Teresa Susmaras - The Storied History of Suffolk University

Suffolk University is located in the heart of Boston, with the Boston Commons at its front door.  This distinguished university has a long history of providing excellent educational opportunities with the all the culture and amenities of historic Boston as a backdrop.

Suffolk University was born when Gleason L. Archer was loaned the funds to complete the study of law. In 1906, Archer opened the Suffolk School of Law, which offered men the opportunity to work during the day and study law in the evening, making the pursuit of education a reality for the working class.  Soon after, Archer moved the location of the school to central downtown where his law offices were located.  The move made the school even more accessible to students and eventually led to partnerships with both businesses and the government. By the 1930’s, the school was the largest law school in the country.

The College of Arts and Sciences was established in 1934 and in 1937 the College of Business Administration (currently the Sawyer Business School) was founded.  In 1937, the three academic entities were merged to form Suffolk University.  The initial night school idea was eventually expanded to include traditional offerings of part and full time programs leading to a multitude of degrees.
Teresa Susmaras attended Suffolk University earning both a Masters and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.  With her Suffolk education as a backdrop, Susmaras now works as a clinical neuropsychologist at one of the largest medical facilities in Wisconsin.

Teresa Susmaras - What Is Wada Testing?

The Wada test, also referred as the intracarotid sodium amobarbital procedure (ISAP), was nicknamed after the first doctor to perform the procedure, Dr. Juhn Wada.  This test is carried out during an angiography and is used to assess the location of the language and memory functions of the brain.

During the test, each side of the brain is examined independently.  In most people, speech is controlled by the left side of the brain; with the Wada test, doctors can determine which side of the brain controls this function in each individual.  Memory is typically controlled by each side of the brain and the Wada test can show which side has a stronger memory.

The Wada test is completed while the patient is awake by injecting a barbiturate into one side of the brain at a time.  While injected, the two sides of the brain cannot communicate with one and other, enabling doctors to test each side of the brain independently for memory and language function.  Doctors use electroencephalography (EEG) to determine that the injected side of the brain has stopped functioning.  Once this has been confirmed, a neurologist can conduct neurological tests.  The Wada test is mainly used for epilepsy patients prior to surgery to determine which side of their brains are accountable for memory and speech functions.

As a neuropsychology resident at Rush University, Teresa Susmaras developed her interest in Wada testing while conducting the tests in the Behavioral Sciences Department.  Since then, Susmaras has continued to develop her expertise and interest in this procedure.

Teresa Susmaras Witnessed First-Hand the Violence of AntiSocial Behavior

Psychosocial counseling, a discipline for mental health practitioners in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy and School Counseling, is generally pursued after acquiring at least a Master’s degree in the field. Teresa Susmaras did volunteer work in the clinical setting of a domestic violence clinic, gaining hours toward her intern requirements and simultaneously gaining valuable first-hand experience with the manifestations of violent behavior.

Dysfunctions in personal and social behavior prompt humans to seek out help from psychologists specializing in the counseling arena. Psychosocial counselors work in many areas of human endeavor: government agencies, schools, therapy venues for individual and group therapies, and clinics specializing in substance abuse, anxiety disorders and other behavior and development issues. Emotional, social, educational and developmental behavior is the focus of the counselor attempting to bring his academic expertise to bear in the treatment of a multitude of human behavioral disorders.

Counselors may work with domestic violence survivors in a variety of positions: volunteering as did
Teresa Susmaras in pursuit of early experience in the mental health field, survivor shelter supervisor, as residential counselors who work with patients on a daily basis and offer counseling and support, and as mental health professionals in independent offices. Significant mental health facility experience earns hours toward a certification in the mental health field. Counseling experience can also advance one toward a higher degree and licensure in social work, psychology and other fields of endeavor. Dr. Teresa Susmaras complete a 40-hour certification program years ago, enabling her to provide counseling to domestic violence survivors.

​http://careersinpsychology.org​

Wada Test Normally Administered by Neuropsychologists like Teresa Susmaras

Teresa Susmaras and other neuropsychologists have noted side effects of the Wada test, administered prior to brain surgery.   Possible dramatic personality changes are possible, although a lack of inhibition is generally more common.  Shivering is a frequent effect.  During an injection into the left hemisphere, typically, the patient may experience impaired speech function including loss of understanding, although the ability to sing may still be present.  The recovery of speech after the medication dissipates may include errors in comprehension or expression.  The greatest risk may be in the insertion of the catheter into the internal carotid artery.  Scientists are currently searching for non-invasive alternatives, such as using fMRI, TMS, magnetoencephalography and a near-infrared spectroscopy.

The Wada test originated with a Canadian neurologist and epilepsy researcher, Juhn Atsushi Wada, from University of British Columbia.  While a medical resident in Japan during World War II, Wada researched a technique which decreased the cognitive side effects of electroconvulsive therapy.
Teresa Susmaras has studied dualism, or the dual brain theory.   First posited by Rene Descartes in the early 1600’s, dual brain theory holds that each hemisphere of the brain may perceive and react to the environment independently.  Further, one hemisphere may theoretically dominate the other as the result of emotional trauma, effectively protecting the traumatized hemisphere.  Dual brain theory rises from studies of epileptic patients who have undergone corpus callosum separation in an attempt to reduce seizures and their severity.  Studies with intact corpora callosa in healthy subjects have also indicated differing abilities and emotional reactions of the brain hemispheres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wada_test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_brain_theory

Teresa Susmaras - Magnetic Resonance Imaging Limitless in Its Possibilities

Magnetic resonance imaging is a testing process that makes images of organs and other interior body structures using a magnetic field. Bioinstrumentation specialists who are on the cutting edge of this technology maintain that the pictures provided to physicians by this technology give alternative information about the body interior than can be had with X-ray, ultrasound or tomography, or CT scan. Teresa Susmaras worked with brain imaging analysis at Suffolk University in Boston, as a doctoral candidate exploring the origins of impulse behavior in the brain, and knows that imaging technologies like MRI can reveal problems that cannot be detected with other methods such as X-ray and ultrasound.

In magnetic resonance imaging, the specific area of the body for study is placed in a special machine with a magnet. The digital images that are produced can be saved on computer, and reviewed remotely in operating rooms or clinics. Although Dr. Teresa Susmaras is not a trained radiologist, her research in the area of MRI, fMRI and DTI and classes such as functional neuroanatomy have made her quite familiar with human brain anatomy.

Tumors, bleeding, injury, blood vessel diseases, or infection can be imaged to give more information about the condition than can be seen on X-ray, ultrasound scan, or CT scan. Magnetic resonance imaging can also look at the brain to view tumors, an aneurysm, bleeding in the brain, nerve injury, and problems like damage caused by a stroke. The technology can also reveal conditions of the optic nerves and the eye, the ears and the auditory nerves. Magnetic resonance imaging can also be utilized to search for breast cancer which cannot be accurately detected and pinpointed through other image techniques.

The uses of MRI technology are virtually limitless.

Sources: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/magnetic-resonance-imaging
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Teresa Susmaras - In United States, Residents are Doctors in Training

A stage of graduate medical training for physicians, a resident like Teresa Susmaras who holds a Ph.D. also offer multiple other specialties of study. The definition of residency varies from country to country, whereas in the U.S. it is associated with the medical industry. Allied health professionals may also undergo training called a residency, like nurse practitioners and pharmacists.

The medical resident-in-training chooses his or her residency according to the medical degree specialty he or she has earned. Osteopathy degreed physicians will seek a residency at an osteopathic medical school, although an accredited physician may seek a residency in another specialty with the approval of an attending physician and the institution. Teresa Susmaras sought residency in the neuropsychology specialty.

Residency programs are available from university-affiliated facilities or community-based medical institutions. Many metropolitan medical institutions prefer to employ physicians / clinicians who have trained at university-based residencies, so it is important to keep one’s career goals in mind when choosing a residency program.

Degreed clinicians seeking a residency program need to research their preferred locations for application and interview information, compensation during the years of residency and the number of residencies available. It is also important to choose several different programs, and prepare to go through the selection process.

Teresa Susmaras chose her residency location carefully, considering the prestige of the medical facility, the learning opportunities available, and the specialty program with an eye to her future career. ‘Match’ day is when resident applicants and their rankings at institutions are revealed, and when new residents find out where they have been accepted to spend the years of their resident training.

Sources: http://healthcareers.about.com/od/medicalschooldoctors/a/MedResidency.htm
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Teresa Susmaras Listens, Informs, Educates as Domestic Abuse Counselor

Domestic abuse is the focus of a wider area of study in antisocial behavior, aggressive and impulsive compulsion, and neurological study and analysis of the brain. Teresa Susmaras volunteered in this field, and used her classroom study of mental health challenges to first assess the situation which the sufferer of abuse found him or herself in.

Counselors for abuse and violence victims are vital to helping them deal with the physical and emotional disorders left by the violence, and to supporting victims as they struggle to escape their situations and find the path to a healthy life. Teresa Susmaras’ counseling is done through a processing interview, where the extent of the abuse is evaluated. Such interviews generally involve a great deal of listening, allowing the sufferer to feel some control while vocalizing feelings and worries, and in the process beginning to trust the professional.

The domestic abuse counselor is also valuable as an educator, imparting information and background about domestic violence which the victim may not have understood or been unable to articulate logically. Vocalizing abuse facts and information to sufferers of abuse gives them an opportunity to view their situations from the vantage point of knowledge, rendering insight which they may not have been able to form inside the violence. As Teresa Susmaras worked with her client victims, primary goals were to help the sufferer understand that they were not at fault for the violence; to empower them; and to allow them to establish some independence. Receivers of abuse often need to find avenues of escape through their perceptions of hopelessness, and a view of life away from the abuser.

http://careersinpsychology.org