Reinvigorating Clinical Practice Through Embodied Inquiry and the Neuroscience of Connection

Reinvigorating Clinical Practice Through Embodied Inquiry and the Neuroscience of Connection is an online training for psychotherapists, psychologists, counselors, and psychiatrists who feel their work has become repetitive, effortful, or flat. Drawing on Buddhist psychology, Buddhist meditation, and modern neuroscience, it offers a six-week course in embodied presence, curiosity, and self-awareness as the ground of the therapeutic relationship. It is presented through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Vermont, and meets live on Zoom.

What to Expect

The course starts from a plain question: what supports a healing therapeutic relationship, especially when a clinician is tired, stuck, or doubting their effectiveness? Research has long shown the relationship to be the strongest predictor of good outcomes, yet self-awareness, embodied presence, and authentic curiosity often get buried under theory and technique. This training treats them as the conditions that make change possible, not as soft add-ons.

Using ideas from neuroscience such as generative models and predictive processing, alongside decades of clinical experience, the sessions look at how learning, habit change, and healing happen through experience rather than force. Themes include:

- How curiosity and investigation restore presence and foster insight in sessions
- How over-identifying with a theoretical orientation can quietly narrow responsiveness
- How embodied awareness helps you sense when you and your clients are open or closed, and how to use that in the relationship
- How intention-based values support sustainable practice and personal integrity

The format mixes lectures, mindful inquiry, experiential exercises, and both small and large group dialogue. Participants practice bringing curiosity into the therapy room, using bodily awareness as a compass for clinical decisions, and meeting burnout and stuckness as openings for growth.

There are six weekly sessions on Tuesdays, 1:00 to 2:30 PM Eastern. Each is recorded and shared with participants within 48 hours, and recordings stay available for four weeks after the program ends.

The Teachers

The training is inspired by the life work of Drs. Boudette, Brewer, and Giommi, drawing on their clinical practices, their training of psychotherapists, their neuroscience research, and many years of practicing and teaching Buddhist meditation. Drs. Brewer and Giommi describe key aspects of their combined work in the article "Psychotherapy as Investigation: Cultivating Curiosity and Insight in the Therapeutic Process." The same teachers offer a residential workshop, Psychotherapy as Investigation, which is a separate registration.

Before You Go

The course is open to beginning and experienced practitioners, but participants should be mental health professionals currently in practice. It is taught in English.

Included are the six live group sessions, the lectures, inquiry, and exercises, the small and large group dialogue, and access to the recordings. Payment to the teachers is not part of registration; participants are encouraged to offer dana. The residential workshop is not included.

Six continuing education units for psychologists and social workers may be available, through the National Association for Social Workers and the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, but this is not yet confirmed. Check with your licensing board whether the credits would apply to your license before you register.