This episode's guide is Kimaya Lakamas, a neuroscientist, singer-songwriter, and doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab, about the path that brought her from performing music to studying its effects on physiology, emotion, and psychological well-being. Together they explore how live music affects the body, why people respond so differently to the same piece of music, and what it might take to develop music-based interventions that are both clinically useful and deeply human.

This episode is part of our ongoing conversation about creativity and the mind-body connection. Here, the focus is on the foundations: how music shapes emotional experience, how context and culture influence response, and why personalized, flexible approaches matter if music is ever to serve as a meaningful support between therapy sessions. In the next episode, the conversation continues with a closer look at clinical implications and the growing role of AI in music and creativity.

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This podcast is produced by the Northeast Region Biofeedback Society. NRBS is an organization for professionals, students, and everyone interested in neurofeedback, biofeedback, and whole body health.

Learn more about Dr. Saul Rosenthal at advancedbehavioral.care.

Our theme music is Catch It by Coma-Media

The Healthy Brain Happy Body logo was designed by Alexandra VanDerlyke. Our heartfelt thanks to her and the rest of the team at Collectively Rooted.

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watch the video versions of our podcasts and Subscribe there as well!

In the second part of the conversation with psychologist, musician, and neuroscientist Dr. Barbara Minton, the focus shifts from the making of Calm the Storm to the deeper questions underneath it: what creativity really is, how music interacts with the nervous system, and why listening well may require more than simply choosing what we like. 

Dr. Minton reflects on creativity as both intuition and integration — the moment when different parts of a life finally come together. She explores real-world biofeedback, flow states, entrainment, and the subtle but important distinction between music that stimulates us and music that truly regulates us. Along the way, she shares memorable stories from workshops and clinical experience that make the conversation feel both grounded and alive.  

In this interview, Dr. Minton discusses the book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being.

Learn more about music and the brain in Dr. Minton's chapter in, Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback.

Please rate us and leave reviews. It really helps get us to more listeners.

This podcast is produced by the Northeast Region Biofeedback Society. NRBS is an organization for professionals, students, and everyone interested in neurofeedback, biofeedback, and whole body health.

Learn more about Dr. Saul Rosenthal at advancedbehavioral.care.

Contact us at healthybrain@nrbs.org.

Our theme music is Catch It by Coma-Media

The Healthy Brain Happy Body logo was designed by Alexandra VanDerlyke. Our heartfelt thanks to her and the rest of the team at Collectively Rooted.

#Neurofeedback #Biofeedback #Migraine #MentalHealth #BrainHealth #PIRHEG #HEG #PainManagement #EmotionalPain #Seizures #PrefrontalCortex #PsychologyPodcast #ClinicalPsychology #MindBodyConnection #Neuroscience #Therapists #Counselors #BrainBasedTherapy #NRBS #HealthyBrainHealthyBody

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watch the video versions of our podcasts and Subscribe there as well!

This episode's guide is Dr. Barbara Mitten — psychologist, musician, and neuroscientist — about the long path that led her to combine creativity, neurofeedback, and clinical care in a new way.

Her new music project is Calm the Storm, created in collaboration with guitarist Pepino D’Agostino, explores how intentional sound may help regulate brain networks related to chronic pain, migraine, insomnia, and stress. Dr. Mitten shares how years of clinical practice, immersion in neurofeedback, and a growing body of music research led her to ask a deceptively simple question: if music can influence the body and brain so profoundly, why isn’t it being used more deliberately?

Together, they explore the science of rhythm, frequency, tempo, entrainment, and individualized brain responses — as well as the more personal side of this work: calling, intuition, collaboration, and the ways music may reach beyond language. This episode is part of our ongoing creativity series, and it expands that conversation in a compelling direction: from creativity as expression to creativity as healing practice.

Please rate us and leave reviews. It really helps get us to more listeners.

This podcast is produced by the Northeast Region Biofeedback Society. NRBS is an organization for professionals, students, and everyone interested in neurofeedback, biofeedback, and whole body health.

Learn more about Dr. Saul Rosenthal at advancedbehavioral.care.

Contact us at healthybrain@nrbs.org.

Our theme music is Catch It by Coma-Media

The Healthy Brain Happy Body logo was designed by Alexandra VanDerlyke. Our heartfelt thanks to her and the rest of the team at Collectively Rooted.

#HappyBrainHealthyBody #NRBS #Neurofeedback #Biofeedback #MusicTherapy #BrainHealth #ChronicPain #MigraineRelief #InsomniaSupport #MindBodyHealth #QEEG #PsychologyPodcast