Chakeria Woods

My interest in the mind-body connection is both personal and academic. Living with health challenges led me to ask questions that weren’t always answered by a diagnosis alone: How does the body respond to prolonged stress? What role do our experiences, emotions, and environments play in well-being? And what can people learn about their own physiological responses?

Those questions became the foundation of LegaSE®—pronounced legacy.

I’ve seen how much effort people invest in feeling better: seeking care, learning, changing habits, and trying again. I believe they also deserve understandable education about the nervous system and practical skills they can use alongside appropriate healthcare.

LegaSE® is not built on the assumption that every symptom is caused by stress. Illness and symptoms can have many biological, psychological, social, and environmental contributors. Our work explores one important part of that larger picture: how stress physiology and nervous system processes can interact with everyday health and functioning.

I am pursuing a PhD in Mind-Body Medicine at Saybrook University. My academic interests include psychophysiology, stress physiology, autonomic nervous system regulation, mind-body approaches, and the role of physiological literacy in health education and prevention.

My educational and community work has included supporting young people through practical stress-awareness and regulation activities, including work in a media arts education setting. These experiences inform my interest in developing accessible programming for schools and communities.

I am interested in building partnerships with clinics, universities, and community organizations to explore implementation, feasibility, and future research opportunities. Any formal research study would be developed with the appropriate institutional and ethical oversight.

Credential clarity: PhD student describes a degree in progress; it is not a claim of a completed doctorate, clinical license, or medical qualification. Specific programs and tools should be evaluated on their own evidence and intended use.

People deserve to understand more than a list of symptoms. They deserve clear explanations, meaningful choices, and tools they can practice in daily life.

My long-term vision is to make nervous system literacy a practical part of health education across communities, schools, healthcare organizations, and workplaces—while supporting rigorous evaluation of what these programs can and cannot accomplish.