A Return to Healing
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A Return to Healing

Build your Mind Body Bridging practice. A practical, evidence-informed way to reduce stress reactivity, improve self-regulation, and enhance well-being.

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Our mission

To give people, and the professionals who care for them, practical, evidence-informed tools that strengthen resilience, restore self-regulation, and return the mind and body to an adaptable state.

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From the workbook

The idea

Two modes of the mind — learning which one you’re in

Mind Body Bridging and the I-System Model of Human Behavior were developed by Stanley Block, MD, and Carolyn B. Block in 2002. The modality brings together neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and metacognition to explain how two different modes of regulation shape your perception, stress response and decision making.

In one mode, the mind is clear and the body is regulated; you meet the moment as it is. In the other, experience is filtered through self image and maladaptive behaviors are more likely. A Return to Healing is about recognizing which regulatory mode is dominant in any moment, and learning how to return to a state of adaptability and growth.

What is Mind Body Bridging?

Change begins not by doing more, but by seeing more.

From the workbook

Begin

One method, four programs

Healthcare, business, education, and a personal program for anyone.

See the programs Ways to enroll
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Programs

Four programs, one method

Healthcare, business, education, and a program for anyone. Each works through the A Return to Healing manual with experiential learning. The examples and aims are built for the setting.

A Return to Healing teaches a practical, evidence-informed way to meet stress, grounded in the I-System Model of Human Behavior, which integrates neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and metacognition. The method is short and concrete: a written map that makes the pattern visible and brings the body back to a regulated, adaptable state.

An accredited, CME-eligible certification in Mind Body Bridging for physicians and healthcare professionals.

Physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, dietitians, students, and other clinicians train together.

Next seminar
March 20-21, 2027, Salt Lake City
Structure
A two-day seminar, followed by four online sessions
The seminar
Working through the A Return to Healing manual with a focus on experiential learning
Online sessions
Four sessions, one hour each, completed over the next three months
Accreditation
Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah
CME
16 hours
On completion
Mind Body Bridging Certification

Outcomes

  • Greater psychological resilience
  • Enhanced emotional regulation
  • Improved clinical focus
  • A sustainable approach to stress management

Across a department, these gains can reduce burnout-related turnover, strengthen workplace culture, improve patient satisfaction, and contribute to higher-quality, more cost-effective care.

A program to improve workplace culture, prevent burnout, and reduce stress across a team.

Structure
Set with each organization. Always includes working through the manual and experiential mapping
Format
On site or online, scheduled to fit the team
On completion
A certificate of completion for taking part in the seminar
Aim
Workplace culture, burnout prevention, stress reduction

What teams take away

  • A shared vocabulary for naming stress and reactivity on a team
  • Fewer reactive decisions made under deadline pressure
  • Meetings that recover faster after a tense exchange
  • Lower burnout and turnover-intention on staff surveys
  • A measurable effect on the bottom line, as more cohesive teams lose less to conflict, disengagement, and turnover

A learning experience for students of any age, from grade school through graduate level.

Structure
Completion of a manual, with experiential learning
Ages
Scaled to any age group, from grade school through graduate level
Delivery
Sessions for a class or student group
Certification
None. This is a learning experience for students, not a credential

What students take away

  • Steadier focus for studying, tests, and deadlines
  • A quick reset before a game, a race, or a performance
  • Catching a spiraling storyline before it takes over the rest of the day
  • Less reactivity at home, so tension with parents and siblings cools faster
  • More room in friendships for what the other person is actually saying
  • Words for what stress feels like in the body, and what to do with it

Students learn this in a classroom, but it is not a classroom skill. It works the same way on the field, at home, and with friends.

For a personal practice. Build your own Mind Body Bridging practice and experience the benefits the other programs describe.

The workbook
Work through A Return to Healing with a small group online or in person
Online sessions
Join the open online sessions to work a live map together
Certification
None. The aim is your own practice
Start
Any time

What you take away

  • A short daily mapping habit that fits an ordinary morning
  • Catching rumination earlier, before it sets the tone for the day
  • More space between something that lands hard and how you respond
  • Sleep that isn’t taken over by mind clutter
  • A practice you can share informally with family or friends

Next

Where does this fit?

See where it belongs Upcoming dates
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The Method

What is Mind Body Bridging?

A short, structured practice for returning to a high functioning and adaptable state of being.

Mapping

The core practice of Mind Body Bridging is a short written map, an exercise of responding to a troubling situation and scattering your thoughts and feelings around it, noticing your body and mind states. To be done in a few minutes, these maps allow Identity-System Functioning to become visible. That awareness allows a return to Natural Functioning.

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From the workbook

Bridging

Bridging practices use your senses to bring attention to the present moment and create an opportunity to return to Natural Functioning.

Next

See the four parts of the curriculum

View the curriculum
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Curriculum

Four parts

Each part of A Return to Healing describes a component of the I-System Model of Human Behavior. Every edition of the workbook teaches the same principles, but they are tailored to the audience with representative examples and verbiage.

The whole point

The mind runs in one of two modes. In Natural Functioning, the mind is clear and the body is regulated; you meet the moment as it is. In Identity-System Functioning, experience is filtered through self image and maladaptive behaviors are more likely.

The goal of the program is simple but takes practice: learn, moment to moment, which mode you are operating from, and recognize the very different impact each mode has on your presence, your health, your relationships, and your work.

Part 1

Identity-System Functioning

Reality is filtered through a lens of identity-consistency, with inconsistencies being a threat to the mind and body.

Mind clutter
Rumination, black-and-white thinking, anxiety, shame, overworking, withdrawing, etc.
Body tension
Muscle tension, fatigue or poor sleep, indigestion, etc.

Part 2

Natural Functioning

Your mind and body are balanced and better able to regulate, adapt, and respond to life as it is.

Part 3

Requirements

The internal rules about how you, others, or the world should be in order to maintain identity-consistency.

Part 4

Depressor and Fixer Storylines

The recursive cycle that maintains Identity-System Functioning.

The Depressor
Narratives that justify, explain, or defend your self-image.
The Fixer
Narratives launched in response to the deficiency created by The Depressor, aimed at restoring self-image.

Two practices run through all four parts

Mapping is a short written exercise that puts the brain's regulatory process on paper, where it can be seen with greater clarity.

Bridging uses the senses to return to Natural Functioning.

See the four programs

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Applications

Where this belongs

Anywhere people feel stress, which is to say almost anywhere.

Hospitals & Health Systems

Clinician well-being, group visits, and a teachable skill in any patient visit.

Medical Education

A structured curriculum that fits into medical school and residency training.

Companies & Teams

Steadier decisions, cleaner communication, and less burnout. A seminar and online sessions with examples from the working day.

High Schools, Colleges & Graduate Programs

Teachings delivered to students at any level, for exam pressure, transitions, and the weight of school.

Individuals & Community

Parents, teachers, business people, caregivers, students, retirees, and anyone who wants the practice for themselves. The workbook is written in plain language, for everyone.

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Who teaches it

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Faculty

Who directs it

A Return to Healing is co-directed by Lily Wright and Tricia Petzold, MD, primarily at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah.

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Lily Wright

Program Co-Director · Co-Author

Lily Wright is a medical student at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah and co-author of A Return to Healing. Her work centers on medical literature and translation, taking complex scientific subjects and rendering them in forms patients and clinicians can actually use. She co-directs the program with Tricia Petzold, MD.

Portrait of Tricia Petzold, MD

Tricia Petzold, MD

Program Co-Director · Co-Author

Tricia Petzold, MD, FMCP-M, is board-certified in family medicine and certified in functional medicine. She practices at Pinnacle Health, where she focuses on whole-person, integrative care. She also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah and co-directs its Whole Person Health Pathway of Excellence. Dr. Petzold is the co-author of A Return to Healing.

Next

When the next cohort meets

Upcoming dates
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Dates

Upcoming cohorts

The healthcare seminar runs on a calendar. The other editions are scheduled with you.

Open for applications

Healthcare Providers — Spring 2027

Two-day seminar March 20-21, 2027 · Four one-hour online sessions over next three months · Salt Lake City · 16 hrs CME

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Scheduled with you

Business

A seminar plus online sessions for your team, on site or online

Get details
Scheduled with you

Education

Teaching sessions for grade school, high school, college, or graduate program

Get details
Open now

Anyone — personal practice

Start the workbook any time · the online sessions are open to all

Get details

Cohort sizes are limited. Continuing-education accreditation and CME credit hours are confirmed at registration.

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Enroll

Register your interest

Tell us which program fits and where you’re coming from. We’ll follow up with next steps and dates.

How it works

Healthcare. A two-day seminar and four online sessions, with CME and Mind Body Bridging certification. See the Programs page for the full course details.

Business. Structure set with your organization, with a certificate of completion.

Education. A learning experience for students at any age, with no certification.

Anyone. The workbook plus the open online sessions, at your own pace.

lily.nilsen@hsc.utah.edu

tricia.petzold@hsc.utah.edu