
My talk on the Neurobiology of Innovation with social neuroscientist Caroline Szymanski, creativity researcher Sergio Agnoli and Stanford computational neuroscientist Manish Saggar at the dconfestival berlin
"Thank you Stefanie. I run a charitable Trust that has a focus on assisting people with Depression and Anxiety. I follow your podcasts and have got my partner onto them as well. We both find these so helpful in our line of work ( She is a clinical psychologist) and find your content very informative and very digestible to pass onto others in our work. Thank you for what you do."
-Andre Jackson
ABOUT ME
I translate complex scientific concepts into real-world language to help people find new ways of using their talents, discomforts, failures, and relationships as pathways to growth and evolution.
I’ve helped catalyze deeper understandings of how the human mind-brain-body performs and evolves for top-tier organizations such as Google, Stanford University, the Hasso Plattner Institute for Design, Northwestern University, Alberta Children’s Hospital, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, City Colleges of Chicago, the Department of Defense, the Canada School of Public Service and many more,
I'm also a neuroscience researcher and clinician focused on brainwaves, heart rhythms and micro-movements that influence our ability to self-regulate and build healthy relationships. I've spent parts of my career measuring electric conductance of the skin (GSR), facial electromyography (EMG), and I currently work with quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG), rhythmic sinus arrhythmia (heart rate variability), neurofeedback, and transcranial magnetic stimulation for clinical treatment and PTSD research studies.
My graduate research at New York University and fieldwork at the NYU Phelps lab for neuroscience research, the NYU Institute for Prevention Science and Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine focused on the cross-section of self-directed neuroplasticity, empathy and social justice.
For the past decade, I've been teaching and consulting in countries all over the world by combining scientific insights and my training in monasteries with meditation masters from India, Africa and Vietnam.
From 2017-2018, I delivered a series of workshops for Google's Analytical Academy in London, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Munich and Singapore focused on the Science of Learning.
I'm also a former intelligence analyst, french teacher to diplomats and the creator of the Mindset Neuroscience Podcast.
One of my favorite talks was at the Symposium on Neuroscience and Physiological Perspectives on Design Thinking and Creativity hosted by Stanford University and the Hasso Plattner Institute for Design in Berlin. The theme was 'Embodied Creativity and Cognition'.
"I teach high school history and I have a 20 year old son with generalized anxiety disorder. I find your videos extremely clarifying for both teaching and guiding my son through his disorder. I am only three videos in and I am hooked! I plan on using this to help me get ready for next school year, as it may look very different from my last 28 years."
-Gina Hanna, Teacher and Super-Regulator

PAST CLIENTS INCLUDE:
Northwestern University, School of Education and Social Policy
Google
Northeastern University, Chicago
Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking, Berlin
City Colleges of Chicago
Illinois State University, Department of Education
University of California San Diego, School of Medicine
Tutoring Chicago (formerly Cabrini Green Tutoring)
EHOVE Career Training, Ohio
Blue Valley School District, Missouri
Horizon Science Academy, Chicago
Christopher House Chicago
Oak Park String Academy
Suzuki Music Association
Empowerment through Education and Exposure, Chicago
Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth, Canada
Alberta Children's Hospital, Canada
Independence School District, Missouri
"Your comments about perseverance gained by applying our strengths to a self-transcendent purpose have informed our practices around how we at Harrigan Solutions develop our employees. Thanks for this life changing insight."
-Harrigan Solutions

This is me with the headmasters of Namaskar primary school in Ejura, Ghana (years ago!)

Graduates of my Institute for Mindset, Resilience and Innovation training
A bit more about me:
- At NYU, I was honored to be mentored by Zoran Josipovic, whose research on mindfulness and meditation inspired me to train and study at various monasteries with meditation masters from India, Vietnam and Africa.
- I also had the privilege of working with social neuroscientist Lasana Harris, whose passion for promoting human dignity continues to inspire my work today.
- In 2010, I received an award at the annual NYU Graduate Research Conference for my original research on Empathy and Family Emotional Climate.
- Years ago, I received the Government of Canada Bravo Award for French teaching.
- I've lived and worked in several different cities, including New York, Chicago, Brussels, Copenhagen, Las Vegas, Ottawa, my hometown of Calgary Canada, as well as Ghana and Central and South America.
- I speak fluent French, Spanish and moderate German, as well as a bit of Dutch and Italian.
“I love that you use biological/ scientific facts of how our brains and bodies are historically designed, as well as how experiences and environments shape our behavior. It’s been more helpful than any doctors, therapists, yoga gurus, etc.
Thank you for giving us the hope and the inspiration to learn more."
-Caroline Bigley, email & podcast subscriber
What if… the way humans are now - the version we are all familiar with - is not the 'end of the line? What if we are on our way to something better?
What if… through the chaos, complexity and connectivity of the human species as it is now... a new type of human is emerging?

Season 1 Episode 12 – “Relational Minds”
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“What matters is not how things are, but how they interact.“ – Carlo Rovelli, theoretical physicist, in his book, Reality is Not What It Seems Relationships are the key to building our most powerful mind. Our relationships with others build…

Updates for 2021 – Intergenerational transmissions, collective intelligence and more!
“You can’t navigate well in an interconnected, feedback-dominated world unless you take your eyes off short-term events and look for long-term behavior and structure” – Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems Systems change, bounded rationality, burden-shifting, systems traps, intergenerational transmission and…
Season 2 Episode 1 transcript
Season 2 Ep1 Systems [00:00:23] Imagine that there are 20 desks in a classroom and nothing else. Nobody else, no person. And you close the door to this classroom and nothing is going to enter or leave it. You leave…

super-organism intelligence & (re) claiming your purpose
What seems to be emerging in our understanding of the nature of intelligence is that it is related to collective networks of ‘nodes’ that share information, more than a single cell or node. Here’s a perspective I also see…