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, that's the same time it always ends up. So you know, but...but it, you know, it was actually a blessing. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah.

Stacey MaGee 
And a great turn in my life, and, again, I just I do...I do what I do; I love to do it. Do you know?

Steve Martorano 
Let's talk about what Retreat does and what Synergy does, and what they do not do. Let's begin with what I'm often asked in situations like this when one talks about going to get help for mental health issues. Do you go to a psych hospital? First of all, what is a psychiatric hospital? And how does it differ from Retreat...Synergy?

Stacey MaGee 
Well, a psychiatric hospital is definitely a higher level of care. We call, you know, Retreat, we're behavioral health. So we deal with comprehensive mental health and behavioral health services. And so, you know, if a person needed higher care, we have our staff psychiatrist that...that will sometimes, you know, refer them to a higher level of care if they come in, but we're mostly dealing with the behaviors, but we also deal with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, suicidality, you know, PTSD, co-occurring disorders, you know? Yeah, so that's kind of what we do, you know, we rehabilitate our patients, and whether it's through psychotherapy or counseling, and so yeah, that's what we do. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, want me to get into some of the techniques that are employed, but this distinction about a psych hospital and a behavioral health facility, and the things you treat them? And correct me if I'm wrong. One of the other more obvious or not so obvious, one of the more significant differences between a psych hospital situation and what you guys provide, is that everyone who comes to Synergy for treatment is there voluntarily.

Stacey MaGee 
Yes, yes, most definitely. Yeah. Because some people to a psych hospital, yeah, they go through the ER, emergency hospital, and then they're referred to, you know, that higher level of care when it's mandated,

Steve Martorano 
As I understand it, most hospitals, but not all, most regular hospitals have a psych ward, where it's or depending upon how big they are, its a large one or a small one, if someone is having an episode, whatever it is, maybe it hasn't been diagnosed yet. Or maybe it has been, maybe it says a manic episode associated with bipolar. And they drive themselves to their friendly neighborhood hospital. They do so not under duress, but you know, in a confused and manic state, maybe a loved one takes them there. And now they're in the ER, and if you go to the ER, and you've got you're bleeding, or your arm is broken, the process pretty much takes care of itself. But what happens in a situation where a mental health disturbance is what's brought you into now a hospital -- I'll get to you guys in a minute -- into a hospital situation? Do you get admitted into their psych ward, or do you have to sign yourself in? What's that process like?

Stacey MaGee 
Say, for instance, if you are just dealing with depression, or something like that, or anxiety, and you have panic attacks, and you go into, you know, your ER, they'll treat you for those types of things. So, their case management primer might prefer, you know, too, maybe they'd see that the doctors have made a referral to, you know, a rehab center, you know, if it's addiction or mental health or, but if you get into suicidality and stuff like that, where it's a higher needs...a higher level of care, then, you know, if they didn't have a unit on their hospital, you know, they'll either do that, or they'll refer to a place like, like us, you know, and so, of course, we work with a lot of them are community hospitals and different hospitals and, and they know about us, so they were referred to us, but it's hopefully the hospital you know, they diagnose that right and they, and that's where they make the referral.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, that diagnosis, that first point of contact, is critical. You've got to be in for I'm somebody that understands what they're doing and can recognize the level of severity here of and then, of course, there is the unfortunate situation where people can be involuntarily entered into a psych facility. That is not what Synergy is about. They're no bars on windows. They can't keep you against your will. You've got to be there, actively able to take advantage of their mental health program. So tell us a little bit of--well, first of all, we've touched upon it briefly--but tell us the sort of mental health situations you guys would treat at this Synergy.

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, like so again, we treat, you know, like different disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, suicidality, PTSD, current you know, disorder, stuff like that. So, you know, we have onboard psychiatrists, psychologists, so when they come into Retreat, you know, they...they go through intense assessments and stuff, and, but they're coming for us for that behavioral health, whether they have stressors in life, whether they have family problems, or, but it's mostly centered around the mental health issue that they're having, that used to get referred to us. So we are a behavioral health, and mental health service. So we do provide those treatments to all of...surrounding all those diagnoses, you know,

Steve Martorano 
Stacey during that initial evaluation, or whatever diagnosis, whatever, you know, the intake portion of Synergy. Do you recall at what point you require somebody to be drug tested because they may show up saying that they have a purely mental health issue and trying to hide the fact that they're on substance abuse? Do you require a drug test right away?

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, that's going scope made kind of a standard thing of our policy to drug test everybody, because, you know, the medical doctors gonna meet with them, for sure. And now they've got...they go through a process of importing, you know, then meet with a clinical director, who clinical person who will, you know, a master's level clinical person would do an intake and assessment, and then they go to nursing that they go to the doctor, and then they, you know, so they go right along the line. So to evaluate, you know, all of that, you know, to see, you know, what services they may need.

Steve Martorano 
Does Synergy provide both residential and outpatient mental health treatment?

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, we do have an outpatient facility. We have one here in Akron. We have one, and we have some in Philly, State College...and we do plot outpatient services. So we have a patient care coordinator team that did most of the out, you know, referrals to different outpatient. So, for instance, if a patient has, you know, they live in Connecticut, you know, so we do have services there, but we might refer to different services, because some come with their own psychiatrists, and therapists, they've been in treatment more than once. And, you know, so we have our clinical team or PCC team is, is that sort of job is to refer people to the right, individual care that they need.

Steve Martorano 
Do you see clients, patients who come to you who may have their own psychiatrists and have been seeing it but feel like they need another level? Does that happen often?

Stacey MaGee 
What do you mean by another level? They do come in, you know, with psychiatrists, but we have our own psychiatrists, you know, within 24 hours, I'd say our psychiatrists and they reevaluate.

Steve Martorano 
Okay. Okay. I guess they take a full medical workup to they want to know what kind of physical shape you're in as well, right?

Stacey MaGee 
We're gonna do history physicals, psych, we're doing it all. So it's very thorough.

Steve Martorano 
My guest is Stacey MaGee. Stacey is a clinical supervisor for Synergy Health Programs at a division of Retreat Behavioral Health. You know, we mentioned a lot of things that you guys treat; they are not all the same problems. They each are unique in their own way, whether its post-traumatic stress, anxiety, or something like bipolar. And so, the treatments will vary. What are some of the treatments that you guys employ to handle those things?

Stacey MaGee 
Well, we have...we employ a lot of different types of treatments. We do acceptance commitment therapy. We do dialectical behavioral training. A patient comes in with PTSD, we can, you know, we're there's been a lot of research that act therapy works with that, but we also can do, many of our clinicians can do multiple model types of therapy as far as exposure therapy, you know, I do some stuff around EFT-- Emotional Freedom Technique, you know, stuff like that. So...

Steve Martorano 
I'm sorry, what was that last one?

Stacey MaGee 
It's called Emotional Freedom Techniques. It's a tapping series. And it works incredibly well. It is a tapping series on ten areas where you tap it so it can reduce anxiety. You do it on a scale of one to 10. And you know, that come down with anxiety as a number eight, you do this tapping series, so it works on the energy in the body at it, and it will bring your anxiety way down...

Steve Martorano 
How does that...I'm trying to...you're saying "tapping?"

Stacey MaGee 
Yes, you tap on ten areas, like there's one on top of your head, there's 

Steve Martorano 
Oh, on your body?

Stacey MaGee 
Your body. It's not like acupuncture anything. An old therapist showed me that technique and said, "Ahh, that doesn't work." But man, did it work...

Steve Martorano 
Take...just show me what you...show me what you're talking about. You would...

Stacey MaGee 
You start tapping, and you say this positive prayer, even though I have anxiety, I set my anxiety. And then you go the eye, and you go through, and you go through the whole process, then you know, you see where their anxiety if it's come down and but you can use it on smoking you can use on depression, you can on thoughts, you can use it on different types. So, so we do approach a lot of holistic we got to equine therapy, we got, you know, music therapy and drumming. And, you know, so we got a lot of difference and we not only just that those old cognitive therapy stuff, we apply a holistic program to the whole thing.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, some of the things people who are just confronting mental health issues, and even substance abuse issues, have to understand or get learn to accept is that there's not one magic bullet out there. There are lots of things that have to be employed until you find what's working, and you never know what's working until you see it working. The tapping is fascinating. I've not heard that before. Although I do remember relaxation techniques back from my, my hippy days, where we were looking for different paths and one had...one had to do with, you'll probably appreciate this, I was told we tend to center our notions of where our consciousness is in the area above our head. That's where consciousness resides. And the instructor was saying, that's, you know, the standard thought, but the next time you whack yourself in the thumb with a hammer accidentally, you'll find out your consciousness has just shifted to your thumb. 

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
Okay? And he said. All that means is that you can move your consciousness around your body. 

Steve Martorano 
Well, yeah.

Steve Martorano 
So he said, you know, so you know, and one of the things he showed us was that there is normal tension in your jaw that you're not even aware of, that you can, if you just try relaxing your jaw muscle, an enormous amount of tension can be drained away. So I guess that's how that tapping thing works, right?

Stacey MaGee 
Well, it kind of is. It's based on the theory of like, if you have anxiety, your body is trying to exert all this negative energy, you know, so then it's causing more pain or causing more anxiety. So as I describe it, like it brings your body down to homeostasis, almost, you know, so...

Steve Martorano 
If you can get that rhythm going, it slows everything down to the beat.

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, so we teach our patients how to do that. And, yeah, they can just learn it and do it like, progressive muscle relaxation, you know, we do self-soothing exercises, we do just a number of things. And that's what I like about our therapy team at Synergy. They bring such a wide variety, also with their...with their therapy, but...but we have, we're using empirical things that just work, you know...

Steve Martorano 
And all of these have been what what's referred to as evidence-based. There are studies that show this stuff has worked. Well, all of the things you've just discussed, in general, can be described in some way as talk therapy, you know, there that there's that transaction, that interaction. What about treating some of these mental health issues with drugs? Does that go on?

Stacey MaGee 
Oh, most definitely. That's why they meet with the psychiatrists within 24 hours. It's mandatory on our Synergy side. And you know, that we do medication management, you know, they're gonna, of course, we're granting the histories, you know, that we needed -- the history from their former psychiatrist, you know, you know, accordion, they can sit to do that. And but, yeah, so we do medication management here. And it's

Steve Martorano 
important to know what they're on now if they get to... Let's talk about bipolar disorder because I think it there's a growing awareness of that disorder. It seems to be growing in prevalence. As I understand it, and I guess this is true in any mood disorder. You can't go to the shelf and say, "Oh, this works for that. Let's prescribe it." It's almost more an art than a science coming up with the right drugs that can help somebody. Is that true, basically?

Stacey MaGee 
Well, I mean, you got to think about this our bodies are ______. So we've got all these hormones and all this stuff. So some of the medication that...that's provided it's...what works for you might not work for me. That's why we have a class of SSRIs are different types of medication, you know, did they treat different, you know, disorders. But, you know, our bodies, just like allergy medicine, you know, what allergy I take doesn't work for you might work for me. So it's finding those combinations. And that's the psychiatrists' job, and the medical team's to find what works for that person. And the important thing is getting the right diagnosis. That's incredibly important. And then followed by all, that is where the clinical team comes in. And then you know, because medication management is just not the only thing that works to buy 30 to 40%. So we need to do that their coping skills, therapy techniques, whether you got family problems, trauma, whatever you got going on, that might be related to bipolar disorder, while they're manic whatever. But, you know, that's in that class of mood disorders.

Steve Martorano 
Again, again, no silver bullet. There's not a drug that's going to cure it all...all by itself. It's in conjunction with other modalities as well. I mentioned the drug treatment here because there's another aspect of it that I wanted to ask you about. And you know, the diagnosis is absolutely critical. Getting the right drug for the right person is obviously important. It then becomes incumbent upon the person who's got the mood disorder to stay on their medicine.

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, that's a challenge for some patients, you know, because it's like everyone else, you don't want to stay on your medication, you don't want, you know, taking medication all your life. But mental health is a lifetime process. And that's what we have to understand about behavioral health or mental health. And medication management is critical.

Steve Martorano 
The comparison I've always heard is that look, if you're a diabetic, you need insulin. 

Stacey MaGee 
Yes.

Steve Martorano 
That's what your life now is made up of -- administering insulin. Same thing with mood drugs and mood disorders. There's a little bit of a difference because you're cognitively aware of your diabetes and your need for insulin when you're having a psychiatric problem or a mental health issue. Your mind is what the problem is. It could be telling you, well, I don't need this anymore. I feel great right now. That's what you meant by a challenge. Right?

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, yeah. You know, and then we're also dealing with behavioral issues that involve, you know, not wanting to take medication and stuff like that. We have some patients that, you know, just, they might be psychotic, they might be, you know, having delusions or something like that. So that's where medication management comes in. And the clinical aspect also,

Steve Martorano 
Side effects are often a big factor in whether people take their drug, their medicine or not. They got better over the years by managing the side effects and some of these drugs.

Stacey MaGee 
I, you know, that's kind of a hard place for me as I'm not a doctor. So, you know, it's, but I think, I think...

Steve Martorano 
I meant...I actually meant the behavioral side when they, you know, I stopped taking because I was getting...gaining weight. That's a behavioral thing, you know...

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah. So to me, that's why we have psychiatry, though, they follow up and the clinical team, you know, the deal with those types of behaviors and to educate. We have to educate these patients, you know, so that's why the psychiatrist educated on the medications, the side effects just like a regular doctor would. And, you know, again, we're our clinical team steps in are therapists step it to deal with their behaviors,

Steve Martorano 
Stacey, I want to move to the sort of the final portion of what we're talking about here, but just one more thing about bipolar disorder, or any manic or any even a depressive situation or anxiety. With regard to bipolar disorders. Are there triggers that people suffering from bipolar can learn to identify and avoid? Like there are triggers for substance abuse? In other words, are there things that might trigger a manic episode, and can people learn what they are and avoid them?

Stacey MaGee 
Yes, most definitely. And that's what our, our clinical team and are therapists too, you know, helping our patients identify what those triggers are, whether it's a family issue, whether it's, you know, just trauma where you know, it can be trauma, you know, Oh, good trauma has a lot of triggers, you know, help them recognize, you know, when they're going into that manic state, or you know what to do about it and giving them the tools, the coping skills, how to self-soothe, or breathing, exercise, whatever we do to...to manage that disorder along with medication.

Steve Martorano 
Now, because in situations of a bipolar disorder, once you're deep into the episode, whether it's depressive or manic, it's, you know, sort of beyond rational thinking at that point. So you've got to be alert to it before it happens, I guess.

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, that's where our therapists, you know, you have a relapse prevention plan for addiction. But there's a relapse prevention plan for mental health.

Steve Martorano 
And that's what I wanted to segue into at the end of this because looking at the two situations is purely substance abuse disorder, not purely but a substance abuse disorder and a mental health issue. We easily understand the notion of recovery from substance abuse. I mean, you can see it. If someone's not using and their lives back together, they can be said to be in recovery. What...when we talk about mental illness and recovery? What are we talking about? Do people recover from mental illness?

Stacey MaGee 
Well, you know, the, with mental illness, of course, it's a behavioral issue, moods issue. But again, I think I've said this is a lifetime disorder. If you have bipolar disorder or depression, it is treated by medication. It's treated by, you know, clinical, you know, it's so, I mean, that's gonna be with them for life. And it's learning how ...learning how to deal with it, learning the right skills, you know. Taking your medication, you know, follow up with your psychiatrist, follow up with your aftercare, your therapist, you know, and it's just, it is sort of like a maintenance program. But, you know, this is a medical issue. Depression is a medical issue. Bipolar is a medical issue. You know, can PTSD be induced by trauma? Yes, it can be produced by trauma, which causes effects on the brain, which causes a mental health disorder.

Steve Martorano 
And mental health disorders still labor, I think, to a greater degree, or struggle to a greater degree, under the lingering stigma of mental illness than substance abuse. I think, over the years, the public has gotten better at understanding substance abuse as a...as a sickness, as a disease. But there is still, I think, what you tell me. I think there's still a stronger stigma attached to mental illness that needs to be addressed.

Stacey MaGee 
Yeah, so that's...that's where prevention comes in, you know, how can we educate our community more, and that's what Retreat is about to try to deal with some of that stigma. You know, that's why some of us will go talk, you know, to our local libraries, to people in our communities, you know, educating them on mental health, what it looks like, how can you treat it? What do they need to do? You know, prevention is, it's just, we need that greater, you know, in our communities in our society, period. And because a lot of people do not understand mental health, they just think, you know, had the person gotten homeless? Well, usually, it may start with a mental health disorder. It can be a military person with...with coming back for war, had trauma that ends up homeless, you know because the what is happening in their brain. What is, you know, so...

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, well, we're making great strides. Learning about the brain, which is still, no matter how sophisticated, and scientific we are, is, it's a mystery. We learn a lot about neurology all the time. They can only help. I wanted to get you on the Corner because we need to talk a lot more about what goes on at a place like Synergy and the available programs because as bad as the substance abuse issue is and overdoses and, we know that story. There is another story going on. And I think you would agree that there is a mental health crisis in this country. We have a lot of people who need a lot of help, and they might not be getting it. So Stacey MaGee, thank you so much, and I hope I can call upon you again on the Corner. Appreciate your time.

Stacey MaGee 
Appreciate your time. And thank you so much for having me.

Steve Martorano 
Thank you all, too as well. Behavioral Corner, you know, you can subscribe. There's a button right there to the top bingo. That makes my day when we get another subscriber and follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and you'll find us wherever your podcasts are found. Take care of yourself. See you next time on the Behavioral Corner.

Synergy Health Programs 
Millions of Americans are negatively affected daily by their mental health. Retreat has served the community for over ten years, offering comprehensive mental health programming through our mental health division, Synergy Health Programs. To learn more about Synergy, please reach out today at 855-802-6600. 

The Behavioral Corner 
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