Jody was recruited her senior year of high school after being chosen to join the Boston Globe All-Scholastic Team in Field Hockey. She decided to attend Boston University and arrived for preseason training in the fall of 1981. She experienced a degree of nervousness that she thought was just a normal part of the events she was experiencing. However, within 24 hours of arriving at BU, her panic disorder started to rear its ugly horns. Jody explains, “My heart was racing. I was having thoughts of ‘get me out of here!’ It also seemed like I was simultaneously hearing a voice say, ‘you’re being ridiculous. This is normal, you will get over it..you will disappoint and let so many people down if you quit.’” Jody hoped that if she just ignored the voice, it would go away.

 

But the panic and catastrophic thoughts didn’t just “go away.” In fact, they seemed to hold her hostage.  As time went on, her sports and academic performance suffered. Jody ended up injuring herself, became school avoidant, and failed all of her classes that semester.

 

Part of what makes Jody great at helping others are her personal experiences with anxiety. She understands the silent suffering and shame of a derailing anxiety disorder. She’s taken that very painful time in her life and channeled in into a passion of learning the science of anxiety disorders and helping others cope with them. She has a passion for working with children, adolescents and adults who are experiencing unmanageable levels of anxiety and stress.

 

Jody holds a Bachelors and Masters in Psychology and Counseling, as well as a PhD in Health Psychology. Jody’s doctoral research explored the relationships between stress, biochemistry and food, as perceived by physicians working with obese patients (for more information on this, see our research page). Jody completed her clinical training at Harvard Medical School under leading experts in the fields of stress and trauma, including Dr. Herbert Benson, Dr. Janina Fisher, and Dr. Eva Selhub. Jody has also trained with Dr. Michael Beckwith and Neale Donald Walsch from the movie, “The Secret;” as well as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Dr. Joe Dispenza, who wrote the New York Times best seller: Evolve The Brain: the Science of Changing Your Mind. If you’d like to learn more about NECASM‘s services, please contact us today.