AAT™ Seminars for Medical Professionals



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Cynthia Erickson, PhD

Cynthia Erickson, Ph.D. received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in neuroscience under the tutleage of Drs Carol Barnes and Bruce McNaughton. After receiving her doctorate, she became fasicinated by changes in the cortex during learning—This area of study is remarkable because the cortex was originally thought to be comprised of static maps after a critical period in development. As a staff fellow in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at the National Institutes of Health, she observed changes in cortical neuron interactions after learning new pictures. This research required developing cutting-edge technology to record brain activity from many neurons simultaneously. Cynthia then moved on to research at the Helen Wills Neurosicence Institute at the University of California Berkeley and the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California Davis, where she managed the National Institute of Aging funded multicenter project on the neurobiology of memory and aging in primates.

Cynthia has published papers, and presented original research internationally on cortical and hippocampal brain changes during learning, amygdala responses to emotional images, the effects of aging on memory, and other topics in neuroscience. She doesn't remember a time when she was not passionate about helping people through research. In 1999, she gave a presentation to local physical therapists in Bethesda, MD entitled, "What Can Physical Therapists Learn from Modern Brain Science?" She welcomes the opporturnity to work with, and learn from, Scott Musgrave and Ernie Quinlisk, who have much to teach the scientific community. Although she has lived many places, she, along with her husband and son, feel most comfortable calling Colorado "Home."

Robert Scaer, MD

Robert Scaer, M.D. received his B.A. in Psychology, and his M.D. degree at the University of Rochester. He is Board Certified in Neurology, and has been in practice for 39 years, twenty of those as Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services at the Mapleton Center in Boulder, CO. His primary areas of interest and expertise have been in the fields of brain injury and chronic pain, and more recently in the study of traumatic stress and its role in all mental illness, as well as in physical symptoms and many chronic diseases.

He has lectured extensively on these topics, and has published several articles on the whiplash syndrome and other somatic syndromes of traumatic stress. His first book, The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation and Disease, presents a new theory of dissociation and its role in many diseases. A second edition of this book was published in November, 2007. A second book, The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Healing, released in July, 2005, explores the insidious spectrum of culturally-based trauma that shapes our lives, and how transformation and healing may still take place. Dr. Scaer is currently retired from clinical medical practice, and continues to pursue a career in writing and lecturing.

Christine O'Brien, DO

Christine is a graduate of West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Lewisburg , WV. She has spent decades integrating traditional medicine with osteopathic treatment modalities in conjunction with spiritual practice and cutting edge exercise physiology and neuropsychoimmulogy.

She completed a rotating internship at Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital Akron,Ohio and a Family Practice Residency at Shadyside Hospital Pittsburgh PA. After many years in solo private practice, she directed The Well Being Mind Body Medical Center at Westmoreland Regional Hospital Greensburg, PA. The center focused on integrated whole person medical treatment for chronic illness, emphasizing education and self care as the foundation for wellness.

Christine is married to a general surgeon, Dan and has 7 children ages 25-15 so she knows the pressures of combining career and family life. She left her dream job at the Well Being to focus on her family when the family moved to Colorado in 2002. Christine presently works for the Veteran Administration Medical Center in Cheyenne, WY. She extends her whole person approach to patient care to complex issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chronic Pain, Traumatic Brain Injury and Polytrauma.

Reflax™ and Reflexercise™ are simple reflexive treatment modalities that dovetail with Christine's working knowledge for brain physiology and physical and neurological transformation in healing. She has incorporated them into her daily practice with significant improvement in symptoms as patients accept the common sense approach to self change that these practices contain.

Bryan J. O'Neill, MD

Bryan J. O'Neill, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He earned his Bachelors degree at the University of Pennsylvania, with a major in the Biological Basis of Behavior. He completed his medical school training at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he was selected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society. He completed his PM&R residency and a fellowship in neuromuscular disease at Thomas Jefferson University. He then joined the full time faculty in the department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Jefferson where he practiced for nine years. It was there that he developed an interest in chronic pain. He studied with Dr David Simons, the father of myofascial pain and trigger point diagnosis and treatment.

He helped found and become the first director of the Myofascial Pain Program at Jefferson, a center for clinical treatment, training and research in the area of myofascial pain. He studied multiple manual therapy approaches to chronic pain. In 2006, he left full time practice at Jefferson to join the Neurologic Group of Bucks and Montgomery County, a multidisciplinary practice focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. He continues to teach residents and medical students as well as see patients one day a week at Jefferson's outpatient rehabilitation department.

Mary Braud, MD

Mary Braud, MD graduated from Louisiana State University Medical School in 1989. She completed residency training first in pediatrics and later in psychiatry, including a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. After working at a community mental health center for several years, Dr. Braud began her private practice in Denver, Colorado. She works with children, adolescents and adults utilizing an integrative approach combining both traditional and alternative modalities.

Dr. Braud has studied alternative mental health treatments since 2005. This includes training with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, the Institute for Functional Medicine and the Autism Research Institute. She was a consultant for the Riordan Clinic of Wichita, Kansas from 2007 to 2010.