Irene Lyon looking straight at the viewer, smiling warmly.
Nervous System

life you most want requires a nervous system capacity big enough to hold it.

If you suspect a dysregulated nervous system is at the root of the symptoms and patterns holding you back, this is where the real work of building regulation begins.

Nervous System

life you most want requires a nervous system capacity big enough to hold it.

If you suspect a dysregulated nervous system is at the root of the symptoms and patterns holding you back, this is where the real work of building regulation begins.

You’ve tried countless healing modalities — yet your chronic symptoms haven’t gone away, you’re easily overwhelmed, and you’re tired of shrinking your life just to cope.

You most want to feel safe and resilient in your body, present and connected in your relationships, and move beyond survival mode so you can fully live and do what you are meant to do on this planet.

You’ve tried countless healing modalities — yet your chronic symptoms haven’t gone away, you’re easily overwhelmed, and you’re tired of shrinking your life just to cope.

You most want to feel safe and resilient in your body, present and connected in your relationships, and move beyond survival mode so you can fully live and do what you are meant to do on this planet.

You’ve done the therapy, the supplements, the naturopaths. You’ve invested more than most people ever would. And still, you wake at 3am wired. When one thing in your day goes sideways, your whole system floods. You’re tired of your chronic symptoms running the show.

If that’s you, you’re in the right place.

A Resilient Nervous System
Starts Here ⚘

SmartBody SmartMindTM is the program that has helped thousands of students for over 10 years to resolve the symptoms rooted in stored trauma. The full program now unfolds in three parts, and Foundations is where everyone begins.

You’ve done the therapy, the supplements, the naturopaths. You’ve invested more than most people ever would. And still, you wake at 3am wired. When one thing in your day goes sideways, your whole system floods. You’re tired of your chronic symptoms running the show.

If that’s you, you’re in the right place.

A Resilient Nervous System
Starts Here ⚘

SmartBody SmartMindTM is the program that has helped thousands of students for over 10 years to resolve the symptoms rooted in stored trauma. The full program now unfolds in three parts, and Foundations is where everyone begins.

Foundations

Establish Awareness & Basic Skills

Gain the fundamentals that set the stage for healing. Learn to settle into the present moment, understand what your body is actually telling you, and stay with a sensation without shutting it down or pushing through. Through small, doable practices, you’ll begin building nervous system fluency.

What this leaves you with:
A felt sense of how your own nervous system works, and the first real skills to work with it instead of against it. This foundation makes the deeper work possible, and starts the process of building capacity by supporting your ability to integrate education and practice into your daily life, which is what this work is all about. It’s not about ‘getting fixed,’ it’s about fundamentally changing the way you relate to yourself and the world around you. 

Level 1

Build Capacity, Safety & Education

With the foundations in place, you can begin expanding your capacity through these deeper practices, while starting to work directly with stored survival stress.  You will learn powerful tools that help you stay contained and safe as you explore more nuanced orienting practices, and work with your physiology with greater intentionality and precision. You’ll also learn how to support the organ systems most directly impacted by early developmental trauma and chronic stress, while gaining a world-class understanding of nervous system physiology via the Biology of Stress video series. 

What this leaves you with:
Previous SBSM students have reported gentle, but meaningful shifts in sleep, digestion, mood, and other symptoms of dysregulation. You’ll gain a greater ability to be more present with difficult sensations and emotions, and more fluency with what your body is actually telling you. As survival stress starts to find exits out of your system, you’ll experience a growing sense that your nervous system can hold more, recover more easily, and meet life with greater resilience.

Level 2

Heal The Deeper Material

This is where older, deeper survival stress gets a chance to move and resolve. The work focuses on the fight-or-flight energy that’s been stuck in your system, the healthy aggression and other primal emotions that may have been buried for a lifetime, and the early trauma that needed a strong container before it could be safely accessed. More advanced neural rewiring practices and nuanced movement explorations deepen awareness of the body and nervous system, supporting greater integration. This is the deeper work made possible by the foundational skills, education, and capacity built in Foundations and Level 1.

What this leaves you with:
A nervous system that can stay regulated under the real pressures of life. Fewer symptoms, more vitality. Greater resilience and capacity to fully engage with life.

Foundations

Establish Awareness & Basic Skills

Gain the fundamentals that set the stage for healing. Learn to settle into the present moment, understand what your body is actually telling you, and stay with a sensation without shutting it down or pushing through. Through small, doable practices, you’ll begin building nervous system fluency.

What this leaves you with:
A felt sense of how your own nervous system works, and the first real skills to work with it instead of against it. This foundation makes the deeper work possible, and starts the process of building capacity by supporting your ability to integrate education and practice into your daily life, which is what this work is all about. It’s not about ‘getting fixed,’ it’s about fundamentally changing the way you relate to yourself and the world around you. 

Level 1

Build Capacity, Safety & Education

With the foundations in place, you can begin expanding your capacity through these deeper practices, while starting to work directly with stored survival stress.  You will learn powerful tools that help you stay contained and safe as you explore more nuanced orienting practices, and work with your physiology with greater intentionality and precision. You’ll also learn how to support the organ systems most directly impacted by early developmental trauma and chronic stress, while gaining a world-class understanding of nervous system physiology via the Biology of Stress video series. 

What this leaves you with:
Previous SBSM students have reported gentle, but meaningful shifts in sleep, digestion, mood, and other symptoms of dysregulation. You’ll gain a greater ability to be more present with difficult sensations and emotions, and more fluency with what your body is actually telling you. As survival stress starts to find exits out of your system, you’ll experience a growing sense that your nervous system can hold more, recover more easily, and meet life with greater resilience.

Level 2

Heal The Deeper Material

This is where older, deeper survival stress gets a chance to move and resolve. The work focuses on the fight-or-flight energy that’s been stuck in your system, the healthy aggression and other primal emotions that may have been buried for a lifetime, and the early trauma that needed a strong container before it could be safely accessed. More advanced neural rewiring practices and nuanced movement explorations deepen awareness of the body and nervous system, supporting greater integration. This is the deeper work made possible by the foundational skills, education, and capacity built in Foundations and Level 1.

What this leaves you with:
A nervous system that can stay regulated under the real pressures of life. Fewer symptoms, more vitality. Greater resilience and capacity to fully engage with life.

Start with SBSM Foundations Today!

SBSM Logo DNA strand

This program is the first step on your journey to nervous system regulation. It’s designed to be a bite-sized, simple, and easy-to-complete learning experience that gives you a taste of what this work is all about, through building a strong foundation.

What’s Included:

8 x Training Videos by Irene

The essential education you need to finally understand what it takes to build real somatic capacity and genuine regulation in your nervous system, beyond managing and masking your symptoms. Alongside Irene’s face-to-camera teaching, short practice points are woven into the call so you stay connected to yourself and your environment as you learn. Each training video comes with Fill-In-The-Blank Handouts to keep you actively engaged. Show up, follow the prompts, and learn!

4 x Neurosensory Audio Lessons

These audio lessons guide you through simple yet essential practices that reconnect you with the foundational autonomic and sensory-motor processes of your body. These lessons help you cultivate the deep attunement to your body that is your birthright. Through a blend of experiential practice and theory, you’ll come to understand and experience your physiology in an entirely new way. Each lesson is approximately 15–30 minutes long, and designed to be an ongoing practice.

2 Pre-Recorded Curated Q&A Videos

These two-hour calls were recorded during the first live run of SBSM Foundations, and every question comes straight from the participants in that cohort. They cover some of the most common questions that come up when you start building capacity, healing trauma, and restoring regulation through the SBSM lessons. Both calls are co-led by Irene and her husband and colleague, Seth Lyon.

5 x Hand-Picked Additional Resources

With so much information online, it is hard to know what (and who) to trust for supplementary learning. These are some of the gems Irene returns to again and again to help her students understand why working at this deeper nervous system level matters so much. Each resource was chosen to show the breadth, depth, and humanity of this important evolutionary healing work.

Start with SBSM Foundations Today!

SBSM Logo DNA strand

This program is the first step on your journey to nervous system regulation. It’s designed to be a bite-sized, simple, and easy-to-complete learning experience that gives you a taste of what this work is all about, through building a strong foundation.

What’s Included:

8 x Training Videos by Irene

The essential education you need to finally understand what it takes to build real somatic capacity and genuine regulation in your nervous system, beyond managing and masking your symptoms. Alongside Irene’s face-to-camera teaching, short practice points are woven into the call so you stay connected to yourself and your environment as you learn. Each training video comes with Fill-In-The-Blank Handouts to keep you actively engaged. Show up, follow the prompts, and learn!

4 x Neurosensory Audio Lessons

These audio lessons guide you through simple yet essential practices that reconnect you with the foundational autonomic and sensory-motor processes of your body. These lessons help you cultivate the deep attunement to your body that is your birthright. Through a blend of experiential practice and theory, you’ll come to understand and experience your physiology in an entirely new way. Each lesson is approximately 15–30 minutes long, and designed to be an ongoing practice.

2 Pre-Recorded Curated Q&A Videos

These two-hour calls were recorded during the first live run of SBSM Foundations, and every question comes straight from the participants in that cohort. They cover some of the most common questions that come up when you start building capacity, healing trauma, and restoring regulation through the SBSM lessons. Both calls are co-led by Irene and her husband and colleague, Seth Lyon.

5 x Hand-Picked Additional Resources

With so much information online, it is hard to know what (and who) to trust for supplementary learning. These are some of the gems Irene returns to again and again to help her students understand why working at this deeper nervous system level matters so much. Each resource was chosen to show the breadth, depth, and humanity of this important evolutionary healing work.

Key Concepts Taught:

  • The foundational practices that can help you learn to attune to and work with your nervous system

  • Why symptoms like chronic illness, anxiety, pain, and relational struggles are the nervous system’s adaptations to an overwhelming past — not character flaws or fixed conditions

  • The Swimming Pool Analogy: Why capacity is the real goal (not symptom suppression)

  • Why approaches like willpower, mindset shifts, or breathwork alone don’t reach the autonomic level where the real change happens

  • The difference between consuming nervous system content and actually integrating this work at a level that creates lasting change in your physiology

Key Concepts Taught:

  • The foundational practices that can help you learn to attune to and work with your nervous system

  • Why symptoms like chronic illness, anxiety, pain, and relational struggles are the nervous system’s adaptations to an overwhelming past — not character flaws or fixed conditions

  • The Swimming Pool Analogy: Why capacity is the real goal (not symptom suppression)

  • Why approaches like willpower, mindset shifts, or breathwork alone don’t reach the autonomic level where the real change happens

  • The difference between consuming nervous system content and actually integrating this work at a level that creates lasting change in your physiology

Key Practices & Skills You’ll Learn:

  • Locate and Learn When to Use Your Resources: The external anchors (a warm drink, a blanket, music, time in nature) that give your system something soothing to come back to

  • Ground Powerfully in the Here and Now: connect with your environment and your body at the same time through a practice called orienting

  • Follow your Biological Impulse: a deceptively simple skill that builds self-attunement and internal safety

  • Containment: How to be with what arises in your body without either shutting it down or overriding it

  • Nervous System First Aid: The “4 Whens”: when to orient, when to resource, when a deep breath actually helps, and what to do when you genuinely don’t know what your system needs

This learning is all in service toward creating more flow, (aka coherence) in your nervous system, which grows your capacity and awakens your body’s innate healing intelligence.

The body already knows the way — it simply needs the conditions to heal.

Key Practices & Skills You’ll Learn:

  • Locate and Learn When to Use Your Resources: The external anchors (a warm drink, a blanket, music, time in nature) that give your system something soothing to come back to

  • Ground Powerfully in the Here and Now: connect with your environment and your body at the same time through a practice called orienting

  • Follow your Biological Impulse: a deceptively simple skill that builds self-attunement and internal safety

  • Containment: How to be with what arises in your body without either shutting it down or overriding it

  • Nervous System First Aid: The “4 Whens”: when to orient, when to resource, when a deep breath actually helps, and what to do when you genuinely don’t know what your system needs

This learning is all in service toward creating more flow, (aka coherence) in your nervous system, which grows your capacity and awakens your body’s innate healing intelligence.

The body already knows the way — it simply needs the conditions to heal.

What Makes SmartBody SmartMind™ Different

Most healing modalities put the expert at the center. You show up, receive the treatment, and go home and wait to feel better.

SmartBody SmartMind™ is built on a different premise entirely: that your body innately knows how to heal itself, and the real work is learning how to work with it.

Your nervous system might be dysregulated, but it’s not broken. It adapted to accommodate stored survival stress and perhaps years or even decades of unsafety. And because it adapted once, it can adapt again. That’s neuroplasticity — your brain and nervous system’s built-in capacity to learn (by changing their structure and wiring over time).

If regulation was never fully wired in during childhood, or was interrupted by trauma or chronic stress, the science is clear: it is never too late to learn.

What Makes SmartBody SmartMind™ Different

Most healing modalities put the expert at the center. You show up, receive the treatment, and go home and wait to feel better.

SmartBody SmartMind™ is built on a different premise entirely: that your body innately knows how to heal itself, and the real work is learning how to work with it.

Your nervous system might be dysregulated, but it’s not broken. It adapted to accommodate stored survival stress and perhaps years or even decades of unsafety. And because it adapted once, it can adapt again. That’s neuroplasticity — your brain and nervous system’s built-in capacity to learn (by changing their structure and wiring over time).

If regulation was never fully wired in during childhood, or was interrupted by trauma or chronic stress, the science is clear: it is never too late to learn.

I like to say that my work is fundamentally about relearning how to learn, and I mean that quite literally.

From an early age, we were taught to look outside ourselves for the answers: to the teacher, the grade, the gold star, the diagnosis, the protocol. That conditioning shapes the way most of us approach healing too. But your nervous system doesn’t learn that way… it never did.

Watch any healthy infant learning to roll, to reach, to walk. They were given no instruction manual, no reward, no external cue. They just followed their felt experience, curiosity, and their body’s innate intelligence.

That capacity is your birthright.
It’s just been buried.

I like to say that my work is fundamentally about relearning how to learn, and I mean that quite literally.

From an early age, we were taught to look outside ourselves for the answers: to the teacher, the grade, the gold star, the diagnosis, the protocol. That conditioning shapes the way most of us approach healing too. But your nervous system doesn’t learn that way… it never did.

Watch any healthy infant learning to roll, to reach, to walk. They were given no instruction manual, no reward, no external cue. They just followed their felt experience, curiosity, and their body’s innate intelligence.

That capacity is your birthright. It’s just been buried.

As Robert Scaer, one of the pioneers of the new traumatology, put it: “Unfortunately for our species, our cages are often cultural and of our own making.”

In SBSM, you find your way out of that cage by rebuilding your relationship with your intrinsic impulse to learn, to feel, and to trust what your body is telling you.

You learn to speak the language of your nervous system directly, so you no longer depend on a healer to do that for you. As a result, you become the most important agent in your own healing.

That is what makes this work stick. As you rewire how you learn from the inside out, these concepts and skills are with you for life.

As Robert Scaer, one of the pioneers of the new traumatology, put it: “Unfortunately for our species, our cages are often cultural and of our own making.”

In SBSM, you find your way out of that cage by rebuilding your relationship with your intrinsic impulse to learn, to feel, and to trust what your body is telling you.

You learn to speak the language of your nervous system directly, so you no longer depend on a healer to do that for you. As a result, you become the most important agent in your own healing.

That is what makes this work stick. As you rewire how you learn from the inside out, these concepts and skills are with you for life.

Is this program
for me?

This program is for you if you’re done waiting to be fixed and ready to become an active participant in your own healing. That doesn’t mean you need to be well — it means you’re willing to show up consistently, even when progress feels slow.

The people who thrive in SBSM tend to share a few things in common: enough hope to keep going, some form of support in their lives, a degree of stability (they’re not currently in active crisis), and a real understanding that they are the ones who have to do this work. No program, practitioner, or protocol can do it for them.

The people who do best here also tend to be old souls who sense there’s something deeper behind their symptoms. They’ve been on this path for a while. And they’re ready to do what it takes to heal — for real.

If that’s you, you’re in the right place.

Are these testimonials for the SBSM Foundations program?

Nervous system regulation isn’t just something I teach — it’s something I’ve lived.

Since 1999, I’ve been on my own healing journey. I’ve felt the frustration, the setbacks, and walked the path. I know firsthand the lasting, radiant health that’s possible when you heal stored trauma and build true regulation — and I’ve helped thousands do the same.

I created SBSM because working with clients one-on-one wasn’t enough for them to heal for real. I gave clients homework — audio lessons, daily practices, and the education they needed to understand how trauma and the nervous system work in their own physiology. SmartBody SmartMind™ was born from that material, and over the past ten years it has helped thousands worldwide restore regulation from their own homes, at their own pace.

Over and over, participants say they wish they’d found this work sooner. When people show up consistently and honour their limits, something shifts — and it sticks.

Now it’s your turn. Join us.

Nervous system regulation isn’t just something I teach — it’s something I’ve lived.

Since 1999, I’ve been on my own healing journey. I’ve felt the frustration, the setbacks, and walked the path. I know firsthand the lasting, radiant health that’s possible when you heal stored trauma and build true regulation — and I’ve helped thousands do the same.

I created SBSM because working with clients one-on-one wasn’t enough for them to heal for real. I gave clients homework — audio lessons, daily practices, and the education they needed to understand how trauma and the nervous system work in their own physiology. SmartBody SmartMind™ was born from that material, and over the past ten years it has helped thousands worldwide restore regulation from their own homes, at their own pace.

Over and over, participants say they wish they’d found this work sooner. When people show up consistently and honour their limits, something shifts — and it sticks.

Now it’s your turn. Join us.

SmartBody SmartMind™ Foundations is a self-study online program and lifestyle shift that builds your capacity to create radiant health at the root.

The program will open for ongoing registration in July, 2026

1 Payment of $297 USD

SmartBody SmartMind is not a replacement for private or group therapeutic work with a trained professional. It is first and foremost an educational and skill building program that will equip you with the foundational practices and education of nervous system work.

PS – Got questions? Please email us via
support@irenelyon.com

SmartBody SmartMind™ Foundations is a self-study online program and lifestyle shift that builds your capacity to create radiant health at the root.

The program will open for ongoing registration in July, 2026

1 Payment of $297 USD

SmartBody SmartMind is not a replacement for private or group therapeutic work with a trained professional. It is first and foremost an educational and skill building program that will equip you with the foundational practices and education of nervous system work.

PS – Got questions? Please email us via
support@irenelyon.com

questionsHave some more questions?

FAQS

Read below where I address some of the most frequently asked questions about SmartBody SmartMind™ (SBSM)

To date thousands of people from over 80 countries have ‘walked’ the virtual hallways of SBSM, and they are making remarkable progress in how they live, heal, parent, work, connect, love, and so much more.

All good questions, and important to address up front.

SBSM Foundations is a brand new online program that serves as an entry point (consider it a pre-requisite) into the full SBSM curriculum. It is the foundational starting point. It is not the complete SBSM curriculum.

It is also entirely different from the 21 Day Nervous System Tune-Up.

For ten years, SBSM has run as a single 12-week program that delivered the full curriculum to every student at once. Thousands of people from over 80 countries have moved through this material, and over 19 live rounds Irene and her team have taken in feedback from participants, watched what works well, what works better, and what could be improved.  

This new evolution of SBSM means we are putting the Foundations first.

And these foundational lessons are different from all other lessons that have come before, both in SBSM and in the 21 Day Nervous System Tune-Up. Rather than separating theory and practice, Irene is weaving them together from the start, so the education and the neurosensory exercises land at the same time, in the same place, in the body. The deeper layers of the SBSM curriculum continue from there, in the tiers that follow.

A few important things to know:

  • The success stories and testimonials linked on this page were shared by graduates of the full 12-week SBSM program. Because Foundations is brand new, we do not have student stories based on the Foundations’ lessons and teaching. However, the Foundations program is built on SBSM’s core principles, namely how Irene teaches the basics of nervous system health, plus essential capacity-building teachings. We look forward to sharing Foundations student stories as they emerge.

  • Registration for the full 12-week SBSM program in its previous format is currently paused while Irene rolls out this new structure. Foundations is the way to begin SBSM right now.

If you have questions about whether Foundations is the right step for you, reach out to support@irenelyon.com. We’re happy to help.

This SBSM Foundations program includes four Neurosensory Lessons (audio recordings) guided by Irene that you can follow in the comfort of your home on your own time. 

The practices include, but are not limited to, the following basics:

  • Basic orienting
  • Breath awareness
  • Sensing and connecting with the environment 
  • Following your biological impulse
  • Self-touch and containment
  • Feldenkraisian movement exploration

From the outside, these practices can look surprisingly ordinary, even underwhelming. You might be sitting in a chair, lying on the floor, or standing at your kitchen counter, slowly turning your head and letting your eyes take in the room, noticing the weight of your body pressing into whatever surface is holding you, following a small impulse to shift position, or simply paying attention to any arising tensions, sensations, or your breath.

How any of this feels will depend entirely on the state of your unique nervous system. You might feel relaxed, or bored, or notice a sensation or tension arise. You might feel suddenly sleepy, emotional, or have a memory surface. Part of the learning is discovering the state of your own nervous system, experientially, in a slow and titrated way. The goal at the beginning isn’t dramatic shifts. It’s to start listening, and to keep listening, until your nervous system begins to trust that you’re paying attention.

What you’re doing in all of these practices is learning to sense your own physiological experience from the inside out. The point is never to ‘perform a technique correctly.’ It’s to develop what Irene calls fluency in the language of somatic experience, and to begin responding to yourself the way a caring, attuned parent would respond to a young child.

These practices are also designed to carry over into daily life. Orienting before you start your car. Feeling the ground under you in a checkout line. Noticing your breath before you eat. The lessons teach you the skill; your life becomes the practice ground.

Yes! And No! Let us explain 🙂

Irene has had a LOT of great teachers and mentors over the course of more than 20 years of study. For her full bio and credentials, CLICK HERE.

All of this learning informs this program, so there is education and practice in here that stems from many sources; most notably the work of Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), Kathy Kain (Somatic Practice), and Moshe Feldenkrais (The Feldenkrais Method).

These three main methodologies form the base of the work presented in SmartBody SmartMind™ and they complement each other. Together they present a holistic approach to healing trauma and restoring regulation.

Irene’s gift is putting all these very complex elements together in a way that is easy to understand, sequenced in the right way, and in an online format that is easy to use. So, while the content of SBSM – the video lectures, articles, training calls, and Neurosensory Audio lessons that you will receive – are informed by all Irene has learned, they are Irene’s unique creation.

It’s not possible to give a definitive answer to this often asked question because everyone is unique! For some people, through dedicated application of the education in the SmartBody SmartMind curriculum (meaning ALL the curiculum, not just Foundations), it can be enough.

Other people will need additional support such as individual sessions with a skilled somatic practitioner, and/or the application of other modalities that can complement this work, such as osteopathy, craniosacral therapy, massage, nutritional or naturopathic support, or other methods. If you are uncertain on what level of support you may need we recommend you consult with appropriate healthcare providers.

It’s important to knaw that this program provides deep education and practical tools that can benefit you tremendously. And, while it complements one-on-one therapy beautifully, it is not a substitute for one-on-one therapy. And, not everyone needs one-on-one therapy.

One thing that is VERY important to understand is this: no matter who you are, what you’ve been through, or at what level of dysregulation your system is operating, we believe this education and practice is foundational. With this foundational work on board, everything else can be more effective. The somatic nervous system approach is the core foundation of well-being.

Another thing to know is that this work is not about ‘getting fixed’ in the way that we often think of healing in Western culture. Yes, symptoms can resolve and health can improve, yet this work is meant to be a lifestyle shift that fundamentally changes how you relate to yourself, others, and the world around you all day, every day. It’s about learning how to live differently, and that can bring healing. And like any big change in how we live, it takes time and dedicated practice to really be effective.

While it is not our intention to place limitations on anyone’s personal choice to take part in the educational content and experiential nature of the SBSM program, please be advised that this program may not be appropriate for individuals experiencing any of the following: diagnosed severe and longstanding psychiatric disorder, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, substance abuse, or addiction. This work is also not suitable for anyone living in extreme activation and instability most of the time – meaning, it’s very difficult to accomplish even your most basic needs due to being constantly overwhelmed and in terror.

Also, your living situation must be safe enough to do this work. This means you are not currently living with an abuser, or in a highly dysfunctional relationship. Our home environment MUST be a safe haven in order to do this work. There are some borderline situations that can sometimes work, for example, as an adult you are living with parents who were abusive but now are providing financial support – in a case like this, as long as you have a room with a lock on the door that is YOUR safe space, that can work.

We have had people from all walks of life find success within SBSM, and if you are uncertain if this program is appropriate for you, we recommend you consult with appropriate healthcare providers before beginning.

The program is self-study so your pace is up to you, but there is a suggested outline that  asks for roughly 2 hours of your time per week. The neurosensory audio lessons vary in length from 15-30 minutes and are designed to be integrated into your daily life rather than added on top of it. Essentially, you want to practice them until you have them internalized, and the amount of time it takes people to do that will vary, but you could roughly estimate an additional 30-60 minutes weekly for practice until you have them integrated into your way of living.

This is a lifestyle-based program, kept intentionally short and doable — because that’s how real change happens.

The nervous system, though incredibly powerful in governing our bodily functions and impacting our health and well being, is essentially invisible. It’s IN us in the form of electrical impulses and neurochemical and muscular actions those impulses direct. However, you can’t point to it on a chart and say ‘See, here’s your trauma, here, and also here.’ So, it can be difficult to understand how important it really is until you get into the education and practice, and experience it for yourself.

Many past participants have been skeptical and not sure it would work, or that it might help a little but not really be a game-changer, as one of our alumni, Amy, talks about in this video at the 1:32 mark.

Bottom line is this – if you feel in your gut that this is something you need, even if your mind is resistant, consider taking the plunge and checking it out!

No. There is no certification associated with the program. The program does not certify you to practice this work with others.

However, if you are already a practitioner who works with clients, and if you move beyond Foundations into the deeper levels of the SBSM curriculum, what you will come out with is a huge set of knowledge and tools that can change how you see and work with your clients. Alumni who are practitioners have almost universally said that they aren’t even necessarily trying to change how they do their work, it just happens.

This is because when we deepen our ability to connect with our self, we automatically deepen our ability to connect with others. Increased self knowledge and a greatly refined ability to sense both your internal world and the world around you can impact how you work and live, in profound and beneficial ways for both you and your clients.

While this work can certainly help with, and even resolve these types of severe health issues, it’s very important to also recognize that there can be multiple, more complicated causes for such problems which may not be related directly to trauma and the expected resultant nervous system dysfunction.

If symptoms, issues and conditions arose due to things such as: exposure to toxicity in the air, water, or soil either from chemicals, mold, poor sanitation, or other, various forms of radiation, pharmaceutical interventions, hormonal imbalance issues, or if there were and are severe deficiencies in nutrients or other things the body needs, other interventions may also be necessary in addition to this work.

Some of these interventions could include things like: dietary change to support better nutrition and/or hydration; various detox protocols such as chelation therapy, oxygen therapy, or with a product like Pure Body or Pure Body Extra, which Irene and Seth have both used to detox from heavy metals in the body, and which they recommend.

Other helpful interventions they’ve been using include exposure to natural light outside first thing upon waking (no glasses or contacts), which supports circadian rhythms and mitochondrial health, and grounding with bare feet on the Earth frequently, which discharges electrical buildup in the system and facilitates a beneficial electron exchange.

Getting fresh air and moderate to intense exercise regularly can be very helpful, as is hydrotherapy – going from hot to cold, for flushing the lymphatic system and promoting good circulation. Here are some links to interviews Irene has done with various teachers in these fields, as well as some other resources she recommends:

Healing from toxins & detoxing with zeolite (interview with Eddie Stone)

Understanding sunlight for health and healing with Carrie Bennett

Harnessing the sun for health and healing with Sarah Kleiner

Hydrotherapy, Terrain Theory, & Naturopathic Musings

My health regimen (20 years in the making!)

This program is not intended to treat or cure any disease or illness, including any diagnosed mental illness.

That said, anyone can benefit from increased nervous system regulation. A person needs to be well enough, and organized enough in their thinking to watch and absorb the education, and do the practices. So, someone presenting with a very extreme symptom like paranoid schizophrenia will not be able to benefit from this program, whereas someone struggling with a condition like OCD, anxiety, or depression, most likely will.

As long as one is well enough that they can show up, put in the time, and comprehend what is happening, they will likely benefit.

YES it can! There are so many helpers, healers, and practitioners out there who got into their work because they were unwell, and then managed to get better and wanted to help others, but who still struggle with persistent symptoms, low energy, or a tendency to burn out. Often, this is because the things they found to help them weren’t getting to the root cause, but rather were more based in symptom management. So they continue to go up and down in their health and well-being.

If this is you, then THIS can be the piece you are missing. When you do this work and restore health and well-being from the ground up by regulating your nervous system, your whole world can change. Not only can your health improve, so can the health of your clients, because you may naturally start to bring your new skills, increased knowledge, and your own nervous system regulation into your practice.

We truly can only help others to the degree to which we, ourselves, are healed. So start with YOU. This program can help you do that!

It depends on their age. Older kids, like ages 14-18, probably could do this work if they wanted to, though not many teenagers are very interested in self-development! Younger kids, no, probably not.

What ALL kids can benefit from, though, is their parents doing the work! When we, as parents, start on this journey, and learn about our physiology – what’s going on inside us, and are able to understand why we behave, think, and feel the way we do – that can give us so much more insight into why our kids behave, think, and feel how they do. As we learn to work with our own body and mind in this nervous system-based way, we can learn how to help them.

And even more powerful and profound is the way that our own increased regulation can automatically increase our kids’ regulation. It just happens! As we become safer inside ourselves, they can feel safer around us. As our stress goes down, so can theirs. It’s really pretty miraculous how just one person doing this trauma healing work can positively affect their entire family system. For more on this, check out this video Irene made addressing this topic and Better Parenting via Nervous System Health Masterclass with Irene & Seth.

With Foundations, we are only exploring the most basic practices, which are not intended to ‘stir stuff up’, but rather to help you become more connected to the present moment and slowly build your capacity.

And, when we start turning our attention to our body, and more specifically, our nervous system, with the intention of healing our trauma, we may inevitably start to feel things that have historically been overwhelming, but generally speaking the system will tend to not give us more than we can process, especially with the kind of slow, titrated approach we will take in Foundations.

Yes. This work works for ALL kinds of trauma.

With early/developmental trauma, one of the biggest things that gets challenged is our sense of safety in connection with others, the environment, and even ourselves. And often with this kind of trauma our authenticity is never supported, and so autonomy – the need to do it OUR way – can be very important.

Online learning like this can be very well suited for this type of situation, because you get to engage with the material in your familiar home environment, at your own pace, when and how you want to. You can engage and be social with your fellow students in the private forum, or simply read what others have to say. This enables a safe, autonomous way to learn and heal which is very well suited for treating early/developmental trauma.

Irene wrote this article about online learning and healing that goes further into some of these points.

Since we are not doctors, psychiatrists, or medical professionals, we cannot advise you on whether or not to take medications. However, we can tell you what we have seen anecdotally with our clients.

Many of us on Team Lyon have worked with clients who were taking some form of psychoactive medication, with varying results. One thing that is common for most though, is that eventually they hit a ceiling with the somatic work, due to the suppressive effects of many of these medications. That being said, Foundations includes only the most basic practices, which would generally be the most complementary for someone who is on such a medication.

We are at a point in time wherein a lot of this new traumatology work (Peter Levine’s included) had not been rigorously tested via the scientific methods (see below for that changing!) and there is a good reason for this, one of which being that it is very hard to get accurate data in living systems (especially the nervous system).

This was one of the hard lessons Irene learned while doing her masters of research in biomedical science with humans. Her dissertation is linked on irenelyon.com (via this link to her credentials).

However, we do have some evidence! Here is a post that shares an offical study that was done on the efficacy of SmartBody SmartMind.

Due to the digital nature of the course and because all the material is available to you immediately upon joining, no refunds are offered for any reason.

questionsHave some more questions?

FAQS

Read below where I address some of the most frequently asked questions about SmartBody SmartMind™ (SBSM)

To date thousands of people from over 80 countries have ‘walked’ the virtual hallways of SBSM, and they are making remarkable progress in how they live, heal, parent, work, connect, love, and so much more.

All good questions, and important to address up front.

SBSM Foundations is a brand new online program that serves as an entry point (consider it a pre-requisite) into the full SBSM curriculum. It is the foundational starting point. It is not the complete SBSM curriculum.

It is also entirely different from the 21 Day Nervous System Tune-Up.

For ten years, SBSM has run as a single 12-week program that delivered the full curriculum to every student at once. Thousands of people from over 80 countries have moved through this material, and over 19 live rounds Irene and her team have taken in feedback from participants, watched what works well, what works better, and what could be improved.  

This new evolution of SBSM means we are putting the Foundations first.

And these foundational lessons are different from all other lessons that have come before, both in SBSM and in the 21 Day Nervous System Tune-Up. Rather than separating theory and practice, Irene is weaving them together from the start, so the education and the neurosensory exercises land at the same time, in the same place, in the body. The deeper layers of the SBSM curriculum continue from there, in the tiers that follow.

A few important things to know:

  • The success stories and testimonials linked on this page were shared by graduates of the full 12-week SBSM program. Because Foundations is brand new, we do not have student stories based on the Foundations’ lessons and teaching. However, the Foundations program is built on SBSM’s core principles, namely how Irene teaches the basics of nervous system health, plus essential capacity-building teachings. We look forward to sharing Foundations student stories as they emerge.

  • Registration for the full 12-week SBSM program in its previous format is currently paused while Irene rolls out this new structure. Foundations is the way to begin SBSM right now.

If you have questions about whether Foundations is the right step for you, reach out to support@irenelyon.com. We’re happy to help.

This SBSM Foundations program includes four Neurosensory Lessons (audio recordings) guided by Irene that you can follow in the comfort of your home on your own time. 

The practices include, but are not limited to, the following basics:

  • Basic orienting
  • Breath awareness
  • Sensing and connecting with the environment 
  • Following your biological impulse
  • Self-touch and containment
  • Feldenkraisian movement exploration

From the outside, these practices can look surprisingly ordinary, even underwhelming. You might be sitting in a chair, lying on the floor, or standing at your kitchen counter, slowly turning your head and letting your eyes take in the room, noticing the weight of your body pressing into whatever surface is holding you, following a small impulse to shift position, or simply paying attention to any arising tensions, sensations, or your breath.

How any of this feels will depend entirely on the state of your unique nervous system. You might feel relaxed, or bored, or notice a sensation or tension arise. You might feel suddenly sleepy, emotional, or have a memory surface. Part of the learning is discovering the state of your own nervous system, experientially, in a slow and titrated way. The goal at the beginning isn’t dramatic shifts. It’s to start listening, and to keep listening, until your nervous system begins to trust that you’re paying attention.

What you’re doing in all of these practices is learning to sense your own physiological experience from the inside out. The point is never to ‘perform a technique correctly.’ It’s to develop what Irene calls fluency in the language of somatic experience, and to begin responding to yourself the way a caring, attuned parent would respond to a young child.

These practices are also designed to carry over into daily life. Orienting before you start your car. Feeling the ground under you in a checkout line. Noticing your breath before you eat. The lessons teach you the skill; your life becomes the practice ground.

Yes! And No! Let us explain 🙂

Irene has had a LOT of great teachers and mentors over the course of more than 20 years of study. For her full bio and credentials, CLICK HERE.

All of this learning informs this program, so there is education and practice in here that stems from many sources; most notably the work of Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), Kathy Kain (Somatic Practice), and Moshe Feldenkrais (The Feldenkrais Method).

These three main methodologies form the base of the work presented in SmartBody SmartMind™ and they complement each other. Together they present a holistic approach to healing trauma and restoring regulation.

Irene’s gift is putting all these very complex elements together in a way that is easy to understand, sequenced in the right way, and in an online format that is easy to use. So, while the content of SBSM – the video lectures, articles, training calls, and Neurosensory Audio lessons that you will receive – are informed by all Irene has learned, they are Irene’s unique creation.

It’s not possible to give a definitive answer to this often asked question because everyone is unique! For some people, through dedicated application of the education in the SmartBody SmartMind curriculum (meaning ALL the curiculum, not just Foundations), it can be enough.

Other people will need additional support such as individual sessions with a skilled somatic practitioner, and/or the application of other modalities that can complement this work, such as osteopathy, craniosacral therapy, massage, nutritional or naturopathic support, or other methods. If you are uncertain on what level of support you may need we recommend you consult with appropriate healthcare providers.

It’s important to knaw that this program provides deep education and practical tools that can benefit you tremendously. And, while it complements one-on-one therapy beautifully, it is not a substitute for one-on-one therapy. And, not everyone needs one-on-one therapy.

One thing that is VERY important to understand is this: no matter who you are, what you’ve been through, or at what level of dysregulation your system is operating, we believe this education and practice is foundational. With this foundational work on board, everything else can be more effective. The somatic nervous system approach is the core foundation of well-being.

Another thing to know is that this work is not about ‘getting fixed’ in the way that we often think of healing in Western culture. Yes, symptoms can resolve and health can improve, yet this work is meant to be a lifestyle shift that fundamentally changes how you relate to yourself, others, and the world around you all day, every day. It’s about learning how to live differently, and that can bring healing. And like any big change in how we live, it takes time and dedicated practice to really be effective.

While it is not our intention to place limitations on anyone’s personal choice to take part in the educational content and experiential nature of the SBSM program, please be advised that this program may not be appropriate for individuals experiencing any of the following: diagnosed severe and longstanding psychiatric disorder, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, substance abuse, or addiction. This work is also not suitable for anyone living in extreme activation and instability most of the time – meaning, it’s very difficult to accomplish even your most basic needs due to being constantly overwhelmed and in terror.

Also, your living situation must be safe enough to do this work. This means you are not currently living with an abuser, or in a highly dysfunctional relationship. Our home environment MUST be a safe haven in order to do this work. There are some borderline situations that can sometimes work, for example, as an adult you are living with parents who were abusive but now are providing financial support – in a case like this, as long as you have a room with a lock on the door that is YOUR safe space, that can work.

We have had people from all walks of life find success within SBSM, and if you are uncertain if this program is appropriate for you, we recommend you consult with appropriate healthcare providers before beginning.

The program is self-study so your pace is up to you, but there is a suggested outline that  asks for roughly 2 hours of your time per week. The neurosensory audio lessons vary in length from 15-30 minutes and are designed to be integrated into your daily life rather than added on top of it. Essentially, you want to practice them until you have them internalized, and the amount of time it takes people to do that will vary, but you could roughly estimate an additional 30-60 minutes weekly for practice until you have them integrated into your way of living.

This is a lifestyle-based program, kept intentionally short and doable — because that’s how real change happens.

The nervous system, though incredibly powerful in governing our bodily functions and impacting our health and well being, is essentially invisible. It’s IN us in the form of electrical impulses and neurochemical and muscular actions those impulses direct. However, you can’t point to it on a chart and say ‘See, here’s your trauma, here, and also here.’ So, it can be difficult to understand how important it really is until you get into the education and practice, and experience it for yourself.

Many past participants have been skeptical and not sure it would work, or that it might help a little but not really be a game-changer, as one of our alumni, Amy, talks about in this video at the 1:32 mark.

Bottom line is this – if you feel in your gut that this is something you need, even if your mind is resistant, consider taking the plunge and checking it out!

No. There is no certification associated with the program. The program does not certify you to practice this work with others.

However, if you are already a practitioner who works with clients, and if you move beyond Foundations into the deeper levels of the SBSM curriculum, what you will come out with is a huge set of knowledge and tools that can change how you see and work with your clients. Alumni who are practitioners have almost universally said that they aren’t even necessarily trying to change how they do their work, it just happens.

This is because when we deepen our ability to connect with our self, we automatically deepen our ability to connect with others. Increased self knowledge and a greatly refined ability to sense both your internal world and the world around you can impact how you work and live, in profound and beneficial ways for both you and your clients.

While this work can certainly help with, and even resolve these types of severe health issues, it’s very important to also recognize that there can be multiple, more complicated causes for such problems which may not be related directly to trauma and the expected resultant nervous system dysfunction.

If symptoms, issues and conditions arose due to things such as: exposure to toxicity in the air, water, or soil either from chemicals, mold, poor sanitation, or other, various forms of radiation, pharmaceutical interventions, hormonal imbalance issues, or if there were and are severe deficiencies in nutrients or other things the body needs, other interventions may also be necessary in addition to this work.

Some of these interventions could include things like: dietary change to support better nutrition and/or hydration; various detox protocols such as chelation therapy, oxygen therapy, or with a product like Pure Body or Pure Body Extra, which Irene and Seth have both used to detox from heavy metals in the body, and which they recommend.

Other helpful interventions they’ve been using include exposure to natural light outside first thing upon waking (no glasses or contacts), which supports circadian rhythms and mitochondrial health, and grounding with bare feet on the Earth frequently, which discharges electrical buildup in the system and facilitates a beneficial electron exchange.

Getting fresh air and moderate to intense exercise regularly can be very helpful, as is hydrotherapy – going from hot to cold, for flushing the lymphatic system and promoting good circulation. Here are some links to interviews Irene has done with various teachers in these fields, as well as some other resources she recommends:

Healing from toxins & detoxing with zeolite (interview with Eddie Stone)

Understanding sunlight for health and healing with Carrie Bennett

Harnessing the sun for health and healing with Sarah Kleiner

Hydrotherapy, Terrain Theory, & Naturopathic Musings

My health regimen (20 years in the making!)

This program is not intended to treat or cure any disease or illness, including any diagnosed mental illness.

That said, anyone can benefit from increased nervous system regulation. A person needs to be well enough, and organized enough in their thinking to watch and absorb the education, and do the practices. So, someone presenting with a very extreme symptom like paranoid schizophrenia will not be able to benefit from this program, whereas someone struggling with a condition like OCD, anxiety, or depression, most likely will.

As long as one is well enough that they can show up, put in the time, and comprehend what is happening, they will likely benefit.

YES it can! There are so many helpers, healers, and practitioners out there who got into their work because they were unwell, and then managed to get better and wanted to help others, but who still struggle with persistent symptoms, low energy, or a tendency to burn out. Often, this is because the things they found to help them weren’t getting to the root cause, but rather were more based in symptom management. So they continue to go up and down in their health and well-being.

If this is you, then THIS can be the piece you are missing. When you do this work and restore health and well-being from the ground up by regulating your nervous system, your whole world can change. Not only can your health improve, so can the health of your clients, because you may naturally start to bring your new skills, increased knowledge, and your own nervous system regulation into your practice.

We truly can only help others to the degree to which we, ourselves, are healed. So start with YOU. This program can help you do that!

It depends on their age. Older kids, like ages 14-18, probably could do this work if they wanted to, though not many teenagers are very interested in self-development! Younger kids, no, probably not.

What ALL kids can benefit from, though, is their parents doing the work! When we, as parents, start on this journey, and learn about our physiology – what’s going on inside us, and are able to understand why we behave, think, and feel the way we do – that can give us so much more insight into why our kids behave, think, and feel how they do. As we learn to work with our own body and mind in this nervous system-based way, we can learn how to help them.

And even more powerful and profound is the way that our own increased regulation can automatically increase our kids’ regulation. It just happens! As we become safer inside ourselves, they can feel safer around us. As our stress goes down, so can theirs. It’s really pretty miraculous how just one person doing this trauma healing work can positively affect their entire family system. For more on this, check out this video Irene made addressing this topic and Better Parenting via Nervous System Health Masterclass with Irene & Seth.

With Foundations, we are only exploring the most basic practices, which are not intended to ‘stir stuff up’, but rather to help you become more connected to the present moment and slowly build your capacity.

And, when we start turning our attention to our body, and more specifically, our nervous system, with the intention of healing our trauma, we may inevitably start to feel things that have historically been overwhelming, but generally speaking the system will tend to not give us more than we can process, especially with the kind of slow, titrated approach we will take in Foundations.

Yes. This work works for ALL kinds of trauma.

With early/developmental trauma, one of the biggest things that gets challenged is our sense of safety in connection with others, the environment, and even ourselves. And often with this kind of trauma our authenticity is never supported, and so autonomy – the need to do it OUR way – can be very important.

Online learning like this can be very well suited for this type of situation, because you get to engage with the material in your familiar home environment, at your own pace, when and how you want to. You can engage and be social with your fellow students in the private forum, or simply read what others have to say. This enables a safe, autonomous way to learn and heal which is very well suited for treating early/developmental trauma.

Irene wrote this article about online learning and healing that goes further into some of these points.

Since we are not doctors, psychiatrists, or medical professionals, we cannot advise you on whether or not to take medications. However, we can tell you what we have seen anecdotally with our clients.

Many of us on Team Lyon have worked with clients who were taking some form of psychoactive medication, with varying results. One thing that is common for most though, is that eventually they hit a ceiling with the somatic work, due to the suppressive effects of many of these medications. That being said, Foundations includes only the most basic practices, which would generally be the most complementary for someone who is on such a medication.

We are at a point in time wherein a lot of this new traumatology work (Peter Levine’s included) had not been rigorously tested via the scientific methods (see below for that changing!) and there is a good reason for this, one of which being that it is very hard to get accurate data in living systems (especially the nervous system).

This was one of the hard lessons Irene learned while doing her masters of research in biomedical science with humans. Her dissertation is linked on irenelyon.com (via this link to her credentials).

However, we do have some evidence! Here is a post that shares an offical study that was done on the efficacy of SmartBody SmartMind.

Due to the digital nature of the course and because all the material is available to you immediately upon joining, no refunds are offered for any reason.

SmartBody SmartMind™ Foundations is a self-study online program and lifestyle shift that builds your capacity to create radiant health at the root.

The program will open for ongoing registration in mid-July, 2026

1 Payment of $297 USD

SmartBody SmartMind is not a replacement for private or group therapeutic work with a trained professional. It is first and foremost an educational and skill building program that will equip you with the foundational practices and education of nervous system work.

PS – Got questions? Please email us via
support@irenelyon.com

SmartBody SmartMind™ Foundations is a self-study online program and lifestyle shift that builds your capacity to create radiant health at the root.

The program will open for ongoing registration in mid-July, 2026

1 Payment of $297 USD

SmartBody SmartMind is not a replacement for private or group therapeutic work with a trained professional. It is first and foremost an educational and skill building program that will equip you with the foundational practices and education of nervous system work.

PS – Got questions? Please email us via
support@irenelyon.com

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Testimonials or endorsements on this website have not been scientifically evaluated and results experienced vary significantly. Many statements outlined on this website are simply opinion.

CONTENT PRESENTED ON THIS WEBSITE OR OTHERWISE IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE, DIAGNOSIS, OR TREATMENT OR A PROFESSIONAL THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP. CONTENT PRESENTED IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE GENERAL HEALTH INFORMATION FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC ADVICE, CANNOT DIAGNOSE OR TREAT ANY MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC CONDITION, AND DOES NOT REPLACE CARE FROM YOUR PHYSICIAN.

You should not rely on content presented on this website or any program offered on this website for diagnosis or treatment of any health condition. We are not healthcare professionals or providers. Always consult a healthcare professional if you suspect you require medical or psychiatric treatment. If you believe or suspect you are experiencing an emergency, call your local emergency services immediately.