Dr. Melanie Blair Pincus is a neuroscientist, artist, and educator with a passion for crafting experiences that catalyze self-discovery and transformation. Melanie became interested in modalities that spur personal growth and rewire the brain during her PhD in neuroscience at Emory University, where she studied the legacy of early-life stress on the developing brain. She is compelled by both play and non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC) as powerful tools that promote flexible brain states for healing and flourishing. In her roles as chief scientific officer for two psychedelic startups, she has designed multi-omics psilocybin research programs with botanical mushrooms to explore the potential of NOSC for personal growth. Melanie’s new venture, Syncopy Design Lab (syncopydesignlab.com), is an experience design studio creating experiences that facilitate deeper states of connectedness to self, community, and the natural world. The lab weaves together transformative principles, biosensing technology, neuroaesthetic design, play, and NOSC to offer impactful art installations, workshops and retreats.
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) affects more than 15% of the U.S. population but evades most practitioners’ radar. Just five years ago, it wasn’t even on my radar, despite already having 20 years of experience as a clinician at that time. The more I dug (similar to leaky gut and post-COVID syndrome), the more I found my patients were suffering from this disorder.
Research supports the effectiveness of selecting the distal acupuncture points for the treatment of microtrauma and for relieving pain, particularly in cases of chronic shoulder pain. But to make the treatment results long-lasting, clinical experience and research suggest that instead of treating the most painful structure first, we identify the inhibited driver, restore reliable recruitment, confirm it with immediate re-testing, and only then address the painful area as a branch of a deeper pattern.
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The motivation behind our practice of medicine is important, impacting not just our experience but also the experiences of those we treat. It is perhaps for this reason that the aspiration to help not just some, but all beings heal, has historically been an important part of the medical tradition. To explain this, we need to consider how medicine is interwoven with other social domains.