"Are you lonely with Jennie?"

"Not at all. She knows me like no one else. I'm grateful to have her and our children. Same for my father-in-law and my brother. And you. I'm a lucky man. I love a lot of people."

Victoria broke into a broad smile. "I love you, Jonas. I always have."

"I love you, too, Victoria, from the moment we met. I didn't have words for it back then. But here we are now, and there's a lot of unfinished business."

"What do we do now?"

"Take a few moments to catch our breath. After that, we need to get your meds straightened out. I know you stopped taking them; the pharmacy called."

"You know," Victoria said, "everyone says that medication for bipolar disorder either makes you gain weight or lose your mental sharpness. Or you lose your s.e.x drive. I don't want any of that."

"Of course you don't," Jonas replied.

"Are you sure that won't happen?"

"Years ago we had fewer medications to choose from. Now we have excellent mood-stabilizers that don't make people gain weight or lose their mental edge. About the s.e.x drive...."

"Yes?"

Jonas laughed. "You don't think I expect you to take something that would get in the way of what we're working on, do you?"

Victoria blushed.

"Do you?" Jonas teased.

"No. I know you wouldn't."

"Good. Let's go to work on the Martin issue. You take him for granted. I said it before, but my timing was off."

"I knew you were right. I just wasn't ready to admit it."

"You accused Martin of being like your father."

"Why do you think I said that?"

"Because of conflicted feelings about s.e.x."

"Why is this coming up now?"

"For one thing, your children are getting older," Jonas said. It's hard for parents to deal with their kids coming of age s.e.xually. Bipolar or not, Melinda's probably got a lot of your s.e.xual drive in her."

"Oh, G.o.d. I remember those years," Victoria said.

"And don't forget Gregory. Give it a few years and the girls will be fighting to get their hands on your son."

"Parenthood. I suppose you have to deal with it, too, Jonas. Don't you?"

Jonas smiled. "Oh yeah. Meanwhile, don't forget: Martin loves you very much."

"How can you be sure?"

"Masculine intuition. If he didn't love you deeply, he wouldn't have been so hurt. But you have issues with his handsomeness."

"You're right, Jonas. You're right. Me of all people. Who would have thought it?" Victoria looked troubled.

"We're not going to run out of things to talk about anytime soon, if that's worrying you." Jonas looked at his watch. "I'll meet you back here in a few minutes. Let's get going on it today, while The Carlyle fantasy is still fresh."

Jonas ushered Victoria into the hallway and pointed her toward the restroom around the corner. As she disappeared, he remembered the ferryboat metaphor she had used to describe life's journey. Minutes later he heard sounds in the distance that reminded him of his last day on Dr. Fowler's couch.

Bawm bibawm b.u.m bah, dah diddle dada, dah diddle dada, Bawm bibawm b.u.m bah, dah diddle dah daaah.

Faint at first, the sounds fell into waltz time. Could it be Invitation to the Dance? Jonas smiled as he heard Victoria's footsteps approaching, picturing her and Martin's steamy romance.

The lights dimmed three times and soft chimes announced intermission was over; it was time for act two. Though his and Victoria's dance would continue, the ballet would end in a Schone-Braun pas de deux.

About the Author.

Jeffrey Deitz grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was a prize-winning instrumentalist at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Between undergraduate and postgraduate years at Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania, Jeffrey graduated from Baltimore's University of Maryland Medical School, where he received an award for academic excellence. He spent the last half of his senior year conducting neuroscience research at The Johns Hopkins Medical School.

After psychiatry and psychoa.n.a.lytic training in Philadelphia, Deitz and his wife moved to Connecticut, where he entered private practice, contributed widely to the professional psychotherapy literature, and conducted a series of seminars about the theory and practice of psychotherapy. He also partic.i.p.ated in the psychotherapy research group at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and taught psychopathology at a New York psychoa.n.a.lytic training inst.i.tute.

In 2007, Deitz turned his attention to wider audiences when he began publishing in the New York Times, Huffington Post, and other media outlets on topics including sports psychology, sleep deprivation, and the power of psychotherapy. He also contributed regularly to The Rail, the New York Times blog about horse racing, one of his lifelong interests.

In addition to his writing and psychotherapy practice, Deitz is a.s.sistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Frank Netter School of Medicine of Quinnipiac University, where he lectures second year medical students on diverse topics.

Deitz and his wife JoAnn live in Norwalk, Connecticut. They have two grown sons who live in Brooklyn. Intensive Therapy: A Novel is his first book.

Acknowledgments.

No one writes a first novel without a village; or in my case, a town. I am very grateful for the many people who helped take Intensive Therapy: A Novel from inception to publication.

Writing coach and mentor William Greenleaf grounded me in the fundamentals of story telling. Every time I discuss the book, I realize how well he taught me my ABCs. Editor Beth Haddas's deft critique led me reconceptualize and restructure the original ma.n.u.script. Teacher and friend William Zinsser, a sharp-witted literary economist, taught me to spend my adjectives and adverbs wisely. I felt Bill's presence at the keyboard as the story was distilled into the finished product.

No one could have championed the story better than my editor at Greenleaf Book Group, Brandy Savarese, who believed in the project from the beginning. She relentlessly shepherded the ma.n.u.script through rehearsal after rehearsal-line by line, oftentimes word by word-until it was performance-ready.

Greenleaf Book Group designer Neil Gonzalez worked tirelessly on the book's cover and interior layout; indeed, the entire Greenleaf organization has been a pleasure to work with.

I would also like to thank editors Tom Connelly, Melissa Hoppert, Tara Parker Pope, and Patty Laduca at the New York Times for giving me the opportunity to publish; same for Lloyd Sedler of the Huffington Post.

I deeply am indebted to Dr. Philip B. (Jay) Storm, Chairman of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Under Jay's preceptorship, Dr. Anna Breckenridge came to life and I learned of the miracles CHOP performs every day to save the lives and futures of children suffering from traumatic brain injury.

I also want to acknowledge Dr. James Krinsley, Director of the Stamford Hospital Intensive Care Unit, for his insight, and Bill Lipton, Marjorie Marlowe, and Amy Weiss for their careful reading and comments about the ma.n.u.script.

Thanks go to former mentors and supervisors, Drs. Perry Ottenberg, George Roark, and Stanley Olinick. There will always be a special place in my heart for my training a.n.a.lyst, Philip J. Escoll, MD. I am also grateful to be part of the Training and Research Inst.i.tute of Self Psychology (TRISP) in New York City, where it has been a privilege to teach and study.

Finally, I want to thank my patients, whose everyday courage in the face of adversity testifies to the indomitability of the human spirit and the potential for human growth throughout every stage of life. It is a privilege to share their journeys.

end.