Successful Private Practice in Neuropsychology and Neuro-Rehabilitation

Dr. Mary Pepping is a board certified neuropsychologist with 33 years of experience evaluating and treating working-age people and older adolescents with various forms of acquired brain injury. These include people with traumatic brain injury, brain tumor, stroke, multiple sclerosis, anoxic injuries, residual effects of neurological conditions such as meningitis, encephalitis, Huntington Disease, early-onset Parkinson disease, lupus, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and various forms of dementia. Dr. Pepping has long-standing involvement in neuro-rehabilitation of these populations of individuals. This includes an emphasis on detailed neuropsychological evaluations as a foundation for treatment, cognitive rehabilitation and psychotherapy in a milieu model context, and the role and functions of interdisciplinary teams to achieve good outcomes.

With her PhD in Clinical Psychology completed 1981 from Washington State University she went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. After fellowship she spent six years in the Section of Neuropsychology, Department of Neurosurgery, at HCA Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City, OK, directing the milieu-based treatment program there in her final two years. This was followed by a return to Seattle to work for five years in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at Virginia Mason Medical Center, continuing with evaluation, treatment and clinical research.

After a subsequent six years in private practice, Dr. Pepping was recruited by the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington Medical Center to serve for 14 years as Director of their Neuropsychology Service and outpatient interdisciplinary Neuro-Rehabilitation Program. Her years at the University of Washington School of Medicine gave her additional opportunities to provide teaching and training to interns, residents, fellows and practicum students from a range of disciplines, as well as shared research and scholarly writing projects with interdisciplinary colleagues. These fields included clinical psychology, neuropsychology, rehabilitation psychology, rehabilitation medicine, psychiatry, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, vocational rehabilitation and cognitive neurosciences.

With retirement from direct clinical practice in July 2013, Dr. Pepping shifted to Professor Emeritus within her department to create more time for scholarly writing, research and a return to a private consultation practice.