“The Future of Whole-Person Healing: Medicine at the  Crossroads”

Wayne Jonas, MD is a physician and researcher whose career has spanned clinical practice, health policy, and the science of integrative and whole-person medicine, including serving as Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. He is one of the most recognized voices in the movement to bring evidence-based integrative approaches into mainstream healthcare.

“The Science and Practice of EFT Tapping”

Nick Ortner is a globally recognized teacher, author, and advocate for Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), best known for making tapping accessible to millions through The Tapping Solution. His work sits at the intersection of ancient healing practice and modern neuroscience.

“InterPlay: Unlocking Story, Movement, and Voice”

CC King is a practitioner and teacher of InterPlay, a movement-based practice that uses storytelling, spontaneous movement, and voice to facilitate healing, creativity, and connection. Her work brings somatic and expressive arts approaches into accessible, inclusive settings.

“Understanding the Emotional Basis of Chronic Pain”

Michael Donnino, MD is a physician and researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School whose work has expanded into the relationship between emotional experience and physical symptoms, with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying chronic pain. He brings both clinical rigor and genuine curiosity to one of medicine's most challenging frontiers.

“Exploring Energy Healing in Clinical Practice”

Rick Leskowitz, MD is a psychiatrist at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Harvard Medical School who has spent years investigating energy medicine and its role in clinical care. His work bridges conventional psychiatry and integrative healing with both scientific grounding and open-minded inquiry.

“Investigating Reiki and Mindfulness as Treatments for Chronic Pain”

Robert Edwards, PhD is a pain psychologist and researcher at Harvard Medical School specializing in the psychological and neurobiological dimensions of pain perception and management. His session presents his investigation into Reiki and mindfulness as active treatment modalities for chronic pain — bringing the rigorous lens of pain science to two of the most widely used yet understudied approaches in integrative care.

“The Microbiome & Our Brain-Gut Health”

Alessio Fasano, MD is a world-renowned gastroenterologist and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, best known for his pioneering work on the gut microbiome, intestinal permeability, and the gut-brain axis. His research has fundamentally reshaped how medicine understands the connection between digestive health and conditions ranging from autoimmune disease to mental health.

“Mitochondria: Regulators of Stress Responses, Energy, and the Healing Process”

Martin Picard, PhD is a mitochondrial psychobiologist at Columbia University whose research has reframed mitochondria not merely as the cell's power source, but as dynamic regulators of stress responses, mood, and the body's capacity to heal. His work sits at the frontier of how cellular energy connects to whole-person health and resilience.

“Molecular Thriving and the Social Genome”

Steve Cole, PhD is a professor at UCLA whose research explores how social experience is translated into biological reality — specifically, how loneliness, connection, and sense of purpose shape gene expression in ways that profoundly affect physical health. He is one of the leading scientists behind the emerging field of social genomics.

“Prescribing Movement: The Future of Integrative Lifestyles”

Beth Frates, MD is a physician and lifestyle medicine expert at Harvard Medical School whose work focuses on using movement, nutrition, and behavior change as evidence-based clinical tools. She is a leading voice in the effort to make lifestyle medicine a core pillar of how clinicians practice.

“Cooking & Nutrition for Healing”

David Eisenberg, MD is a physician and researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who has spent decades building the evidence base for integrative medicine and, more recently, the therapeutic power of food and cooking. He is a pioneer in culinary medicine — the practice of teaching patients to cook as a genuine clinical intervention.

“Energy Healing in Practice”

Laurie Nealon is an energy healing practitioner whose work brings these modalities directly into clinical and patient-facing settings, making them accessible to both healthcare providers and the people they serve. Her practice bridges the experiential and the clinical in a way that is grounded, approachable, and deeply patient-centered.

“Breathwork for Health and Resilience”

David Magone is a breathwork teacher and practitioner whose work explores the physiological and psychological effects of intentional breathing on stress, resilience, and overall wellbeing. He brings a practical, accessible approach to one of the most evidence-supported tools in integrative health.

“Energy Healing and the Patient Experience"

Marybeth Toran, MD is a neurologist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Mass General Brigham whose own personal experience with energy healing led her to investigate how these modalities physically interact with the nervous system. She brings a rare combination of clinical neurology expertise and firsthand patient perspective to one of integrative medicine's most compelling and underexplored questions.

“Tai Chi: 'Going from Mind-Body to Body-Mind’”

Peter Wayne, PhD is a Harvard Medical School researcher and author of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi whose work has helped establish Tai Chi as a clinically validated mind-body practice. His lunch-and-learn will reframe how we think about the relationship between movement and the mind — and why the direction of that connection may matter more than we've assumed.

“Mind-Body Activity Approaches to Chronic Pain Management in Hospital and Community Settings”

Ana-Maria Vranceanu, PhD is a clinical psychologist and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School specializing in mind-body interventions for chronic pain. Her session translates this research into practice, exploring how these approaches can be meaningfully integrated into the real-world settings where patients actually live and receive care.