Happy Brain Groups
What are Happy Brain Groups?
If you would like to make your brain a happier place to live in a community that welcomes your goals, imperfections, and humanity, join our Happy Brain group.
Knowing that our brains are not wired to “go it alone,” we offer a warm learning environment where folks can be seen, heard, and understood.
This shared experience changes our brain, providing resources to face life’s challenges and joys with exquisite self-care.
Our groups have a 6 or 8-week cycle, each with a unique focus where you apply the language of resonance and social neuroscience skills to your intentions. This holistic approach to well being fosters deeper and more authentic connection in personal, professional, and all other relationships.
I have deep love and respect for my teacher, Sarah Peyton. Without her caring support I would not be a student and teacher of this work.
Schedule
Our next online Happy Brain Group is 4 weeks – Wednesdays, June 3rd – 24th, 2026, 9:00-10:45am PST.
The title is: Exploring Turning Points as an Act of Love
Words are one of the most powerful tools for both hurting and healing our brain. Let’s get together and use our words for healing. Writing awakens our relational brain, which delights in both stories and warm connection with others.
We will identify 4 important turning points in our lives and write about them. This helps us integrate and make sense of our life experience. This writing is NOT about creating literature. It's about self- expression, sense-making and companionship. Our intention is not to fix or solve but to witness and understand.
When navigating a turning point, we often leave what's familiar and we may feel alone. Through receiving resonance from ourselves and from our Happy Brain community, we find accompaniment.
As we share our life experience, it is emotionally affirming. In this crazy world, being heard, welcomed, and acknowledged serves as a refreshing antidote to the chaos. Healing happens in community.
As Jeannine Ouellett says, “Writing brings us home to ourselves.”
Cost: $110. You can pay with Zelle (preferred), or PayPal, or send a check. Contact us if you need a reduced rate.
Register: for the Wednesday Happy Brain group, email Christina with your name and phone number, and payment confirmation. She will provide the Zelle handle to pay via Zelle
Frequently Asked Questions
-
The quickest and most effective way I know to make your brain happier is
to incorporate what I call “3 branches of a tree:”
Learning Social Neuroscience, where you understand your brain and how it connects with other brains.
Being in warm community at least once a week, where you learn to turn toward others and yourself with warmth and care.
Family constellation work (link to Constellations page here), a process that reveals insights from historical influences that unconsciously shape your behavior and relationships.
In each Happy Brain series, there is one constellation day, and no prior experience is necessary.
Each 6 or 8-week series is a little different. There’s no prerequisite, and you are welcome just as you are. You can set an intention for yourself and each week I teach a segment of neuroscience that you apply to your intention. There’s always interactive dialogue, with demonstrations and practical application of relational neuroscience. Small group work gives you time for deep personal reflection with a partner, with a chance to practice what you’re learning within community support.
-
If, like me, you didn’t grow up in an emotionally nurturing environment, there’s encouraging news about our brain’s neuroplasticity, and studying social neuroscience can help. You will learn how your brain relates to other brains. You’ll delve into:
Cultivating an internalized, supportive presence that widens the pathways to the part of your brain that calms your inner critic, eases emotional pain, and prevents reactivity.
Examining old patterns of believing, thinking, and behaving, and noticing how they shift as you practice speaking the language of resonance
Exploring methods that soothe your nervous system, fostering emotional resilience, enhancing self-connection, and promoting flexibility in your interactions with others.
This not only makes us more enjoyable company, this is an integrated brain, the foundation of wellbeing.
-
In Happy Brain groups we turn towards others and ourselves with warm curiosity, and listen deeply without needing to fix, rescue or offer advice. My intention is to create a safe emotional container where you feel welcome to share your vulnerable truths. We practice radical consent, speaking only of someone else’s experience with permission.
This group is interactive, emphasizing practical application of social neuroscience to making your brain a happier place to live. You are welcome to participate at whatever level feels right for you. Readings and interactive activities are optional.
Drop in to the weekly free Warm Bath Resonance hour to receive support, and also connect with others throughout the week to practice resonance skills.
-
I host Happy Brain groups because I genuinely enjoy helping people make their brains a happier place to live.
I’ve studied social neuroscience with Sarah Peyton since 2010, and the most fun and fulfilling part for me has been to watch my own brain become regulated as I guide others.
Regulated brains are calmer, with more equanimity. They are also more organically empathic and less reactive. Here is a tiny part of a long list of what I call my “Brain Change Notifications” – upgrades in my brain that I am consciously aware of:
the most joyful change has been my greatly increased capacity to accept and love others and myself.
when someone says something critical or mean, I can more easily calm my nervous system.
I am more connected to my body my self-critic is no longer driving the bus.
I’m not compelled to judge or always be right, so I’m more fun to be around.
I can now reach out for support, no longer believing I have to do it all on my own.
When I say or do something I regret, I can often forgive myself immediately.
-
The foundation of resonance is approaching communication with warm curiosity, and holding the intention to connect and understand.
Resonant language relies on enquiry: asking, not telling. It’s deep listening, rather than waiting for our turn to speak or offer unsolicited advice or opinions. Resonance tunes in and seeks targeted enquiry because our nervous system relaxes when asked just the right question with genuine warmth and care.
Resonance helps our nervous system recover from trauma. We gain greater emotional flexibility and regulation, which brings us more stability during times of stress. Practicing resonance skills supports authentic self- expression and honors our universal human needs to matter, understand, and be understood.