Meet the People Behind
Body Luminary
Body Luminary:
Where Healing Meets Wholeness
Body Luminary was founded by Michele Renee to help people with chronic health conditions discover what becomes possible when we stop trying to fix our bodies and start learning to tend to them.
This offering grew from Michele's personal journey with Long COVID, chronic Lyme disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, and her deep commitment to creating trauma-informed, body-based approaches to healing. What started as one person's quest for better living has become a comprehensive program taught by a collaborative team of experts who each bring unique wisdom to this work.
Michele Renee, DC, MAC
Founder and Creator
Founder & Somatic Guide
Collective Care Weaver
Light Keeper for the Weary
My Story: From Overdoing to Tending
Michele spent two decades building an integrative healthcare career at full throttle
— Doctor of Chiropractic, Master's in Acupuncture, Associate Professor and Director of Integrative Care at Northwestern Health Sciences University, founder of Stockheart Whole Health in Minneapolis. She taught practitioners how bodies heal. She wrote the curriculum. She went 100 miles an hour and didn't stop.
Then Long COVID did what she couldn't do for herself: it made her stop.
Completely. Within months she had also been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, severe sleep apnea, and hypothyroidism — conditions that had been quietly building for years. The clinician who had facilitated healing in thousands of patients found herself unable to get up, confronting the gap between knowing and actually listening.
What she built from that collapse became the TENDing Method — not a theory, but a practice
tested on her own body over five years of navigating chronic illness. She came from 0% capacity to 50%, and she'll tell you plainly that 50% is not a consolation prize. It is a meaningful life, built through tending.
In the Practitioner & Leadership pathway, Michele brings what no textbook can offer:
the integration of rigorous clinical training with the embodied knowledge of what it actually takes to heal — and to help others do the same.
My best healers are my four-leggeds.
This is Mini, my Great Pyrenees. She tended me carefully day after day, year after year.
Dr. Renee’s Approach:
Body Luminary emerged from my own experience living with Long COVID, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic Lyme, and recognizing that conventional approaches were missing something fundamental: the wisdom of listening to our bodies rather than trying to override them. I developed several tools and offerings to share the practices and insights that transformed my relationship with my health—and my life.
What I Bring to Body Luminary:
Personal understanding of living with chronic conditions
Deep understanding of healing through the lens of multiple paradigms of healing
Trauma-informed facilitation and nervous system regulation expertise
Compassionate, body-centered teaching approach
Dr. Karen Lawson, MD, DABIHM, NBC-HWC
Health Empowerment Specialist & Behavior Change Expert
Karen spent years watching something frustrating repeat itself.
People came to her clinics, worked with skilled practitioners, and still didn't change. Not because they didn't want to — but because wanting and doing are governed by entirely different systems. That observation sent her on a decades-long pursuit of what actually creates sustainable transformation in human beings.
She found it in integrative health coaching — and then helped build the field.
As a University of Minnesota faculty member, she developed the first academic graduate program in integrative health and wellness coaching, directed it for 17 years, and co-founded the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching, serving on the board for nearly a decade. She also brings board certification in integrative and holistic medicine, training in classical homeopathy, and 20+ years of clinical experience spanning primary care, emergency medicine, and integrative practice.
In the Practitioner & Leadership pathway, Karen brings what most clinical training misses: the science and art of helping people move from passive recipients of care to active participants in their own healing. Her expertise in behavior change is what makes the TENDing Method teachable — and sustainable — for the people you serve.
Credentials
Doctor of Medicine (MD)
Board Certified in Holistic and Integrative Medicine (DABIHM)
Trained in Classical Homeopathy
Certified Yoga Teacher
Nationally Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC)
20 years of experience in Coaching
Published author of multiple professional papers, book chapters, and articles
International presenter and facilitator
What I Bring to the
TENDing Method:
Deep expertise in sustainable behavior change
Integration of mind/body approaches with practical coaching
Experience helping people move from passive patients to empowered participants
Understanding of how to create meaningful, lasting transformation
Dr. Brenna Erickson, DC
Nervous System Specialist & Co-Developer of the TENDing Method
What I Bring to the TENDing Method:
Deep understanding of nervous system regulation and neurological conditions
Expertise in gentle, body-centered healing approaches
Experience adapting the TENDing Method for specific chronic conditions
Practical knowledge of root-cause, whole-person care
Learn More: Website: www.migrainewhisperer.com
Instagram: @migrainewhisperer
Practice: Stockheart Whole Health, Minneapolis
Credentials
Doctor of Chiropractic (DC)
Minnesota's only Directional Non-Force Technique provider
Additional training in Functional Medicine, CranioSacral Therapy, and Applied Neuroscience
Specialization in nervous system regulation
Extensive experience with migraine and headache disorders
Brenna grew up in a household where chiropractic
care, herbal medicine, and attention to the whole person were simply how you approached health. That foundation sent her toward a career at the intersection of neurological precision and gentle, whole-body care — and eventually to Minnesota, where she practices as the state's only Directional Non-Force Technique chiropractor.
Known as the Migraine Whisperer, Brenna specializes in helping people with migraines
and chronic headache disorders who have been told there's nothing more to be done. Her approach is rooted in nervous system regulation — understanding why the system became dysregulated, and working with the body to shift it — rather than managing symptoms in isolation. She holds additional training in Functional Medicine, CranioSacral Therapy, and Applied Neuroscience, and practices at Stockheart Whole Health in Minneapolis.
As co-developer of the TENDing Method, Brenna brings the neurological depth that transforms this work from a wellness framework into a clinically grounded practice. In the Practitioner & Leadership pathway, she'll be working with practitioners on the how of nervous system regulation — what's actually happening in the body, and how to apply that understanding with precision and care.
Why This Team?
Medicine. Coaching. Nervous System Healing.
Body Luminary addresses what other approaches may miss: the integration of body awareness, sustainable behavior change, and nervous system regulation.
Michele Renee, DC, MAc
Michele created the curriculum from lived experience, living with Long COVID since Fall 2026.
Karen Lawson, MD
Dr. Karen brings two decades of expertise in helping people actually implement what they learn.
Brenna Erickson, DC
Dr. Brenna adds deep knowledge of nervous system function and gentle healing practices.