Paul Koeck, MD

Bipolar Disorder or Manic Depression differs from other forms of depression. In contrast to other forms of depression, there seems to be consensus in the medical world that bipolar depression is in the first place a disease, a biological condition that needs to be treated with medication, often with Lithium. Lithium contributes largely to stabilizing the disease, but has unfortunately lots of limitations. So the question remains: can psychotherapy cure bipolar depression?

Listen to someone who is diagnosed with Bipolar Depression. She wrote me this mail and asked me to share it with you through my blog:

“I am bipolar. This disease is from childhood. The story begins few hundred years ago. Once upon a time lived Mr. Andersen from Sweden. Every intelligent person knows, that there have been Swedish and Russians wars. Mr. Sigurd Andersen was solder. He was going to Russia with Swedish army trough Lithuania territory. And he met very beautiful Lithuanian woman. Fell in love and ran away from Swedish army. And he changed his name to Sigurdas A. (my grandfather is Sigurdas A.). He had bipolar. So, my disease came from those times.

Everyone knows writer Hans Christian Andersen…

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He was sitting in my office: tense, tired, stressed and depressed. He lost pleasure in the small stuff of life. There were plenty of complex interpretations that could be the source of his depression. I wondered if I would dive into them, but decided not to. I decided to look for more simple solutions to break the vicious circle. How to find out? Asking questions, simple questions, often help. So i gave it a try …

- “When exactly do you feel most stressed? What happens at that specific moment?

- “Well, phone calls are happening all day long and I do feel overwhelmed and not prepared to answer”. (He works in the financial sector and get phone calls from anxious clients who are worried about their investments during this financial crisis.)

- “How many of the phone calls you receive are from this type of overstressed clients?”

- “About six of them”

- “Are those mostly the same six clients calling you?”

- “Yes!” , he replied.

- “Ok, and how many of them are really important clients that you cannot afford to lose?”

- “Two, and they call me almost every single day”.

- “How much time would it take you to study their file as your first job when you enter the office in order to prepare your answer to their questions?”

- “I guess about 5 minutes for each of them, that means 10 minutes all together”

- “Would it make a difference to you if you prepare as your very first job in the morning their file and call them yourself before they call you?” , was my next question.

He smiled and said “Yes, of course. I would feel much better. I would not be afraid to be overwhelmed by their calls any more!”

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My latest post on how to recognise a depression:

Today I want  comment you briefly about the relationship between Optimism, Pessimism and Depression. Please, listen to this video:

Some days ago, one team member asked me some interesting questions about the origin of Depression and its conclusions for its treatment with selfhelp or therapy. I wanna share this video with you:

A discussion with a friend reminded me following transcript of a diaogue among two of my most important mentors. It reflects deeply my personal beliefs about Lasting Love:

In 1959, Jay Haley, the famous family therapist, asks his mentor, Milton H. Erickson, MD, the words most renowned hypnotherapist and psychiatrist: “If you were to describe what a good marriage is, how would you describe it?” Milton H. Erickson replies: When I describe a good marriage to my patients, I point out to them that there are essentailly four kinds of Love:

1. The infantile type of love, “I love me.”
2. The next stage, “I love the me in you. I love you becaue you are my brother, my mother, my father, my sister, my dog. The ‘me’ in ‘you’.
3. Then the adolescent type of love, “I love you because your dancing pleases me, and because your beauty pleases me, and because your brains please me.”
4. The adult stage of love wherein, “I want to love you and cherish you because I want to see you happy, because i can find my happiness in your happiness. The happier you are, the happier, I’ll be. I’l find my happiness in yours. Il” find delight in your pleasure and intellectual persuits. I’ll find a delight in your enjoyment of dancing.” So the mature love is the capacity to find enjoyment in the enjoyment of the other person’s enjoyment. It works both ways. read more »

Paul Koeck, MD, BA, is president and founder of Coachteam® International. He works as business coach for top-executives, and is in surplus an excellent therapist and physician. He created the Coachteam® philosophy ’Goal-Directed, Solution-Focused Coaching‘, being the pioneer in Europe in Solution Focused Coaching for Business Leaders & Organisations! Paul defines the keys to success clearly: ‘Successful people know what they want to achieve, how to get there, how to mobilise thé required resources and … they dare to be thé Captain of their soul’. Dr. Paul Koeck is an authority in the field of business & career coaching and competence development. He is a frequent keynote speaker, coach & trainer on international scientific conferences and at universities, all over the world. His model and techniques are used in different continents, countries and languages. He is the creator of several expert systems for managing the change of human behaviour.

Paul studied medicine, philosophy and sports medicine at the Catholic University of Louvain. After his management studies, at the VLERICK School for Management, he was profoundly trained in systemic coaching, brief therapy an hypnotherapy in Europe an the U.S.A.

As a trainer, consultant and coach he served important business leaders and organisations like  Alcatel-Lucent, KPMG, BASF, Siemens, Borealis, IBM, Swift, Nextiraone, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Banksys, HP, Junior Chamber International, Haribo, Proximus, Belgacom, Delta Lloyd Life, Generale Bank, Belgian Military Police, Anco, Givi, Axias, IPPA, HBK Spaarbank, Vlaams Centrum voor Kwaliteitszorg,  Socialistische Mutualiteiten, Onafhankelijk Ziekenfonds, Arenberg Group, Partena, Prayon Ruppel, Pandora,  … He coaches fluently in 5 languages: Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German and studied Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Esperanto, & Russian.

Radio Interview with Dr. Paul Koeck about digital stress: Part 1 -  Part 2