Dr. K is booking now for 2026!
Animating Neurological Skills, Emotions & Mindsets in Indigenous Communities – ANSMIC (C)
Dr. K created this tool to marry the teachings from her book, Teaching to Every Kid’s Potential: Simple Neuroscience Lessons to Liberate Learners (W.W. Norton, 2021), with everyday life in indigenous communities and families through her unique curriculum, Animating Neurological Skills & Mindsets in Indigenous Communities (ANSMIC©, 2021). The teachings apply whether you are tending a 3 year-old, a 13 year-old, a 23 year-old, or yourself! Dr. K’s ANSMIC© (2021) joins fresh information from the learning sciences with time immemorial so that you and your family/you and your classroom can thrive because of each other and not at the expense of each other. It is possible to tend the repetition, practice, and the enforcement of structure and boundaries for and with children, teens, and young adults without negatively impacting your own anxiety levels and behavioral health.
Upcoming workshops:
**If a Brain Could Talk……About Learning & Thriving in Early Life, Saturday, November 15, 2025, Chavez County Early Childhood Coalition, Roswell, NM
**The New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children (NMAEYC) Preconference, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, April 10, 2026
**Animating Neurological Skills & Mindsets in Indigenous Communities (ANSMIC) – “Spirit Mind Body Clay” – (C) 2021, All Rights Reserved – For native youth, young adults and families – this program is a curriculum and collaborative experience with potters from Northern New Mexico: 1. Camilla Trujillo from Santa Cruz, NM and 2. Martha Romero from Nanbé Owingeh Pueblo. 2026 sessions: January 2026 with Camilla Trujillo and March 2026 and May 2026 with Martha Romero. Grounded in Pueblo pottery making, we coach and foster the skills developing in the mind and brain that help us to know and manage ourselves, and navigate our world and our future.
Currently Offering keynotes, motivational talks, and workshops based on 4 teachings (Flexibility, Readiness, Connection, Unmasking) from Dr. K’s book about brain health, wellness, neurodivergence, learning, creativity, and optimizing the effects of team structure on individual and group thinking and performance — these apply to all of us, not just children!
Past workshops include:
If a Brain Could Talk……About Learning & Thriving in Early Life, September 10th and 25th, 2025, Los Alamos County Early Childhood Coalition, Family Strengths Network, Los Alamos, NM
Reimagining Youth Wellness: A Caring Adults Summit in Collaboration with the Community Heath Education and Resiliency Program, Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, Inc.: “The Lesson of the Tower & the Web – A Story of Connection” – Oct 1-2, 2024, Civic Center, Farmington, NM
Learning & The Brain in Collaboration with the Stanford Graduate School of Education and Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley: “The Science of Brain & Student Strengths: Creating Schools That Promote Student Strengths, Character, Compassionate, Gratitude, Hope, and Autonomy in a Dependent, Deficit-Focused World” – Feb 20-22, 2025, San Francisco, CA
Audiences with: The New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children (NMAEYC), Southwest Consortium for Indian Head Start Programs, and NM Behavioral Health Services Department & Native American Sub-Committee (BHSD & NASC) Behavioral Health Summit.
Heart of the Brain (C) is a unique workshop format that incorporates the latest in human neuroscience into usable practical tenets to improve your learning opportunity and quality of life. I want you to “feel what I mean, not just hear what I say.”
Heart of the Brain Testimonials:
Layne led us into a world of science, mystery and health with an extraordinary, serendipitous exploration of the latest developments in brain research, personal learning, and developmental psychology. Her facilitation was measured, informal, personal and mind-changing. Integrating her American Indian heritage with her training as a neuroscientist, she triggered the best of creative dialog and conversation among the group. Her ability to honor and validate folks in their own respective journeys was, in my experience as a retreat leader, remarkable.
Layne is an exquisite workshop leader who invites participates to sharpen practical, on-the-ground skills, insights, and perspectives on themselves and the environments that surround them. She’s a treasure for learning communities that hold respect for the hard evidence of the sciences while appreciating that we are all carried along by a great mystery.
Layne Kalbfleisch’s Heart of the Brain engages and educates all your senses. I truly felt what she meant, and it deepened through her guided imagery portion of the workshop. This exercise led me to strengthen my own intuition, self-healing and desire to understand my heart, of my brain.
Layne’s kind, authentic spirit connects with each participant as she shares her wealth of knowledge and research into the depths of the individual nervous system. I am grateful I was able to attend and I highly recommend Heart of the Brain workshop.
Layne Kalbfleisch is an excellent, very competent speaker on a very complex subject. She willingly shared her experiences as a scientist and what we can do ourselves to make these connections. She is also kind and generous to every participant. A great program and a lovely person.
She is a wonderful person, who provides academic knowledge with experiential parts spiced with a lot of humor and good vibes.
Layne Kalbfleisch, for being so young, has a wealth of experience researching the topic and was able to put her scientific research into layman’s terms and by combining with interactive exercises, and free time to explore nature gave a nice weekend workshop experience.
You hit just the right spot for an audience of educated laypersons — high level, but covered the basics. Lots of valuable information!
Your presentation was accessible and brilliant! I cannot wait to continue to follow your research and watch you change the world.
You are like the genie in the bottle.
Meet Layne/Dr. K:
Dr. Layne Kalbfleisch on Unmasking with The Reading & Language Learning Center
Kalbfleisch, M.L. (February, 2022). Teaching to Every Kid’s Potential: Simple Neuroscience Lessons to Liberate Learners. Learning & The Brain: The Science of Teaching & Stanford Graduate School of Education, San Francisco, CA.
Kalbfleisch, M.L. (February, 2020). A Discussion of Mental Illness & Creativity – Developmental Considerations, Part II. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Santa Fe Chapter, Santa Fe, NM.
Kalbfleisch, M.L. (April, 2016). From Concept to Characterization – Assessing Adaptive and Maladaptive Learning Processes in High Capacity Learners. Invited European-American Summit on the Psychology of Talent Development, American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
Kalbfleisch, M.L. (May, 2015). The New Story of Water. Blue Mind 5 Symposium, Carnegie Institute of Science, Washington, D.C.