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The Brain & Gut Institute

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The Brain & Gut Institute

Specializing in the Brain & Gut communication via the Vagus nerve for complete healing. BG Mancini, AP, has specialized in Natural Medicine since 1996.

She combines acupuncture, cold laser meridian therapy, dietary consultation and Nutrition Response Testing to achieve optimal results. I love working with patients to both treat and educate they can make simple adjustments to achieve the quality of life they hope for and is truly possible. Life is meant to be filled with joy, vitality and possibility! Doing More Than Treating Symptoms: This is th

e foundation of my practice, a core belief: Addressing the underlying dysfunction that is causing your unwanted symptoms is of utmost importance to prevent recurrence. By treating the root of the problem we are stopping the constant inflammation cycle in the body that eventually leads to degenerative issues. Remember...the body is always trying to heal...that is it's primary mission!

04/09/2026

Our brain, gut, movement, connection, and history hold the key to trauma resolution. Through a Polyvagal lens, we can repattern pathways and finally name what the body has been carrying.

This Sunday, come meet the faculty for an upcoming course that maps the intersection of all our parts and gives a path forward for integration. This is for clinicians, somatic practitioners and individuals looking to connect the dots of trauma, lived experience, biology, and movement through a Polyvagal lens.

Join Arielle Schwartz, Jan Winhall, Sarah Baldwin, and Mel Pohl, for a free LIVE introduction to the Polyvagal Trauma Therapy Certificate with The Embody Lab.

The Brain-Gut-Sensory Axis classes in the upcoming course will be presented in a new format, including breakout rooms, Q & A, and, as always, easy-to-understand dynamics of the Brain Gut Sensory communication that govern our physiology and directly creates our lived-experience in each moment.

I am excited to share usable tools to support the moment and build more resilience over time.

I hope you'll join us.

📅 April 12th | 1-2pm EST | FREE ONLINE EVENT
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER: https://learn.theembodylab.com/a/2148232903/aErBr9s2

01/20/2026

✨ Final week to register! Get usable tools to help guide the brain, body, and nervous system back to safety: For individuals, parents, and clinicians✨

💓 I’m deeply grateful for the feedback from the first cohort. Many shared that this information gave them language for experiences they’ve lived with for years, without understanding why their system responded the way it did.

I truly believe this is a roadmap we should have been given as children. How to understand our inner and outer worlds in a way that supports agency, safety, and choice.

Recovering autonomic health sits at the center of everything I share, both personally and professionally. Our relationship with self, like all relationships, includes moments of disconnection and reconnection, unfolding through the body in real time.

As sensory overload, gut microbiome strain, food stressors, inflammation, relational tension, and environmental input accumulate, the nervous system often adapts by protecting. Checking out is not a flaw. It’s physiology responding to load.

If this resonates with you as an individual, a parent supporting a child, or a clinician working at a systems level, the 2nd cohort with the Polyvagal Institute begins 1/28 and is still enrolling. I look forward to being a part of your continued learning.

✨ Link in bio

11/08/2025

🧠✨This was an incredible event! I’m truly grateful to have been a speaker here, and sharing the connection of safety through the lens.

I was deeply inspired by all of the other speakers!
🙏I can’t wait for Spain next year! #2026

Polyvagal Institute International conference this weekend was a haven of warmth, connection and coregulation with important tools on how to support ourselves, our families and clients to feel better now.

Hugs and heart-felt connections abound when you put heart-centered humans together 😊.
💕 for creating safety in presence with self and others, and always with you. 😘
✨ Michael Allison seeing & bringing connection and healing in moments we might otherwise miss✨
🙏 💕Arielle Schwartz for giving our collective cues of safety through the understandable physiology of our experience & movement (that HU HA breath was amazing!)
🤗 Sue Carter- clinical tip! We need for oxytocin to bind- and 80% of us are deficient!)
🧘 Donnalea Van Vleet Goelz PhD for sharing the ease and joy 🤩 of breath and movement.
🥰 Elisa Song, MD delivered a difficult to hear message that managed to land gently because of her warmth and deep kindness/care for children and families!
for her presence, breathwork & joy!

I have used light and sound for over 20 years to help restore safety in the nervous system.
It was restorative to listen to 🎶 Anthony Gorry for illuminating the incredible healing power of Sonocea®

✨💕And of course Stephen Porges , for his presence and generosity of spirit, he gave a new and exciting talk that had me, and everyone filled with more questions and inspiration for what comes next!

🚀 Keira Barr, MD was really special to spend time with you and see how people responded to your important Poster!

08/25/2025

🧠AUTOIMMUNE/ANS DYSREGULATION: Vagus Nerve Support: Why this matters for everyone! Cues of safety to the nervous system are changing symptoms! Less self-attacking antibodies in autoimmunity condition = safety in the body and brain = higher quality of life, play, joy. ✨

Article published in the NYT shows: SetPoint, has been approved after rigorous trials and proven to help modulate autoimmune symptoms. See comments for article link

**Autoimmune patients experience a unique additional trauma to those diagnosed with illnesses that aren’t: They are told their own body is attacking them, their “home” their body, is not safe and is the cause of their distress.

Vagus nerve stimulation has been the subject of research for years, including benefits for:
Better sleep, cognition, a calmer mind, and improved mood.
I’ve also seen better digestion, muscle tone relaxed, reduced anxiety and the list goes on.

03/19/2025

Pro Tip below ⬇ WHY children may self-select down to a few foods which further impair their:

💩Gut Health: Limited food variety means limited fuel for good gut bacteria, impacting digestion and nutrient absorption.

🧠Neurology: The gut-brain connection is real! A struggling gut can hinder brain development and function.

😡Behavior: Mood swings, tantrums, and even hyperactivity can sometimes be linked to gut issues.

😃Digestion: A lack of diverse gut bacteria can lead to digestive discomfort and issues like constipation or diarrhea.

🕳Leaky Gut Status:** Constant exposure to the same limited foods may irritate the gut lining, potentially contributing to leaky gut.

😎Here's the surprising twist! Your child's gut is constantly talking to their body, influencing these very things.

Intestinal epithelial cells, like tiny gatekeepers, line your digestive system and chat with your body about the food you eat!

😲💥 WAIT? WHAT'S THAT? 😲💥

The gut microbiome makeup can influence our textural and taste choices!

This explains what I've seen clinically for YEARS. Children with certain 3 & 4 letter diagnoses choose only a few foods that are often similar in texture and taste and always inflammatory, unfortunately. (Think chicken nuggets, soft sugar-based desserts etc.)

These cells deal with a constant flow of food components, good gut bacteria (microbiota), and even foreign invaders. They use this intel to adjust how your body absorbs nutrients, fights off bad stuff, and keeps things balanced.

🏆PRO TIP: Add in a small sprinkle of mixed fibers into any food they are eating or google "microbiome mashup video" and get even a tsp a day into their (and YOUR food) you gut, brain, immune and nervous system will thank you! 🥰

03/17/2025

🥴Where on the pyramid are you, your children, or your Pediatric patients struggling? Tips to strengthen the foundation below. ⬇

📝Please make note, learning is at the very tippy top of the pyramid.🔺

The Central Nervous System (CNS) is the foundation for pediatric and adult wellbeing.

What does this have to do with children and their emotional and neurological development?

Everything! The CNS is directly informing the vagus nerve and our ability to feel safe and connect. 🤗 this is our starting point as humans.

🤿Let’s dive into what impacts a child’s CNS and what we can do with the 5% rule to help them experience things differently which leads to different outcomes and behaviors!

🤨Change what goes in and you WILL change what comes out!

- stress from all sensory input
- 5% change: are there sounds, lights, scents that can be made to be more comfortable and can you add in proprioception- connection to self through body signals.

Reducing overstimulation improves unwanted reactivity in exchange for responsiveness in our body and behavior ✨🤗🚀

- 5% change: add in any vestibular exercise improves the network of communication in the brain 🧠

🔑 🔐 📣
Key is also making sure that food sensitivities, chemical exposures, mold and all of the other big components (Harvard agrees!) are mitigated.

💪🏻 These are STRONGLY increasing overall physical and neurological inflammation and impacting our gut which directly informs our emotional states, resilience and the ability to switch between regulation and dysregulation.

03/16/2025

🚀 Be ahead of the times! ⏰

Eventually, everyone will see the truth: We must stop over-pathologizing children and start addressing their real needs.

(Quick intro if we haven't met: 27 years working with kids, inflammation, neuroplasticity, the gut, and beyond—alongside top experts in each field.)

🍕🍦 Kids are eating the same inflammatory foods as adults—why wouldn’t they develop the same neuroinflammation, brain fog, and discomfort?

📱💡 Add in digital overload, nonstop sensory input, and a sedentary lifestyle, and we have a recipe for impaired neurological, emotional, and physical development. (Harvard research agrees.)

🔎 But we’re missing the signs because we view children through outdated diagnostic lenses.

🙌🏼🎉 The most effective therapies and interventions acknowledge how sensory consumption and microtraumas shape a child’s external expression.

🖊💻 Join the next cohort to dive deeper into the root causes!

Whether you're an LMHC, OT/PT, Social Worker, Pediatrician, Parent, or Educator, learn how to guide families when kids present with:
⚡ Anxiety, tics, learning delays, retained reflexes
⚡ Sleep issues, behavioral challenges, rage, emotional lability
⚡ Non-bilateral movement patterns

Too often, these are labeled as “ADHD, ODD, Tourette’s, or ‘I don’t know.’”

💔 This creates heartbreak for parents, dysregulation at home, and burnout for providers.

👁👂🏼 It all comes down to sensory input + processing—across the five senses, neuroception, vestibular, proprioception, and interoception—shaping external behaviors that get diagnosed.

🙀 At its core, this is an input/output equation:
Too much. Too little. A brain wired in threat due to chronic inflammation (which I see daily in neurological antibodies and blood markers).

💡 Children's health is worse than most realize. Now is the time to shift the narrative and change the tide—together.

🤜🏼🤛🏼 Wondertwin powers, activate!

📚🏃🏼‍♂️ A truly interdisciplinary approach to children’s health makes us ALL more effective in supporting kids and families. Let’s get to work!

03/14/2025

It is needs based, it is also reaction to a combination of stimuli overriding choice sometimes.

👦 👧🏾 Children are being unnecessarily pathologized without fully understanding all of the contributing factors to their external expression.

🙈 We can no longer ignore the research supporting the following. Regardless of what field or scope, if we work with children, having the understanding of what we are truly seeing, beneath the diagnosis, the external expressions, the emotional need, there is also

ALWAYS

contributing factors from the following:

🍕 Inflammation and food sensitivities/nutritional deficiencies.

👁️ Sensory overwhelm or misperception through inflammed pathways cuing danger.

🏋🏾 Lack of proprioception cuing disconnection to their body/brain.

No interocepetion from repeated lack of safety signals eminating from INSIDE saying escape, get away.

👂 Vestibular dysregulation where every movement needs accommodation and is exhausting for the child’s brain
🧠

🔬 In my research and clinical practice I see the incredible inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Gut Dysfunction, Blood Brain Barrier impairments and Neurological inflammation occurring in children.

😞 ALL research on mental health through the 🌍 worlds’ most prestigious institutions confirms the following:

1) gut dysbiosis impacts mental and behavioral health and increases Blood Brain Barrier dysfunction.

2) blood brain barrier impairment increases neurological inflammation

3) neurological inflammation changes “behavior,” mental health status, sleep, safety, connection ability, learning, AND through the Brain Gut Axis further dysregulated the gut in an endless feedback loop.

Let’s look together at what’s really happening for children, Brain & Gut Movement
Let’s create therapeutic connections where every child can feel better ❤️‍🩹 in their brain and body, in order to more deeply connect with themselves, their loved ones and the world 🌎 around them.

03/13/2025

🧘 🌞 Polyvagal Theory & Daily Life:
How To Effectively Clear The Road For Deeper Connection To Self & Others = Create More Safety In The ANS In Our Daily Lives. 🌞 🏔️ 🌸

📢 Dr. Stephen Porges, "Trauma compromises our ability to engage with others by replacing patterns of connection with patterns of protection."

🔎 Let's look with curiosity through a different lens, as this is true for Children & Adults & Neuroscientists at agree!

🔥 We are constantly experiencing Microtraumas on a moment-to-moment basis that are eroding our potential to find balance and recover from the patterns of protection.

Essentially, we are always being cued for threat in our modern world, however! We CAN learn how our body truly digests our inner and outer environment in order to help shift ourselves into more comfortable physiological states.

😖Our bodies were not designed to find homeostasis in the face of the following:

👎🏼 Constant Fight/Flight
👎🏼Loss of to self & others (How can we stay present in our body to connect with others, when it is constantly cuing us that we are unsafe?)
👎🏼A Firehose of Daily Information
👎🏼
👎🏼 to screens and substances for coping techniques
👎🏼Barraging Stimuli
👎🏼Late Night Schedules disturbing cortisol
👎🏼Ultra Processed Foods
👎🏼Sedentary Lifestyle which creates reduced which brain needs for safety
👎🏼Increasing Challenges
👎🏼Chemicals in the Air & Water
👎🏼Lack of Sunshine & Fresh Air

Whether for ourselves, our children or patients/clients, we need to understand what is presenting to us through ALL of our sensory systems in order to truly support the needs of anyone.

03/12/2025

🤗Connection with ourselves begins with inward sensing and feeling the interoceptive cues our body is always sending us.

💡Having a relationship WITH ourselves:
📍This means experiencing the deeply rooted felt sense.
A tuning inward, staying present and engaged, which requires safety in our physiology AND our brain story about what we are feeling.

💡Having a relationship ABOUT ourselves:
📍When we are doing anything that takes us out of our body and leaves us checked out. That IS a type of coping and out-of-body dissociated state or auto-pilot. Lights on, nobody home.

It is tuning out instead of tuning in.
Excessive anything: Scrolling, watching, Addictions, Anxiety/ OCD are both symptoms of internal discomfort and coping tools for some people.

When we tune in, are quiet, or even “unbusy” for a few minutes, we start to sense what our gut, senses, body, emotions, and thoughts are telling us. If we cannot stay there with our cues that are meant to guide us to balance, health and safety; we are having a relationship ABOUT ourselves. An intellectual analysis.

🌎Looking at this relationship
with ourselves is the first step to deepening our sense of self and being able to attune / connect more fully with our children, loved ones, and the world around us.

💃🏼🕺🏼Attunement to self usually happens before we can attune to our children; however, allowing ourselves to meet their 100% PRESENT(ness) can also calm an adult system and bring us into the moment again in the beautiful feedback dance between our nervous systems.

🧠Without this, their brains FORM differently.

They are at a disadvantage emotionally with lifelong nervous system patterns that reflect the trauma of separation from a parent/caregiver.

What works for you and your nervous system to want to stay present and FEELS safe and nourishing?
🧘🏼‍♂️Yoga
🚶🏿‍♂️Walking
🕺🏾Dancing
🎶Music
🌳Nature
🤗A hug
🐶😻Furry Friend

03/11/2025

💯 🙌🏻“Safety is not the absence of threat.” Dr. Stephen Porges

Who likes to talk about how to access safety in our nervous system and how to help children find safety in theirs from a 360-degree viewpoint: 🙋‍♀️👶🏽🧒

The first thing is to reduce the threats that our physiology is responding to:

I call these Microtraumas:

They have a cumulative effect on every end organ (gut, brain, skin, etc) and the nervous systems response to them create more stress and trauma.

♾️ It is a loop, our physiological state:

💡 Polyvagal Theory illuminates that
Ventral, Fight/Flight, Dorsal
Determines our reactions to stressors, and then we experience more stress, inflammation, damage through the reaction to the stimuli (these can be both internal and external!)

And, combining this with functional medicine, sensory integration, and the understanding of how the enteric nervous system in our gut are sensing and affecting every thought and feeling we have.
😊😞🥰🤪🥵🤕🤣

If we can reduce the number of triggers, stressors, and unsupportive stimuli that we are exposing our sensory organs to, we can create an easier pathway to state shift towards SAFETY and social engagement. 🚀🤗

Our senses Include:
5 Senses 👁️ 👂 👅 🤚 👃

Plus

✅Enteric Nervous System (our Gut)
✅Vestibular
✅Proprioceptive
✅Interoceptive (Cues from our organs)
✅Neuroception (Sensing from outside cues)

03/10/2025

✨ 📣 Public Service Announcement for therapists, clinicians, educators and parents.

👀 FROM THE BOTTOM UP

“Our story about our safety, and the world, is being created in real time by our sensory input and it’s processing.”
This means what we are eating 🍕 , taking in through every sense 👃 👁️ 👂 👅 🖐️ including proprioception, interoceptions, neuroception and vestibular. These inform our nervous system, brain 🧠 and behavior in every moment.

❤️‍🩹children are presenting with increasing complexities

💯Their diagnosis which occurs at the end of the story which is the behavior, is starting from the bottom.

📚 The Enteric nervous system in our gut is reacting to the environment, our feedback loop of stress/ and microtraumas and these include what children are eating that is causing inflammation———> alters brain chemistry, ———> lowers immunity———> allows pathogens 🦠 virus/bacteria and epigenetic factors to take over and increase threat in the brain and body.

Inflammation——-> alters sensory input perception——> creates a lens of threat through which we experience the world 🌎

Tools 🧰

1 : join the Brain Gut Movement to learn how to help .

2: connect with other providers who are looking to help children in a comprehensive way, we are all . We are building an amazing community of those working with children. Join us!

3: Explore with me through my individually tailored cohorts HOW to recognize when the behavior is less pathological in need of diagnosis and more biomedical in need of support. The results are life changing for the whole Family.
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📢
Follow me here and Brain & Gut Movement for tips and tools.

Address

North Miami, FL

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 6pm
Tuesday	10am - 6pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Thursday	10am - 6pm

Telephone

+17722060638

Website

http://www.braingutinstitute.com/

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