Consistently Create Powerful
Client Breakthroughs
Join Body=Brain and tap into the latest research in applied neurobiology
Discover how client breakthroughs really happen…
and how you can leverage embodied learning to create them nearly every time
An invitation to:
- Coaches
- Leadership & OD consultants
- Therapists
- Educators
- Yoga teachers
- Bodyworkers…
…to join the Body = Brain Virtual Salon, and take the mystery out of your modality so you can help more people, more consistently.
Your work offers a tremendous gift: the opportunity to help people make profound positive change in their lives. When it goes well, it’s magical. You see that recognition in your client’s eyes — that soul satisfying, deep inner knowing. It’s what lasting learning looks like. Valuable change takes place. Life tangibly improves. But, um…it doesn’t always go that way, right? It happens. Clients get stuck. It frustrates them, and frustrates you even more. Especially when they resist — even though you know (and so do they) that the methods you’re offering are incredibly powerful. Do you ever ask yourself why it’s challenging? Or wonder what’s getting in the way? You see possibilities they’re unable to grasp for themselves. How do you bridge the gap? You’re good at what you do and you long to make a bigger difference. You know you can. How do you help more people realize the change they desperately want? Do you ever wonder what’s missing? The missing piece is this: no matter what modality you’ve trained in, the underlying principles can seem hidden or mysterious. You practice what you’ve been taught. But, until you embody the learning, and make it yours, it’s hard to consistently reproduce the extraordinary transformational experiences you’ve been trained to create. When you learn the principles that link body, brain, and behavior – you develop a deeper, in-your-bones understanding so it all becomes clear in a new way: Body = Brain is the course where you’ll learn how to put these powerful new insights into a simple, useable framework. Connect the dots between embodied practice and social and emotional intelligence… and help your clients achieve remarkable breakthroughs in their lives and in their work. You’ll develop hands-on tools you’ll use to: Sharpening your own saw and staying current on the fast and furious pace of research in applied neurobiology allows you to step even more boldly into what is yours to do. It grows your impact and enhances your reputation… all in service to building your practice while helping people transform their lives. I’m Dr. Amanda Blake, your host and “Lead Learner” in our Virtual Salon. Full disclosure: I actually originally created this course for myself. After having my life turned upside down in the most positive of all possible ways by an in-depth adventure in embodied learning, I wanted to understand what the heck had happened. After an exhaustive search I couldn’t find a single program that offered the learning I wanted at the nexus of science, somatic learning, and leadership. It was in my quest for that learning that this course was born. This course is amazing! Body = Brain integrates current advances in neuroscience with cutting-edge applications of somatics in a way that will deepen the discourse in leadership development circles. Clear articulation of the nature and value of body-oriented learning allowed each participant to see possibilities in their own working environment and to come away with practical applications for day-to-day work and life. Body = Brain articulates a coherent and pragmatic synthesis of the new brain science and the field of human development. Anyone involved in designing and facilitating learning should understand how learning happens at a biological level. This elegant course provides a foundation. What I learned equipped me with practical tools for working with clients while being very healing and nourishing on a personal level. Highly practical, extremely fascinating, and well-designed, this course provides a clear path through the maze of information on the body and brain. Body = Brain synthesizes the snowballing surge of research on the mind-body connection into a clear, coherent framework for facilitating learning. Once you “own” this material , it’s like you’ve got new superpowers you can use on behalf of your clients (and yourself!). The fundamental “you” of you is both embedded in and expressed by your physical self: your gestures, your comportment, your actions, and your habits. We’ll explore this reality and why working with the body is absolutely essential to any kind of transformational, behavioral, or developmental learning. Your intelligence goes way beyond your brain. In fact, your entire body is your brain. In this module you’ll learn how you already think with your whole self, why your body is your social and emotional sense organ, and how to leverage embodied intelligence to help clients “think smarter” in everything they do. We’ll explore the six essential elements of neuroplasticity — the basic building blocks that support lasting, transformative change. You’ll learn how each operates and how to apply each one to your work using the DREAM Practice model. These tools help you support your clients to truly embody more effective approaches to their challenges. My challenge has been convincing executives around the merit of practice. Most of them don’t even want to talk about what they are feeling. But now I have theory to back the veracity of the practices I have been offering to my clients. I consider your course one of the best uses of my time, and one of my all-time favorites! I have no doubt the things I learned from Amanda in Body=Brain have made me a much more effective coach. Amanda is a delightful teacher and in this program she has mapped out one of the best articulations of the change process I have ever seen, all supported by robust science. And the great thing is you’ll learn practical ways to apply it with your clients. I took Body = Brain three times. That is a testament to how valuable it is. Mandy does an amazing job of thoroughly and painstakingly laying out the process of how we learn and how we change. It makes it so much easier for me to stand in front of a group of MBA students and make claims about why centering and mood are essential to leadership. Developing new social and emotional skills relies on the same non-cognitive, body-oriented, biological process we explore in Part 1. Part 2 becomes a rich learning laboratory where you can experiment and apply simple neurobiological principles and powerful experiential practices that create lasting breakthroughs. Self awareness is the foundation of social and emotional intelligence. Did you know there are two kinds of self awareness? Embodied self awareness happens along different neural pathways than conceptual self awareness. Research shows it heavily impacts decision making, intuition, and commitment. If your work touches on transitions, strategic direction, or making tough choices, here’s where you’ll develop a whole new set of tools to support your clients in taking purposeful action. The qualities you embody have a huge impact on your success and satisfaction in life. Do you – or your clients – embody the capacity for resilience, courageous action, grace under pressure, and the ability to take a strong and principled stand? This month we’ll explore how emotional regulation actually happens, and how you can leverage that understanding to build genuine resilience. These are essential skills for leaders, teams, communities, and families: These are learned skills, and sometimes our lessons have been spotty. Discover what it takes to embody the direct, grounded, credible, and trustworthy communication that the most inspiring among us share. We complete the course with an overview of all of the big-picture ideas, from start to finish. Invariably, people are shocked by how much they have learned in six short months, how much their self-compassion and their understanding of others has expanded, and how deeply touched and inspired they are. I love every single one of our sessions, but this one always brings tears to my eyes! A while back, I read an article about a yoga teacher who was struggling to bring her work to wounded war veterans. She knew what a gift yoga could be to returning soldiers, and yet the Veterans Administration was proving a hard sell. The article brought tears to my eyes. And it made me long for a day when what seems so obvious to me becomes obvious in the farthest corners of the world: embodied learning is one of the most transformative, most valuable, most healing forces on the planet. This course is for that yoga teacher. But more importantly, it’s for all the veterans that I trust she will one day reach. And, it’s for you – and for all of the people you work with everyday – who will be profoundly impacted by the power of embodied learning. Because when practitioners are empowered to bring this cutting-edge approach into their own work, meaningful change just naturally emerges. There’s another reason I created this course. Before it was published, my colleagues were insistently asking for information about my book, Your Body Is Your Brain. I couldn’t seem to write fast enough to satisfy their eager curiosity, so I turned to talking to them by phone instead. And thus, Body = Brain was born. It’s been both a delight and a geeky obsession to build it for them and for you. Thus began my fascination with the human body, and so far it hasn’t let up. That fascination led to a degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, some pretty cool experiences competing for the US as a synchronized swimmer, and my own journey of embodied learning, which took me farther along the path of personal development than any of my previous accomplishments combined. Pile on top of that years of intensive study in somatic leadership development and psychobiological science, and you could say that I know the body inside and out. Plus, as a certified Master Somatic Coach with over two decades of yoga practice under my belt – and now as a researcher studying the role of the body in leadership development – I have a fervent desire to see the power and value of embodiment spread more widely in our society. I have witnessed time and again that as people become more deeply embodied, they also become kinder to themselves and others, more committed to what matters to them, and better equipped to take action that serves the world. My intent is for this course to support the leaders of this sorely needed transformation with the scientific grounding they need to reach more people and make a bigger impact. The Content: Bi-Monthly Learning & Discovery This part of the course is “self-serve,” so you can listen when it’s convenient for you. The content of these lessons will give you necessary background (and eye-opening insights!) that we’ll discuss on our community calls. Deepening: Bi-Monthly Conversations & Questions Note: In the 2022 self-study version of the course, you will receive recordings of the calls from a prior year. No live calls means a savings to you of $1000! This year only. Going Even Deeper: Learning with Partners If partnering doesn’t fit your schedule or your learning style, no problem. You’re free to opt out — it’s an added benefit, not an obligation. Get More and Give More to Your Peers Online: Join the Body=Brain online community and engage in the online conversation as much or as little as you would like. It’s a rich and generous community and participation is strongly encouraged! Mentoring: Mentoring calls are done via video conference. I’m able to demonstrate embodied practices, and we can get to know one another in a more intimate way. If you can’t access video conferencing or prefer not to, no worries, we’ll use a voice-only option. Get your name on the list to be notified when it reopens. At the beginning of each call, I lead a short practice to help you experience your body in a new way, tied to that session’s materials. Before the course begins, you’ll also be sent a specific body-oriented attention practice that you can use throughout the course and beyond. And as we talk through people’s questions on the call, I often lead other short practices with an individual or the whole group that will help you experience yourself in a new way. Not a problem. If you’re not available, or participating live is not your style, you can still get incredible benefit from the course - I designed it that way intentionally. Every call is recorded and sent out the following day. You can send in questions prior to any call and we’ll answer them, whether you’re there or not. You can connect with your community by participating in the online forum at any time of day. Some intrepid early bird / night owl types in Asia dial in for the calls at 2, 3, and 4 in the morning. (WOW!) But many have participated wholeheartedly in the program without ever attending a single call, and they offer the same kinds of rave reviews as the people who attend live. I think this unsolicited comment from one participant – a poet who has now been through the course three times – says it all: “In the time I have taken your course, I have gone from science-averse to wishing I had studied it more. Each time I listen to you something is revealed to me that makes me excited for the work I am doing. I think that this is truly the grounding I have been yearning for.” Body=Brain provides a clear and coherent framework you can use to navigate the massive explosion of research about body and brain. Here’s what one PhD-level therapist who’s well-steeped in this field has to say: “I was familiar with about 85% of what you were talking about. But your unique way of integrating the material was so valuable. It gave me a coherent way to speak about a lot of the things that I was already incorporating anyway.” Believe me, I get it (oh, if you only knew!). Sometimes you make a choice with the best of intentions, and then life goes a bit sideways for a while. Rest assured – you have the entire six months of the course to capture, download, and bookmark any materials you might want to keep and go back through later on. I am committed to making Body = Brain as valuable as possible. If in the first 30 days you discover the program is not for you, I’ll cheerfully refund your purchase price less a $100 processing fee. This is a powerful course, and I want you to be here when it’s right for you. If you still have questions, wonder if it’s a fit for you, have questions about timing or anything else, email support@embright.org, and we’ll get ’em answered. Probably next year... but in all honesty, I don’t know. I have long-held plans to change the format of the course, so I can’t promise I will teach it again in this configuration or at this price. I'm also neck-deep in my own research right now, so there's a chance I'll decide to take a break from teaching for a year or two. While I plan to continue offering Body = Brain long into the future, it is altogether possible that this course is the last opportunity you will have to take the course with this much personal attention from me. I want you to be aware of this so you can factor it into your own decision making process. Short answer: if you feel strongly drawn to this course, there's no time like the present. And this moment will never come again. Great question. I’ve deliberately created Body=Brain using a variety of learning modalities. The course combines phone and video-based live conference calls, recorded audio & video, supplemental reading, worksheets and exercises, partnering in a small group, and an online community. There are many different ways of engaging with the learning, whether you are a visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or conversational learner. You can navigate the course in whatever way suits your learning style. One big advantage of a distance-learning approach is that you have the opportunity to connect with like-minded people from all over the world in a way that works easily with your schedule. Expect to invest 2-3 hours over each two week period. If you choose to work in a small group, add one more hour. It looks like this. Every two weeks: … plus any time you want to spend in the online community. Essentially, expect to invest a minimum of 1 – 3 hours per week, depending on how much time you choose to put into the course. Although Body = Brain is in a class by itself (literally nobody else is doing this), other companies that do related kinds of work charge significantly more than we do. People on my team have long encouraged me to raise the price of Body = Brain and I've seriously considered doing that. For over 10 years I've offered Body = Brain at below market rates because I want people to have easy access to this valuable learning. But full disclosure: as we grow, our business model is shifting. My time is becoming more limited (in the best possible way) and exciting changes are afoot. So I can't promise that the price you see today will be the price forever. Plus, we've got payment plans to make it even easier to join us. So what are you waiting for? Well, if you were my coaching client I’d ask you to: Check in with your body. How does the idea of joining us feel to you physically? Good and exciting? Good but scary or exhilarating? Those are good signs. Notice what part of you is hesitant. Your inner wisdom? Listen up. Your inner critic, voice of judgement, or voice of fear? Not good voices to listen to. Question what they are saying – especially any voices telling you that you somehow don’t measure up or won’t be able to “do it right.” Is there a particular concern that you have? If so, write it down or talk to a friend about it. (Or ask us!) Pin it down, make it concrete, and explore it in the light of awareness. Reflect on your intentions for the coming year of your life and your work. How well does Body = Brain fit into those plans? When you think about enrolling, do you feel a sense of alignment with your goals? I hope this helps you sort out whether Body = Brain is right for you. And if it is, I look forward to working with you on this incredibly rich and powerful material! If you had a solid, working grasp of body-brain behavioral science, how would that...
Body = Brain ®
Six months to “practical fluency”
How Body = Brain Was Born
What People are Saying
Dr. Chris Johnson, Q-4 Consulting
Doug Silsbee, Author, Presence-Based Coaching
Binky Mendoza, Yoga Teacher, Philippines
Body = Brain Curriculum | What You Can Expect
Part 1: The Embodied Self
Month 1: The Anatomy of Your Intelligence
Month 2: Psychobiological Learning
Month 3: How Change Really Happens – applying the DREAM Practice Model
Rashmi Nair-Ripley
Joel Monk
Sara Tucker
Part 2: Embody Social + Emotional Intelligence
Month 4: Take Purposeful Action
Month 5: Strengthen Personal Qualities
Month 6: Build Interpersonal Dexterity
Celebrating You
Why I Do This Work
Who I am and How I Got Here
(the quick take)
My favorite book when I was two and a half years old was a detailed photographic essay of pregnancy and childbirth called A Child Is Born. (You might rightly guess that my mom was pregnant with my brother at the time.)Logistics: How Body=Brain Works
Every other week you’ll receive the lessons for that two week period. I cover each topic separately, so the learning is broken into 20 minute chunks. Expect to invest about 60-90 minutes on each topic over a two week stretch.
You have the option of working with a partner or small group. Partners will meet monthly – or more often if you prefer – to discuss and deepen in the material for each module. If you have colleagues you work with regularly, I encourage you to enroll together and work as partners for the program.
The course includes a private LinkedIn group set up specifically for this class. This is a great place to share resources, pose questions, and build community. You may be surprised how vibrant and engaging this forum is.
Occasionally I open the doors for one-on-one mentoring to Body = Brain participants (an additional fee applies). Previous students have told me this was an outstanding way for them to deepen their learning while getting support to apply the material in their own lives and work. It’s a powerful way to go deeper, more quickly.Body = Brain is closed for the season...
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you include the body in a virtual course?
What if I have to miss a call – or several?
What if I’ve never really been that keen on science?
What if I love science and read voraciously? I think I might already be familiar with a lot of this material…
What if I change my mind, or life just gets super busy?
When’s my next chance to take the course?
Will virtual learning work for me?
How much time should I invest to get the most out of Body= Brain?
What about the financial commitment?
What if I’m just not sure?
What could Body = Brain do for you?
Still Have Questions? Contact Us.