Stories from the Body // with Lewis Mehl-Madrona & Barbara Mainguy

“Stories from the Body” is an immersive eight-week course that guides participants in discovering, unlocking, and transforming the stories held within the body.

Drawing on the work of Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy, this series integrates narrative therapy, somatic awareness, and indigenous wisdom to support healing.

Each weekly session blends ceremony and community-building with practical exercises in breath, movement, and mindful listening, creating a safe and welcoming space for personal exploration.

What you will experience:

By the course’s end, each person will have practiced techniques for finding and transforming body-based stories, and will leave with tools for ongoing self-discovery and storytelling.

This course is ideal for those interested in holistic healing, personal narrative, and mind-body integration, providing practical skills and communal support for lasting personal change.

Week by Week

Week 1: Ceremony and Creating Safe Space

• Introductions, course overview, shared intentions.
• Ceremony to open the group; importance of ritual to set context.
• Building radical acceptance and safety as a basis for storytelling.
• Introduction to the body as a source of story.

Week 2: Listening to the Body’s Messages

• Somatic awareness practices: breath, movement, and presence.
• Exercises for attending to physical sensations and symptoms as story clues.
• Journaling: bodily sensations as the start of narrative threads.

Week 3: Eliciting the Story of the Pain

• Techniques for dialoguing with the body.
• Guided imagery and movement to access “body memory.”
• Group and paired work: sharing stories linked to physical feeling.

Week 4: Exploring Family and Cultural Stories in the Body

• Exploring how ancestral, family, and cultural stories live in posture, movement and pain.
• Mapping inherited patterns and their bodily expression.
• Creative exercise: drawing or sculpting “the body’s history.”

Week 5: Transformation Through Embodied Narrative

• Re-authoring: changing perspectives on bodily symptoms through storytelling.
• Breathwork and gentle touch to support safe body-based narrative change.
• Practice: group story-weaving with alternate outcomes.

Week 6: Movement, Art, and Story

• Integration of movement, dance, and art to deepen story from the body.
• Puppetry, drawing, dramatization: other forms to access and express somatic narrative.
• Sharing artwork and movement-based stories in small groups.

Week 7: Healing Ceremonies and Community Storytelling

• Indigenous frameworks for healing circles and communal narrative work.
• Designing and participating in a group ceremony for story-sharing and release.
• The role of witnessing, drumming, and song in embodied storytelling.

Week 8: Integration and Practice Clinic

• Guided “body story” sessions in small groups; practice integrating all techniques.
• Peer and faculty feedback, review of experiences.
• Final ceremony: closing the circle, intentions for ongoing personal work.

Each session will begin and end with a brief ceremony or mindfulness practice to create structure and honor the themes of ritual and community.

The curriculum encourages active participation, creative expression, and respectful witnessing of others’ stories.

Who Should Take This Class

No prior experience in bodywork or storytelling is necessary—curiosity, openness, and a willingness to participate are the primary requirements.

The supportive, nonjudgmental environment welcomes participants of all backgrounds and levels of experience, offering accessible practices for anyone wishing to more fully understand and transform their body’s wisdom and story.

Personal Growth

This course is designed for anyone seeking a deeper connection between body and narrative—well-suited to individuals interested in holistic healing, mental health, creative self-discovery, and personal growth. It will benefit people who sense that their bodies hold unspoken stories or unresolved emotions, as well as those experiencing chronic stress, tension, or unexplained physical symptoms.

Professional Development

Therapists, counselors, bodyworkers, and health professionals will find practical techniques to integrate into their own client work, expanding their understanding of trauma, memory, and healing beyond traditional talk therapy approaches. 

Creative development/Craft

Artists, writers, and creative seekers will be supported in exploring new pathways for inspiration, while those with a desire for more community and ritual in their healing journeys will benefit from the course’s emphasis on group ceremony and collective storytelling. 

The TLA Network offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. Please click the button and complete our scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

Scholarship Application

What people are saying about learning with Lewis and Barbara:

“Doing a Healing Intensive with Lewis was inspiring and transformational on all levels: physical, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive. He utilized ritual, healing energy, imagery, Cherokee bodywork, journaling, and community to invoke healing on a deeper and more comprehensive level than any individual approach could have offered. Lewis is an amazing, knowledgeable, and compassionate healer.” – Lorna, New York 

“The experience of the weekend with Lewis was amazing. His nature and ability to make everyone feel connected and welcome was palpable and created a space for truth and healing. I found my own spirit again, something I didn’t realize I had lost. The workshop gave me the gift of connecting with amazing people and their beautiful spirits. I feel ‘at home.’” – Workshop participant, Melbourne, Australia 

“Lewis’s teaching of story as medicine is subtle yet powerful. His approach creates a field of connection that integrates the sufferer into a larger community, fostering profound healing.” – Deena Metzger, California

Format

This is a hybrid online class, conducted through Zoom meetings and the online classroom Wet Ink.

Zoom meetings will be held at 3 PM ET / 8 PM UT on consecutive Tuesdays beginning 3 March and ending 28 April 2026, except for the week of 30 March when the Zoom session will be held on Monday 30 March at 3 PM ET / 8 PM UT.  Sessions will be recorded and made available only to registered students.  

Online readings and an asynchronous discussion board will be hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. At the end of the class, each student will receive an email that contains a link to download an archive of all their content and interactions.

About the Facilitators

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, is a physician, clinical psychologist, and author known for integrating Indigenous healing traditions with conventional medicine. A Stanford University School of Medicine graduate, he is certified in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. Dr. Mehl-Madrona has taught at multiple medical schools and currently serves as an associate clinical professor at the University of New England. His work focuses on the transformative power of storytelling in healing, exemplified in his acclaimed trilogy—Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom—as well as Narrative Medicine and Remapping Your Mind (co-authored with Barbara Mainguy). He is founder and executive director of the Coyote Institute, which centers on narrative, Indigenous wisdom, and mind-body healing. For insights and updates, visit his website at mehl-madrona.com and follow related work through the Coyote Institute at coyote-institute.org.

Barbara Mainguy, MA, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, creative arts therapist, filmmaker, and education director for the Coyote Institute for Studies of Change and Transformation in Orono, Maine. She holds a Master’s degree in Creative Arts Psychotherapy from Concordia University and an MSW from the University of Maine. Barbara blends psychotherapy with indigenous wisdom and narrative approaches to support mind-body healing and self-transformation. Her interests include working with individuals experiencing psychosis, chronic pain, and trauma, as well as exploring the intersection of art, healing, and psychotherapy. She is coauthor with Lewis Mehl-Madrona of Remapping Your Mind: The Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story. Barbara also maintains a private practice and teaches workshops that integrate body-centered storytelling and healing.