Joan Borysenko, PhD, is a distinguished pioneer in integrative medicine and a world-renowned expert in the mind-body connection. A credible bridge between reason and faith, Borysenko’s work has been foundational in a health-care revolution that recognizes the role of meaning and the spiritual dimensions of life as an integral part of health and healing. Her brilliance, humor, and authenticity, combined with her expertise in the latest research, make her a compelling and inspiring speaker and writer.

Joan Borysenko earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where she completed her post-doctoral training in cancer cell biology. After the death of her father from cancer, she became more interested in the person with the illness than in the disease itself and returned to Harvard Medical School to complete a second postdoctoral fellowship, this time in the new field of behavioral medicine. Under the tutelage of Herbert Benson, M.D., who first identified the relaxation response and brought meditation into medicine, Borysenko was awarded a Medical Foundation Fellowship and then completed her third post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology.

In the early 1980s, Joan co-founded the Mind-Body Clinical Programs at what is now the Beth Israel/Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, along with Herbert Benson and Ilan Kutz. She also became licensed as a psychologist and was appointed instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.