Mind-Body Healing Pioneer, Women's Wisdom

Joan Borysenko, PhD, is a  mind-body-spirit speaker, pioneer in integrative medicine and expert in the mind-body connection. She is a popular speaker in health, healing, and spirituality communities.

This distinguished pioneer in integrative medicine is a world-renowned expert in the mind-body connection. Her work has been foundational in an international healthcare revolution that recognizes the role of meaning, and the spiritual dimensions of life, as an integral part of health and healing. Eloquent and inspiring in settings that range from hospitals to hospices, from theaters to conference venues, and from boardrooms to houses of worship, she is a credible bridge between faith and reason. Her brilliance, humor, and authenticity—in combination with the latest research—make her a compelling and inspiring speaker and writer.

After graduating magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1967, Dr. Borysenko earned her doctorate in Medical Sciences from the Harvard Medical School, where she completed post-doctoral training in cancer cell biology. Her first faculty position was at the Tufts University College of Medicine in Boston. But after the death of her father from cancer, she became more interested in the person with the illness than in the disease itself, and returned to Harvard Medical School to complete a second postdoctoral fellowship, this time in the new field of behavioral medicine. Under the tutelage of Herbert Benson, M.D., who first identified the relaxation response and brought meditation into medicine, she was awarded a Medical Foundation Fellowship and completed her third post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology.

In the early 1980’s Dr. Borysenko co-founded a Mind/Body clinic with Dr. Benson and Dr. Ilan Kutz, became licensed as a psychologist, and was appointed instructor in medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Her years of clinical experience and research culminated in the 1987 publication of the New York Times best seller, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, which sold over 400,000 copies. The 20th anniversary edition, newly revised, was published in 2007. Author or co-author of 14 other books and numerous audio and video programs, including the Public Television special Inner Peace for Busy People, she is the Founding Partner of Mind/Body Health Sciences, LLC located in Boulder, Colorado and the Director of The Claritas Institute Interspiritual Mentor Training Program.

Her newest book is The PlantPlus Diet Solution: Personalized Nutrition for Life (Hay House). It’s designed to help people design the diet that works best for them. This is nutrition for the 21st century by her own quest for the best diet for her health and well being. She cuts through the thicket of confusing—and often downright wrong—advice on nutrition and gives you easy-to-digest, bite-sized servings of real scientific information so you can discover which foods your body needs to heal and thrive.

Dr. Borysenko’s warmth and credibility—plus her lively sense of humor—create a compelling presence. Her inspirational reflections are featured frequently on Hallmark Channel’s New Morning program, and she also hosts a weekly Internet radio show, Your Soul’s Compass, for Hay House. One of the most popular and sought after speakers in the field of health, healing, and spirituality, her engaging and well researched presentations are perfect both for professionals and for the general public.

Most Popular Topics:

The descriptions below are a small sample of available programs, chosen because of their relevance to the changing times. Joan also provides programs specific to women, and she often creates one-of-a-kind programs based on the specific needs of groups and organizations. She also loves leading retreats.

It’s Not the End of the World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change

Keynote or Workshop:  In this unprecedented time of change, our human response to uncertainty can lead either to suffering and stress, or to breakthrough personally and professionally. Times of change and crisis are opportunities for both individuals and corporations to discover a more conscious connection to the best potential within themselves and their current situation.

This keynote (workshop) explores change and creativity, outlining the ways that individuals develop and nurture inner strength and resilience both at home and at work. Drawing on research from positive psychology and the mind-body connection, as well as anecdotes and teaching stories, distinguished pioneer in integrative medicine Joan Borysenko will lead an exploration that informs, inspires, and leaves the audience with practical tools to enhance stress hardiness and creativity.

Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

Keynote or Workshop:  The story of our life is reflected in the mirror of our body. A peaceful, fit, and happy reflection is the authentic foundation of healthcare reform. While illness and wellness ultimately involve more than the quality of thinking and coping, stress-related emotional and physical disorders still account for over two thirds of visits to family practice physicians. In this program Dr. Borysenko, a pioneer in integrative medicine, will create a comprehensive framework for a new medicine of minding the body and mending the mind, with emphasis on evidence-based research and practical tools that anyone can easily incorporate into their life.

Spirituality and Healing

Keynote or Workshop:  One of the deepest forms of modern suffering is a sense of alienation from the deeper currents of life. The resultant feelings of emptiness often lead to hostility, depression, anxiety, addiction, prejudice, and stress. Unable to live and love from the fullness of our humanity, we lose health, resilience, and creative potential.

Spirituality heals the rift between human beings and life by restoring a sense of deep connection to a larger, meaningful whole. That connection results in a constellation of positive emotions including awe, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, love, peace, and joy. Research demonstrates that these emotions lead to better physical and emotional health, inspired leadership, and the enhanced creativity so needed in this historic time of shift in global values, goals, and cooperation.

Saying Yes to Change

Keynote or Workshop:  The world is in crisis, but you don’t have to be. We all know resilient people who bounce back from hardship and create their best lives. That’s the promise of change. Other people stress out and melt down, losing hope and health. That’s the danger in times of change. The good news is that resilience isn’t a genetic gift for the lucky few. It’s an easily understood skill that anyone can practice and master.

Resilient people face reality head-on, take action, find deeper meaning in life, laugh often, and are masters of improvisation. A new kind of natural selection is already having its way with us. Hopeful, stress-hardy people will rule the world. And as change and uncertainty escalate, those prone to stress will be less able to compete. In this workshop, Joan Borysenko, a world-renowned expert on stress, health, and human potential, offers you the tools you need to step into a bold new future that works for us all.

Banishing Burnout: From Stress to Strength

Keynote:  What happened to the idealism that brought you into healthcare, the heart-opening delight of helping, healing, learning, and caring? Healthcare providers are notorious for taking care of everybody but themselves. At the least, this can take the savor out of work. At worst it can lead to stress, burnout and “compassion fatigue,” terms that seem impersonal and even dull until they happen to you. In this keynote you will learn practical skills for living in the now and working from your authentic core, preventing the burnout that can rob you of vitality, creativity, and the ability to facilitate healing in those that you care for.

Your Soul’s Compass: Tapping into Higher Creativity

Keynote or Workshop:  Our planet is in jump-time, and old systems are breaking down. We have two choices: retreat into the past or open ourselves to the possible. To actualize a higher vision, we need to tap into a flow of intelligence larger than our own. But discerning that creative impulse from our personal wants, fears, and beliefs is a tricky business. Drawing on years of interviews with spiritual leaders from diverse traditions, as well as secular studies of higher creativity, Dr. Borysenko will offer practical insights on how to follow inner guidance and inspiring examples of how to help create a future that serves us all.

Women’s Programs Lectures and Keynotes:

Dr. Borysenko is the author of three books written especially for women: A Woman’s Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Lifecycle; A Woman’s Journey to God; and Inner Peace for Busy Women. Sounds True has also produced two excellent audio-programs: Menopause: An Initiation into Power and A Woman’s Spiritual Retreat.

Dr. Joan’s warmth, wit, wisdom, authenticity, and plain old common sense make her the ideal speaker at any woman’s event. She offers presentations on the subject of all her books and audio programs. In addition, any of the general topics can be geared particularly to women’s unique sensibilities.

Weekend Retreats for Women

Women’s Retreats are popular events, and can be constructed to reflect any of the topics Joan speaks on. Ideally, Dr. Joan co-leads these retreats with the talented, delightful singer/composer Karen Drucker.