NOVO’s Mission is to facilitate growth and healing through comprehensive and coordinated services that combine Western Neuroscience and Eastern Philosophy to promote lasting healthy brain changes.
Judy Thomas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with extensive experience and success at working with adults and adolescents around the issues of depression, anxiety, ADHD/ADD, anger management, and substance abuse. She has long had an interest in understanding the biological basis of behavior, brain functioning and facilitating brain change to improve functioning. Judy offers traditional talk therapies grounded in the principles of cognitive-behavioral techniques and mindfulness as well as using neurofeedback when it would benefit.
My Interest in Neurofeedback
I first became aware of neurofeedback while researching brain-based treatments for anxiety and depression as an alternative to medication. Many individuals have difficulty taking cognitive-behavioral strategies out into the world and using them effectively. The explanation for this is frequently that these clients have less-than optimal access to their cerebral cortex (or ‘higher brain’), particularly their frontal lobes- an area in the brain responsible for executive functioning and relating to such activities as planning, judgment, emotional regulation, and memory, among others.
My experience as a practitioner of meditation has taught me that conditions like anxiety and depression are not permanent, unchangeable states. Rather they are habits of the mind- and neural patterns in the brain- that become deeply entrenched. Meditation practice and discipline and long-term commitment, the very resources clients often lack. Neurofeedback has been described as meditation on steroids, which allows me to bring the long-term benefits of meditation and mindfulness to a shorter-term clinical setting. I believe that neurofeedback can be helpful to a wide range of clients, from higher functioning individuals seeking peak performance to those who were too distressed to utilize the cognitive-behavioral strategies of talk therapy.
ServicesTraditional talk therapy and skills training are supplemented by nutritional and lifestyle counseling as well as neurofeedback and light therapy when appropriate.Additional ServicesJudy Thomas