Advanced Course Speakers
Dara Albert, DO, MEd
Child Neurologist
Nationwide Children's Hospital
The Ohio State University
Dara Albert is a Child Neurologist and Epileptologist and Associate Professor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology. She is the Medical Director of a multidisciplinary Pediatric Functional Neurologic Disorder Seizure Clinic. The goal of the clinic is to help patients and families to move from diagnosis to treatment. She is engaged in clinical research on this topic and using quality improvement to improve clinical outcomes.
Selma Aybek, MD
Professor of Neurology
Consultant Neurologist
Fribourg University
Dr. Selma Aybek is Full Professor of Neurology at Fribourg University, Switzerland and Consultant Neurologist at Fribourg Hospital. She leads a research program dedicated to the understanding of the pathophysiology of Functional Neurological disorder. She is Chair of the Committee on Research of the American Neuropsychiatric Association, Founding member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society and Co-Chair of the CP Panel on FND of the European Academy of Neurology. With these roles, she aims to foster international collaboration in research and medical care of mind and brain disorders.
Alison Buchholz, PhD
Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine
Dr. Alison Buchholz is a clinical neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. While training in neuropsychology at Rush University Medical Center in 2016, Dr. Buchholz was introduced to working with patients with functional neurological symptom disorders (FND). In 2017, Dr. Buchholz returned (previously a research assistant) to Johns Hopkins to begin a three-year fellowship in neuropsychology and began to learn about what services were available to patients with FND at Johns Hopkins and to think about how we might improve such services. At the same time, Dr. Buchholz was invited by movement disorder neurologist Mark Hallett to become a founding member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society (FNDS), the first international society dedicated to FND. Since then, and particularly since joining the faculty here at Johns Hopkins in 2020, Dr. Buchholz has continued to work with colleagues at Johns Hopkins and worldwide on this mission of improving care for patients with FND, which has been informed by her activity in the FNDS, where she co-chairs and serves on several committees.
Guilhem Carle-Toulemonde, MD, MSc
Psychiatrist
Neuropsychiatry & consultation-liaison psychiatry
Saint-Exupery Clinic, France
Guilhem Carle-Toulemonde, MD, MSc, is a psychiatrist, specialized in neuropsychiatry and consultation-liaison psychiatry. Formerly at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris), he is currently in private practice in Toulouse. Since 2017, he has been focused on Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) and nociplastic pain. Exclusively treating patients with FND and/or chronic pain, combining neuromodulation, psychotherapeutic support, and multidisciplinary care coordination. Dr. Carle-Toulemonde is the Co-founder of FND France (2018), contributing to national practice guidelines, psychoeducational and multidisciplinary tools, training, and research. His clinical research interests: psychological and psychosomatic factors in FND, neurostimulation in FND. He has been a member of FNDS since its creation.
Alan Carson, MBChB, MPhil, MD, FRCPsych, FRCP
Consultant Neuropsychiatrist
Honorary Professor in Neuropsychiatry
NHS Lothian, University of Edinburgh
Prof Alan Carson works as a Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where he splits his time between a general neuropsychiatry service and running an acute brain injury service in South East Scotland. He is also an Honorary Professor in Neuropsychiatry based in Clinical Brain Science at the University of Edinburgh. The Functional Disorders Research group in Edinburgh, which he runs along with Jon Stone, and produced influential work on clinical phenotype, classification, epidemiology, and treatment.. He has published over 300 papers, but his favorite is getting a ‘Jackie style’ picture story into Practical Neurology. Along with Mark Hallett and Jon, he published the Handbook of Neurology- Functional Neurological Disorders (Elsevier 2016). This was followed by hosting the International Conference on Functional (Psychogenic) Neurological Disorders in Edinburgh, the profits from which were used to launch the Functional Neurological Disorder Society; he was president from 2022-24. He holds a number of advisory posts in neuropsychiatry. He is the associate editor of Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and was a previous President of the British Neuropsychiatry Association. He was awarded the President’s Medal of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2017 for work on functional neurological disorders, the 2025 BNPA medalist for work on brain injury, and visiting distinguished professor in neurology at the University of Toronto 2024 in recognition of work on cognition.
Erica Cotton, PsyD
Neuropsychologist
Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry
Northwestern University
Erica Cotton is a Board-Certified Neuropsychologist at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, with dual appointments as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry. She heads programs in Epilepsy & Movement Disorders (focused on peri-surgical neuropsychological evaluations and neurobehavioral interventions), and Functional Neurologic Disorders. She was awarded the ‘Gaps in Patient Care Research Award’ from the American Epilepsy Society in 2020 and is part of the Parkinson’s Study Group Functional Neurosurgery Neuropsychological Outcomes Task Force. She is a founding member of the international Functional Neurologic Disorders Society, currently serves as the FNDS Communications Committee Chair, and FND Society Podcast Host. She is the lead author on the Taking Control of Your Functional Cognitive Symptoms Workbook.
Barbara Dworetzky, MD
Professor of Neurology
Mass General Brigham
Harvard Medical School
Barbara Dworetzky, MD, FAAN, FANA, FAES is the A.J. Trustey Endowed Chair in Neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and former chief the Brigham Division of Epilepsy for the past 16 years. She completed her MD at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, neurology residency and epilepsy/clinical neurophysiology fellowships at Harvard Longwood. She has received awards for leadership, professionalism, mentorship, teaching, clinical skills, and has over 140 peer reviewed publications with her current academic focus in functional seizures (aka PNES). Dr. Dworetzky is the current president of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society (FNDS).
Beatrice Garcin, MD, PhD
Professor
FND Multidisciplinary Unit
Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Paris
Beatrice Garcin leads a multidisciplinary unit at Avicenne Hospital dedicated to the assessment and management of patients with Functional Neurological Disorders (FND). Her team includes two neurologists, one psychiatrist, three psychologists, two physiotherapists, a coordinating nurse, and a research project manager. The unit provides comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, patient education, and tailored treatment pathways in collaboration with community-based care providers. Dr. Garcin's research focuses on the semiology of FND, its overlap with other functional somatic syndromes, and treatment strategies for refractory cases. She coordinates Mag-FMD, a multicenter randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for motor FND. Raising awareness of FND is a key part of her work, both among healthcare professionals and the general public. She is actively involved in developing training programs and educational resources to improve early recognition, diagnosis, and multidisciplinary care of FND.
Gabriela Gilmour, MD, FRCPC
Movement Disorders Neurologist
Clinical Assistant Professor
University of Calgary
Gabriela Gilmour, MD FRCPC, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, where she is the program leader for the Functional Neurological Disorder Program. She has built the Functional Neurological Disorder Program as an integrated clinic, combining movement disorders neurology, and neuropsychiatry for patient assessment and treatment planning. She works closely with a skilled and motivated allied health team, providing rehabilitation services for patients with Functional Movement Disorder. In addition, she works as a movement disorders neurologist in the University of Calgary Movement Disorders Clinic and is an educator within the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Dr. Gilmour completed her medical school and neurology residency at the University of Calgary. She then went on to complete a fellowship in movement disorders with a focus on functional movement disorder at the University of Toronto. She has published work on Functional Neurological Disorder, with her recent work focusing on neuropsychiatric phenotypes of FMD, triage, and rehabilitation.
Izyan Helmi, MB, BCh, BAO
Consultant Neurologist
Hospital Tuanku Jaafar Seremban
Izyan Helmi, MB, BCh, graduated from University College Cork, Ireland, and began her medical career working in Ireland before pursuing specialist training in Internal Medicine and Neurology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She completed a fellowship in Movement Disorders and Functional Neurological Disorder under A/Prof Alex Lehn at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. Currently, Izyan is a Consultant Neurologist at Hospital Tuanku Jaafar, Malaysia, with clinical interests in Movement Disorders, Functional Neurological Disorder, and Deep Brain Stimulation.
Ingrid Hoeritzauer, MBBCh, PhD
Consultant Neurologist
NHS Lothian
University of Edinburgh
Ingrid Hoeritzauer is a full-time NHS consultant neurologist who is a principle of the Edinburgh research group alongside Jon Stone, Alan Carson, and Laura McWhirter. She has an NRS fellowship, a PhD, and not enough socks.
Alex Lehn, MD
Neurologist
Associate Professor
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Associate Professor Alexander Lehn attended medical school in Germany (Regensburg and Munich) and conducted his residency and basic physician training in the United Kingdom (Bristol) and Australia (Nambour and Brisbane). After a Fellowship in movement disorders at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (Brisbane, Australia), Dr. Lehn undertook a further Fellowship in movement disorders in Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. Dr. Lehn heads the movement disorder service at PA Hospital, and together with Dr. Sarah Olson, he runs the deep brain stimulation service at PA Hospital and Mater Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Lehn has a keen interest in Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) and, from 2015 to 2019, ran a dedicated clinic for Functional Neurological Disorders at Mater Hospital, Brisbane, the first such clinic in Australia. With his multidisciplinary team of health professionals, he runs regular teaching courses for FND in Brisbane and across Australia and has published extensively in this area.
Evan Lewis, MD, FRCPC, CSCN EEG Diplomate, CMLE, C-CAT(P)
Neurologist
Adjunct Assistant Professor
North Toronto Neurology
Dr. Evan Cole Lewis is an adult and pediatric neurologist with specialized training in epilepsy and pediatric neurology. He holds a clinical appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto. From 2016 to 2024, Dr. Lewis founded and led the Neurology Centre of Toronto. He also served as Vice President of Psychedelic Neurology at Numinus (2021–2024), where he advanced clinical care and research in medical cannabis and developed a psychedelic and ketamine-assisted therapy program for neurological conditions, publishing on its use for functional seizures. Currently practicing at North Toronto Neurology and Homeward Therapy, Dr. Lewis focuses on epilepsy, brain injury, concussion and post-concussion symptoms, functional neurological disorders—particularly functional seizures—and the therapeutic use of cannabis and psychedelics. As Clinical Director of Homeward Therapy, he oversees patient care within the PAT/KAT program. Dr. Lewis is credentialed as a medical-legal expert, with experience in over 50 formal cases, conducting independent medical examinations and producing evidence-based reports and testimony. He is a member of the Canadian Society of Medical Evaluators (CSME), holds Certification in Medical Legal Expertise (CMLE), and Determination of Catastrophic Impairment [C-CAT(P)]. He is also a member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society, the Canadian Childhood Cannabinoid Clinical Trials (C4T) group, and serves on the Expert Committee of the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society (MCCS). He advises the Medical Cannabis Working Group for Drug Science and MedCan UK.
Link to Publications: https://goo.gl/yLhvN1
Complete Bio: https://www.dr-lewis.ca/about
Sarah Lidstone, MD, PhD
Director of the Integrated Movement Disorders Program
Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Toronto
Dr. Sarah Lidstone is a movement disorders neurologist and the Director of the Integrated Movement Disorders Program at the Toronto Rehab Institute at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. She is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lidstone completed her residency in neurology and her fellowship in movement disorders at the University of Toronto. Prior to this, she completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, studying the placebo effect in Parkinson’s Disease. She is the Co-Chair of the Functional Neurological Disorders Society Education Committee. Her research focuses on developing and testing novel rehabilitation therapies using the integration of physical and mental health. She is an active speaker, giving keynote lectures, podcasts, and has recently given a TED talk, “It’s all in your head” about mind-body integration in medicine.
David Perez, MD, MMSc
Associate Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Mass General Brigham Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry
David L. Perez, MD, MMSc, FAAN, FANPA, FAPA, FANA, is board-certified in Neurology, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry, and is a full-time faculty member in the Mass General Brigham Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry. Dr. Perez is the Chief of the Mass General Brigham Division of Behavioral Neurology. He is also the Founding Director of the multidisciplinary Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) Unit and FND Research Group. Dr. Perez has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles - the majority in the fields of functional neurological disorder, brain imaging research, and behavioral neurology & neuropsychiatry. He has co-edited several special issues on functional neurological disorder and a 32-chapter Springer Functional Movement Disorder textbook. Dr. Perez is also affiliated with the MGH/HST Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.
Chrisma Pretorius, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Stellenbosch University
Associate Professor Chrisma Pretorius is an academic in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University and holds a PhD from the University of the Free State (2011). She is dually registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as both a neuropsychologist and counselling psychologist. Her research focuses on the social and psychological impact of chronic illnesses on patients, families, and society, with an emphasis on reducing the associated disability and stigma. She is interested in conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Dementia, Epilepsy and particularly Functional Seizures. For over a decade, Prof. Pretorius has served as the African representative on the Functional/Dissociative Seizures Taskforce of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), contributing to international efforts to improve diagnosis, management, and understanding of functional seizures. She is also actively engaged in national and global professional networks, including the South African Clinical Neuropsychological Association, the South African Academy for Science and Arts, and as a founding member of the International Functional Neurological Disorder Society (FNDS), where she serves on the Communications Committee as the African social media ambassador. In 2021, she joined the IR-Epil Consortium (International Research in Epilepsy), strengthening her collaboration with global researchers in the field. Since 2018, she has also served on the editorial board of the African Journal of Disability.
Yury Seliverstov, MD, PhD
Neurologist
Clinical Researcher
University Clinic of Ulm
Dr. Yury Seliverstov is a neurologist and clinical researcher at the University Clinic of Ulm (Germany). His work focuses on movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, functional neurological disorders, and botulinum toxin therapy. He is actively involved in several clinical trials in Huntington disease and contributes to the observational studies Enroll-HD and HDClarity. Dr. Seliverstov serves on the Steering Committee of the MDS Pediatric Special Interest Group, is a member of the EAN Movement Disorder Scientific Panel, and serves on the Educational Committee of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society. He previously served two terms on the MDS-ES Educational Committee and co-directed the MDS-ES Affiliate & National Society Video Case Discussion Series.
Jeffrey Staab, MD, MS
Professor and Chair
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology
Mayo Clinic
Jeffrey P. Staab, MD, MS, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology and holds a joint appointment as a Consultant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. He and his colleagues in the Behavioral Medicine Program evaluate and treat more than 1500 patients each year who have psychosomatic medical problems, including functional neurologic, neuro-otologic, and GI disorders, and cancer, cardiac, and gender distress. His research centers on problems at the interface of neurology, otology, and psychiatry. Dr. Staab received a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh, and Master of Science in bioengineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center followed by a fellowship in traumatic stress disorders at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, both in Bethesda, Maryland. After finishing active service in the U. S. Navy Medical Corps, he was a member of the faculties of the University of Florida and University of Pennsylvania before being recruited to Mayo Clinic in 2008. Dr. Staab is author or co-author of more than 150 scientific articles, reviews, chapters, and abstracts. He has served on editorial boards of six scientific journals in psychosomatic medicine and otorhinolaryngology and holds or has held leadership positions in three national and international professional societies.
Jon Stone, MB, ChB, FRCP, PhD
Professor of Neurology
FNDS President Elect
University of Edinburgh
Professor Jon Stone is Professor of Neurology at the University of Edinburgh. Since 1999, Jon, along with his colleague Alan Carson, has promoted a new transparent, pragmatic, and multidisciplinary approach to FND, which had been a neglected and stigmatized problem. In 2009, he made the first website (and now app), the Neurosymptoms FND guide, for people with FND at www.neurosymptoms.org, which is now widely used across the world. He has published over 400 articles in the area, including large cohort, mechanism, and treatment studies. and led on new international diagnostic criteria for FND. He is currently President-Elect of the international FND Society (www.fndsociety.org) and has received a number of awards, including the Presidents Medal from the Royal College of Psychiatry and the Ted Burns Humanism in Neurology Award from the American Brain Foundation
Weblinks
www.neurosymptoms.org;
www.fndsociety.org;
https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-jon-stone;
Bluesky/x: @jonstoneneuro
Email: Jon.Stone@ed.ac.uk
Michele Tinazzi, MD, PhD
Chief of Neurology
Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement
University of Verona
Michele Tinazzi is a full professor in Neurology, at the Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona, Italy. He is director of the Neurological Unit and of the Parkinson’s disease (PD) and movement disorders Unit, coordinator of the specialty training in Neurology, and president of Società LIMPE-DISMOV (Italian Society of Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders). He took his specialization in Neurology and PhD in Neuroscience. After that, he further specialized on movement disorders by leading researches focused on the neurophysiological correlates of sensorimotor system, as medical fellow at the Functional Neurophysiology Clinic, Lyon, France and as visiting Professor at the Institute of Neurology, London, UK. From 2011 to 2015 I was the Coordinator of PhD Course in Neuroscience at the University of Verona. He also further specialized in functional motor disorders by attending a period at the Neurological Institute of Saint George’s University, London, UK, as visiting Professor. His work has focused on clinical and pathophysiological aspects of non-motor symptoms (i.e. pain) in PD, of axial postural abnormalities in PD, drug-induced parkinsonism, dystonia, and functional motor disorders. He is author or co-Author of 380 publications in international journals, with a H-Index Scopus: 64
Gang Wang, MD, PhD
Professor, Attending Neurologist
Chair of the Department of Neurology
Renji Hospital affiliated Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Gang Wang, MD., PhD., is a professor and attending neurologist. He serves as Chair of the Department of Neurology at Renji Hospital, affiliated Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His expertise and Research Area is Neurodegenerative disease and Functional neurological disorders. He serves as associate editor for the following Editorial Boards: Journal of Alzheimer’s disease, Frontier in Aging Neuroscience, and Human Brain. He also serves as an Editorial Board member for Gene & Disease.