Sophia Paparodis

By artfully integrating state-of-the-art practices, insight and humor, Sophia offers rich supportive ground for your personal work. Sophia Paparodis has been in private practice since 1994 as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She is also a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator through UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, Certified as a Certified Distance Counselor and is a seasoned practitioner in EMDR. Sophia counsels individuals and provides consultation and design for practices that promote well-being. She refers to herself as a Minddhist© humorously since she is devoted to secular mindful practices with admiration for Buddhist and the researchers who have illuminated our reflective brain.

What if mental health is brain health?

Mental and physical health researchers have found there are considerable health benefits from meditation and other mindful practices. Mindfulness can be defined as -being in the present moment with a sense of curiosity, acceptance and willingness to be with ‘what is’. This may be in stark contrast to how most of us experience life. We may experience life primarily from our survival instinct leading to the feeling of being out of control, even anxious or depressed These states of mind are in fact brain states. Surprisingly, we can change them.Through mindful attention we create new connections rewiring our brain and the patterns of familiar thoughts begin to evolve becoming healthier.The brain is more plastic than we imagined. Initially we experience happier states. Rather than perceptions dominated by our fight-flight-flee reactive state of mind we can increase our happiness and increase the quality of our life. The practice of present moment awareness with curiosity, acceptance and the willingness to be with what is over time markedly improves our health and well-being. We become more comfortable in our own skin.