Paula Norris Mestayer
Paula Norris Mestayer, M.Ed., LPC, FAPA, is the groundbreaking therapist who pioneered the development of American protocols for utilizing NAD+ to effectively treat addiction—with minimal withdrawal symptoms and without substituting another narcotic. The founder of Springfield Wellness Center, she has helped thousands of people successfully break the rehab/relapse cycle.
Mestayer was an educator for 11 years after graduating from LSU in 1969. She completed graduate degrees in education and independent study in psychotherapy from Tulane University before taking her clinical internship at the Manhattan Children’s Psychiatric Hospital. She has devoted her professional life to helping patients deal effectively with a wide variety of sub-acute psycho-physiological conditions, including panic and anxiety disorders, chronic and acute stress, depression and bereavement, alcohol and substance abuse, and marital and family challenges. For 22 years she was a consultant at Ochsner Foundation Hospital with the Behavioral Health and Addiction Treatment Units. Concurrently, 11 of those years she was the director of a private nonprofit residential program for abused and neglected children. Since 1980, her private practice has focused on sub-acute patients with psycho-physiological, panic/anxiety, affective and character disorders, alcohol/substance abuse, weight and stress management, and marital and family problems.
In 2001, she founded an outpatient clinic providing services for the treatment of chemical dependency and acute stress utilizing NAD+ intravenous infusions, which then led to the development of BR+ NAD at Springfield Wellness Center. She is experienced in the use of psychotherapy with an eclectic orientation in both acute and sub-acute psychiatric settings, including an open unit of a hospital psychiatric unit and a variety of residential and non-residential treatment programs. She has applied her expertise in mind-body psychotherapy using cognitive, emotive, and behavioral models in both individual and group sessions for interventions in stress management, post-traumatic stress, and grief. She also possesses expertise in patient treatment and delivery of BR+ NAD detoxification from chemical dependency, which she introduced to the U.S. In fact, she has been administering BR+ NAD IV treatment longer than anyone in the United States. She continues to engage in research into the uses of NAD+ in delivery of Brain Restoration+ protocols.
Paula Norris Mestayer is a licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), a Fellow of the American Psychotherapy Association (FAPA), and a member of the American Counseling Association and the Louisiana Counseling Association. She was certified by the International Society of Clinical Hypnosis, The New Orleans Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the PAIRS Foundation for Marital Family Therapy and the ADTR-Creative Arts Therapy.
Norris’ papers and presentations include “Clinical Trials of Neurotransmission Restoration” at the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Educators (CAADE), Costa Mesa, CA, April 2008; “Amino Acid-based Nutritional Supplementation Facilitates Abrupt Cessation (‘Stopping Cold Turkey’) of Substance Use By Addiction Patients. Reduction of Withdrawal Symptoms With Minimal Abuse Potential” at the Society for Neuroscience Conference, Washington, D.C., November 2008; and “Intravenous Administration of NAD Significantly Reduces Self-Reported Cravings Routinely Associated with Opiate and Alcohol Withdrawal” at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, D.C., November 2014. “Intravenous Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide and Clinical Applications” on December 16, 2018, Empower Health USA in Nashville, TN. Annual NAD Summit in San Diego, CA, January 26, 2018: “Dark Night of the Soul.” Louisiana Association of Substance Abuse Counselors & Trainers (LASACT) conference July 29, 2018: “The NAD Story.” Hammond Rotary Club, January 29, 2020: “What is NAD and what does it do?” Terrell Conference for Mental Health Practitioners, Southeastern Louisiana University January 9, 2020: The Role of NAD and Compassionate Patient Care in the Health Care Industry.