Master Class: Storyteller, Healer, and the Living Body with Lewis Mehl-Madrona MD, PhD, and Barbara Mainguy, MA, LCSW
When: Monday, April 13, 2026 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Where: Moving Body Resources: 112 W 27th St (between 6th & 7th Ave) Suite 402 New York, NY 10001
Cost: $200 through 2/14, then $250.
*Discounted rate of $150 available for students and Indigenous community members. 50% discount available for those attending our Indigenous-Inspired Energy Medicine: Integrating Story and Mind-Body Healing workshop.
Register: HERE
In this immersive master class, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, physician, psychiatrist, and student of North American Indigenous healing traditions, and Barbara Mainguy, psychotherapist and creative arts specialist, explore the storyteller-healer figure and how stories inhabit and transform the body. We will explore how narrative, touch, and movement can combine to support processes of emotional, physical, and spiritual healing.
The Storyteller as Healer
Lewis and Barbara begin with the idea that "the worst suffering is having a story that has never been told," and that this story often resides in the muscles, fascia, breath, and posture. Through traditional stories and guided storytelling exercises, participants will learn to listen to the narratives that emerge from the body, rather than solely from the intellect. They will explore how speech, silence, rhythm, and imagination can open spaces of resonance where individuals feel reconnected to their community, their ancestors, and the living world.
Massage, Bodywork, and "Body Stories"
We will use elements of bodywork inspired by North American Indigenous practices, where touch, breath, and attention are inseparable from the narrative dimension. Participants will experience how bodywork sessions can be accompanied by listening to the "body's stories" through dialogue, imagery, and metaphor. The goal is not simply to release physical tension, but to follow the "trail" of memories, dreams, and emotions that manifest through gesture, movement, and sensation.
Arts and Embodied Imagination
True to their integrative approach, Lewis and Barbara will also invite participants to work with artistic forms – movement, voice, quick sketches, sometimes puppets or objects – to help stories emerge from the body and transform. We will explore how to dance an ancient story, how to let the breath tell a forgotten chapter, or how a drawn image can reveal a somatic knot that has remained silent for years.
Who should attend?
This masterclass is for health professionals, psychotherapists, massage therapists, and bodywork practitioners, as well as storytellers, artists, and facilitators interested in the intersection of narrative, body, and healing. We ask participants to bring a curiosity to listen to the body as a living book of stories, and a desire to weave together medicine, imagination, and tradition.
Discount details:
Student Discount: Please email a recent picture of your tribal ID to coyoteinstituteevents@gmail.com with “Masterclass” in the subject line to receive access to the student price.
Indigenous Discount: Please email a recent picture of your Tribal ID to coyoteinstituteevents@gmail.com with “Masterclass” in the subject line to receive access to the Indigenous price.
Three Day Event Discount: Planning to attend our event Indigenous-Inspired Energy Medicine: Integrating Story and Mind-Body Healing taking place in NYC April 11-12? You can register for this Master Class for 50% off. To take advantage of this offer, please purchase your ticket for Indigenous-Inspired Energy Medicine: Integrating Story and Mind-Body Healing first. You will receive a promo code to register for this Master Class at 50% off in your registration confirmation email. Please use that promo code to secure 50% off the purchase of your ticket to this master class.