DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Dr. Eugenia Bodenhamer-Davis, associate professor of rehabilitation, social work and addictions, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research.
Founded in 1995 as the Society for the Study of Neuronal Regulation, ISNR is comprised of professionals from various disciplines who perform and conduct research in quantitative EEG neurotherapy, known as QEEG, and neurofeedback training, also known as EEG biofeedback.
ISNR promotes excellence in clinical practice, educational applications and research in applied neuroscience in order to better understand and enhance brain function.
Bodenhamer-Davis, the director of the Neurotherapy Laboratory in UNT's Department of Rehabilitation, Social Work and Addictions, was selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award for her work and commitment to neurotherapy as well as for training many students who are now professionals in the field.
She received the award at the ISNR annual conference from Dr. Roger deBeus, the society's current president and one of her former students at UNT. DeBeus, who has a private practice in Ashville, N.C., and is affiliated with Eastern Virginia Medical School, received his doctoral degree in health psychology and behavioral medicine from UNT after receiving training in the Neurotherapy Laboratory.
A UNT faculty member since 1974, Bodenhamer-Davis established the Neurotherapy Laboratory in 1992 with a $109,912 grant from the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The commission chose three Texas sites to replicate neurotherapy treatment for alcoholics that was conducted during the late 1980s at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Fort Lynn, Colo.
UNT was the only university chosen.
Twenty-one individuals who abused alcohol or other substances were selected for UNT's study. Each completed at least 30 sessions to increase alpha and theta levels in their brains, which are produced during alert relaxation and deep meditative states, and to learn to visualize rejection of alcohol or drugs. Bodenhamer-Davis contacted 16 of these individuals after they had been out of treatment for at least one year. Seventy-seven percent had abstained from using alcohol or drugs or had significantly changed their drinking habits so that they were no longer dysfunctional.
Since that first study, the Neurotherapy Lab has continued to conduct research and training for graduate students and professionals in QEEG and neurofeedback. The lab also has treated more than 1,000 people for substance abuse and other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and depression and memory and concentration disturbances caused by closed head injuries.
Bodenhamer-Davis is the former president of the Biofeedback Society of Texas and a member of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America and the National Council for Rehabilitation Education. She is a consulting editor for the Journal of Neurotherapy.
She received her bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University, master's degree from Texas Christian University and doctoral degree from UNT.
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