Dear Dr. Malik, I want to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to you and to every single person who works at APOFE. Every individual staff member, no matter their position, contributes to making this clinic a place of excellence, integrity, safety, kindness, and compassion. Never before in my career as a mental health clinician, nor as a patient with multiple chronic health conditions, have I encountered a clinic that is so uniformly dedicated to not only the health of its patients, but also their entire experience the minute they walk through the door. You have made APOFE a safe harbor for healing where every patient receives empathy, sincerity, understanding, and support as a unique individual who is courageous enough to commit themselves to their own unique healing journey. It's not easy. It takes a lot of strength and determination to come here several times a week for the various treatment modalities you provide. It requires patience and steadfast dedication, because it can take a long time to stabilize severe treatment resistant depression. I, myself, had my first major depressive episode in July 2013. I don’t believe Treatment Resistant Depression was even an official diagnosis at that time, but that initial single episode was my unrelenting burden to carry until October 2024 when I achieved full remission for the very first time under your care, at this clinic. I found my first TMS clinic in 2014, I was then living in the Pacific Northwest. For many years I got by with TMS treatments alone but the best baseline I ever achieved was moderate depression. I was grateful, because it kept me minimally functional in my daily life, most of the time. It was the very best that psychiatric medicine could provide at that time, but TMS treatment alone gradually became less and less effective beginning in 2020, where I moved back to Illinois. I was needing it more often than insurance would allow when my previous psychiatrist found you online in late January 2023. When I met you for my first appointment in February 2023, I was utterly desperate to find an Illinois psychiatrist who specializes in Treatment Resistant Depression. I truly understood that God led me to you, and this was the place where I could finally free myself from a single depressive episode that had held me in its grip for an entire decade. It was an arduous process, but you and every single staff member made me believe that with patience and time, I would achieve remission, and I did! It took one year and 8 months from my first appointment with you but I did it and it was only possible in this place, with these specific people. In my darkest, lowest days, when I felt exhausted and hopeless, everyone at APOFE-EVERYONE-reminded me that I could, and would, get better. You all believed so strongly in my ability to live a full life, free from depression symptoms. It allowed me to believe it also, even when I had no belief in myself. Thank you! There are no words to adequately express my profound gratitude to every single dedicated staff member who makes this clinic so special and so outstanding. As a person of faith, I consider APOFE as nothing less than a Bonafide miracle, no matter which religion a person belongs to, or whether they have any faith at all, I believe with all my heart that this place is God’s gift to all the people who find their way here and I sincerely pray that many more will do so. I achieved full remission for 4 glorious months before my most recent setback. I feel free. Finally! I am not worried about any future setbacks because I now know what freedom feels like and I know that I will always return to remission. I imagine that as time progresses, I can achieve a consistently stable baseline of remission with ongoing maintenance treatments. I write this in thanks but also in the hope that my personal testimony may lend strength to other patients here who have not yet experienced the delight and bliss of daily life free from depression symptoms. I will happily and gratefully continue on with maintenance treatments for the rest of my life, if that is what it takes to experience this kind of freedom and joy! Sincerely J.N.