Neuroscience of Healing and Ritual: What neuroscience can (and cannot) tell us about spiritual practices and healing

Presenter: Bianca Flores, PhD, neuroscientist, storyteller, and curanderismo practitioner

What happens when a patient describes a cleansing (limpia), a prayer, or a ritual for grief, and
the clinical language you were taught does not quite capture its meaning?
For some therapists, these practices are familiar. They may have grown up around them, yet
learned to set them aside in professional spaces because they were not considered scientifically
validated. How can we make room for that lived knowledge while staying thoughtful about what
the research does and does not tell us?

In this two-hour training, neuroscientist and curanderismo practitioner Bianca Flores, PhD,
explores how sensory experience, attention, relationships, and cultural meaning may relate to
stress, emotional regulation, and healing. She brings ancestral and community knowledge into
conversation with neuroscience without treating science as the authority that determines a
tradition’s worth.

We’ll explore:
● How stress and regulation involve both the body and the meanings we give an
experience
● The roles of breath, rhythm, sensory cues, repetition, and connection in ritual
● How practices such as limpias and rituals around grief and death can hold cultural and
personal meaning
● Ways therapists can respond with curiosity when patients bring spiritual or ancestral
practices into the room
You’ll leave with language and questions you can use to discuss ritual more thoughtfully in
clinical practice.

Duration: 2 hours
Date, time, format: Saturday, October 24th 1-3PM CST, via Google Meet

Investment: $45 Non-Members | $35 ECALT Members

Register by 10/23. Meeting link will be emailed morning of the event.

About the presenter: Bianca Flores, PhD, earned her doctorate in neuroscience from
Vanderbilt University, where she studied the peripheral nervous system, and completed
postdoctoral research in neuroimmunology at Johns Hopkins University. Raised in a Mexican
American family with Comanche and Apache roots, she draws on her research background and
lived experience to teach about ritual, ancestral practices, and the nervous system. Her work
invites thoughtful dialogue between scientific and cultural ways of understanding healing.

2 CEUs available. Presenters are approved to offer CEU trainings in accordance to the Arizona Board of Behavioral health examiners A.A.C. R4-6-802(D). Empezando Contigo: Association for Latine Therapist is a 501c6. Not all states may approve of these CEUs, we encourage you to check with your state board if you intend to use these CEUs for your license renewal.

Attendance and Refund Policies: Participants must log in on time. A 5-minute grace period is allowed. No entry will be permitted after 5 minutes from the scheduled start time. Registration is non-refundable. No refunds, credits, or transfers will be issued for missed or late attendance. Participants are responsible for ensuring they have a stable internet connection and access to the platform.

By registering, you agree to this policy.