“I work in order to support the success and health of my family, friends, colleagues, and clients.”
About Dr. Brassington:
He is a tenured Professor in the Psychology Department at Sonoma State University and a Lecturer in the Continuing Studies Program at Stanford University. He is a behavioral science consultant to biotechnology corporations and a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Los Altos, CA. Dr. Brassington has a B.A. in Humanities (St. Joseph’s College), a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (University of Missouri-Columbia), a Behavioral Medicine Internship (Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital), and a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Health Promotion, Disease Prevention, and Biostatistics (Stanford University). He was a member of the Adjunct Clinical Faculty in the Stanford School of Medicine for 7 years. Dr. Brassington has 25 years of experience in health, performance, and innovation psychology as a practitioner, teachers, and behavioral scientist. On a personal note, Dr. Brassington was born in Sydney Australia. He was a nationally ranked tennis player in Australia and a member of the Australian Junior Davis Cup team. He has fond memories of often playing tennis as an adolescent with Australian tennis great Ken Rosewall at the home of John Newcome. At the age of 16, Dr. Brassington came to the United States to attend University on a tennis scholarship. At the age of 18, after playing several professional tennis tournaments, he retired from competitive tennis to attend a private college and focus full-time on academic studies. Below are examples of his work and scientific publications in the areas of health, performance, innovation, and related areas of psychology. Curriculum Vita (PDF)
Health Psychology:
Dr. Brassington began helping people improve their health as a personal fitness trainer and tennis professional in the early 1990’s. He read extensively about fitness and nutrition and worked with clients with what he calls a “trial and error” approach to supporting health behavior change. Although achieving some impressive results in the area of weight loss, increased fitness, and overall well-being, Dr. Brassington decided to pursue a more scientific approach to supporting behavior change in order to improve his effectiveness. To do this, he entered graduate training in clinical health psychology. He learned about the science of health behavior change under the supervision of licensed psychologists and working with patients in clinics specializing in the treatment of obesity, chronic pain, mood/anxiety disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, sexual problems, sleep disorders, and stress linked medical problems. Dr. Brassington has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers in journals such as Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Health Psychology, and the Handbook of Health Psychology. He currently teaches courses at both Stanford University and Sonoma State University on Health Psychology, Psychology of the Body, and Sleep. Dr. Brassington has seen the very positive effects of psychological strategies (e.g., social support, confidence building, modeling, and changing environments) on adherence to exercise, healthy eating, and sleep improvement programs. learn more
Sport/Performance Psychology:
At the age of 16, Dr. Brassington began learning mental training/sport psychology techniques from his mentor the famous sport psychologist Dr. Bruce Ogilive. He was fortunate to do what became a 20 years apprenticeship with Dr. Ogilvie as he worked with NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and Olympic athletes as well as performing artists (i.e., opera, symphony, dance). He learned a scientific approach for creating motivation, focus, positive emotions and a physically relaxed state during competition. Through mental training, Dr. Brassington teaches athletes to create the optimal physiological state for performance on demand in the heat of competition (what many athletes call ‘The Zone’). He teaches strategies such as goal setting, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, imagery, cognitive scripting, and performance routines to enhance performance. Through extensive research, he developed an assessment of athletes’ mental strengths that is being used by many sport/performance psychologists around the United States as part of a psychological assessment of athletes being considered for professional teams. He teaches a very popular course at Stanford entitled: Excellence Is No Accident: Mental Training for Work, Sport, and Life and recently published a book chapter on Sleep and Performance in the Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology. Dr. Brassington has found that with practice, people can improve their performance and sustain behavior change by improving their ability to regulate their focus, emotions, and body tension under increasing levels of competitive pressure found in modern work, sport, and life. learn more
Eastern Mind/Body Psychology:
Dr. Brassington has been practicing Eastern mind/body forms of exercise and personal development for the past 30. He began studying several styles of Yoga (e.g., Hatha and Raja) when they were considered by some to be esoteric cult like practices. He is a 25-year practitioner and student of Aikido, Yoga/flexibility training, Tai Chi, and Qigong. He teaches these practices in his health and performance psychology courses both at Stanford and Sonoma State Universities. In terms of research, Dr. Brassington was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the School of Medicine at Stanford University (funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) where he was involved in outcome research on a number of mind/body oriented interventions to promote mental and physical health. He believes that practicing mind/body techniques derived from these Eastern practices can greatly support health behavior change, performance, and improve overall well-being.
Western Mind/Body Psychology:
Dr. Brassington has extensive experience and training in Western forms of physical activity, nutritional science, and sleep medicine as a researcher, Post-doctoral Fellow and Adjunct Clinical Professor at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. He has collaborated on numerous physical activity studies involving maximal exercise testing, body composition, and flexibility assessment. These studies involved the prescription of strength, aerobic, and flexibility training as well as extensive psychological support for exercise and diet adherence and injury prevention. Dr. Brassington recently led a 6-month Stanford group intervention for weight loss to test the effectiveness of adding a treatment for insomnia to a traditional weight loss program of diet and exercise. He also teaches a very popular sleep improvement course called Power Sleep as part of the Stanford Health Improvement Program.
Innovation:
Dr. Brassington has extensive experience with technology supported health behavior change programs. Programs that utilize web portals, mobile devices, and monitors that capture and provide feedback to people about their physical activity (e.g., pedometers/accelerometers), stress (e.g., heart rate/HRV), nutrition (e.g., food logging), and sleep (e.g., nighttime brain waves). Dr. Brassington has also helped design products that leverage the power of online social networks to increase the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors associated with weight loss and maintenance. He has helps executives and engineers from Silicon Valley companies (e.g., Apple, Roche, HP) apply the principles and research finding from sport/performance psychology to create sustain high performance and innovative product design, user experiences, and development teams. learn more
Philosophy
Dr. Brassington believes that his clients have within themselves the resources they need to improve their health, overall well-being, and performance under extreme pressures of modern society. He believes that the mind and body are intimately connected. Whatever happens in the mind has a direct effect on the body and vice versa. He believes that each client deserves the best possible services he can provide. He sees himself as a performers as well. Therefore, when Dr. Brassington’s clients succeed, he succeeds. The Enzo logo on this website symbolizes both the interconnectedness of the mind and body and the potential for wholeness and success in his clients. There is not better pleasure in life for Dr. Brassington than to see his family, friend, colleagues, and clients live health, happy, and successful lives.
Dr. Brassington has provided consultation and training to individuals, groups, and teams from institutions and companies such as Stanford, Roche, HP, Google, Facebook, Cisco, and Apple.
Testimonials:
“I am a 63 year old golfer and Dr. Brassington’s Mental Training Program causes me to cut 5 strokes off my game. I shot under 75 for the first time in many many years.”
“The control I gained over my emotions is what got me and my team a National Championship.”
“Dr. Brassington helped me get over my fear of public speaking. I attribute my new promotion to the confidence I gained from working with him.”
“For many years I tried to find a balance between work, family, and health. Working with Dr. Brassington gave me the tools to feel really healthy and happy with my self. I am very grateful to him for this gift.”
“Dr. Brassington has worked with my team for many seasons, and I have noted an improvement in the teams attitude and performance every year. I attribute a lot of our success to the way he motivates everyone he works with.”
“I spent 10 session with Dr. Brassington and my grades improved, I sleep better, and life is more fun again.”
“I lost 40 pounds working with Dr. Brassington for 4 months. His kind and supportive approach was what I needed to change. I feel like a new person. I have been using the strategies he taught me to feel good and control my eating.”
Dr. Brassington taught me how to master my anxiety and stay focused during auditions. He helped me reach my dreams of becoming a professional musician. I am playing cello at a level I never thought possible, and I love my work.