About Jodean
Jodean Petersen
Jodean Petersen is the Clinical Administrator at the Institute for Nerve Medicine, and senior applications specialist for the Neurography Institute in Santa Monica, California. Jodean has been with NeuroGrafix, the parent company to both medical practices, since May of 2000. Jodean has worked closely with the inventor of the MR Neurography and a variety of surgical techniques, Aaron Filler, MD, Ph.D. since 1997 being first employed at UCLA. At the Institute for Nerve Medicine, Jodean speaks with neurosurgical patients from all over the world seeking specialized surgical treatment providing a one on one level of understanding and empathy for what they are going through.
Her first book, The Phoenix Bearing Pearls: A True Story of Triumph Over Abuse Loss Addiction and Self-Destruction will be available August 19, 2013.
She is a featured contributor to “Is She Naturally Slim, or Disciplined?” Academic publication: Filler AG, Haynes JA. Sciatica of non-disc origin. Journal of Neurosurgery, Spine 2: 99-115, (2005)
Blogs: http://chicgalleria.com/2012/04/wednesday-soup-kale-white-bean-soup/
Many surgery patients seek Jodean’s advice based on her knowledge and personal experiences of having more than 20 surgeries herself. Happy to help others in need the Institute for Nerve Medicine gives Jodean many opportunities to give back to the medical community which helped her overcome much personal strife. Most of the challenges in Jodean’s life were brought about suddenly from a severe car crash when Jodean lost her best friend Martha, most of her blood supply, part of her left cheek bone and her left eye. Martha passed away in the car accident very brutally she is still missed by many.
After the accident Jodean spent years having plastic surgery to rebuild the left side of her face left eye socket and her spirit. Plastic surgery and many fittings for prosthetic eyes was a difficult and worn road Jodean traveled down resulting in years of deep depression. The depression led to drug use and later compulsive behavior. Jodean battled bulimia and compulsive self abuse for many years along with post traumatic stress disorder reliving the most intense feelings, sights, sounds and smells of the accident. Unable to settle for only surviving each day, Jodean sought therapy to improve her life and boldly explored the idea of making her dreams of living with out the compulsive disorders come true.
Jodean worked hard in therapy digging through the past to understand the guilt and grief and put it away. Remarkably, Jodean has been able to completely recover from the compulsive behaviors and amicably work through depression to find her real mission and happiness. A philosophy has developed for Jodean where loss had to be understood, accepted and put into a different frame: it is not what we have lost, but what we can find. Jodean has an amazing understanding of the human plight and spirit and believes everyone can meet positive goals in their lives with hard work, passion and help. Jodean has been grateful to all who have helped her along the way and created her book and her website as a resource for anyone who needs help with the struggles life dishes out to all of us. She continues to improve at being well and living well and has indeed achieved her dreams to be free and live her life with the same opportunities as everyone else. She lives her life with meaning and means to live her life.
