You Are The Tuning Fork
\Nervous System Leadership
Support Program for MFA & BFA Arts Departments
An educational support system that transforms shame into curiosity, and dysregulation into artistry using cutting-edge nervous system science.
The missing link between therapy and creative life.
Sept 15th, 2025- Dec 15th
It’s for artists, by artists— who want a new paradigm.
This program sits at the intersection of performance science and artistic mastery.
It honors the complexity of the artist's nervous system as both instrument and medium, bridging cutting-edge neuroscience with creative process in ways even therapy and wellness models often overlook. Designed specifically for high-performing artists, it provides a rigorous, integrative framework that supports not only resilience and regulation, but the sustainability of bold, innovative work over a lifetime.
Why this approach?
Bruce Alexander’s Rat Park, But for Artists: In the 1970s, psychologist Bruce Alexander ran a groundbreaking experiment called Rat Park. He discovered that rats in isolation consumed large amounts of morphine, but when placed in enriched, socially-connected environments (with room to play, explore, and interact) they largely ignored the drug. His conclusion was radical: addiction wasn’t about the substance alone it was about the cage.
Artists, like rats in the original experiment, are often placed in high-stress, isolating, competitive environments that ignore the fundamental biology of connection and regulation. What if burnout, comparison, and creative paralysis aren’t signs of personal failure, but symptoms of the cage?
We are proposing to reimagine MFA programs as modern-day Rat Parks for artists.
Art departments already have the studio. We’re helping them rewire the nervous system that works inside it.
To ensure every student
— including those with trauma —
can truly thrive.
Step One: Foundations (Nervous System As Canvas)
"You Are The Tuning Fork" begins with a 120-minute nervous system workshop led by Ruby Rose Fox. Each student receives a pair of nervous system cards, a tool they’ll later use in the game to track and shift their internal states.
Together, students will confront harmful artistic myths and reimagine the artist’s identity, not as a tortured soul or endless output machine, but as a resilient system. The nervous system becomes the canvas, not a resource to be drained or ignored, but the living ground of creative power and presence.
Step Two: Creating A “Nervous System Organism
Every cohort member gets a “You Are The Tuning Fork” bracelet which also contains a QR code for their tool box. Students are immediately given nervous system tools for all kinds of performance issues on and off stage.
This is intended to:
1. Give them a playful unified identity
2. Give them an elegant visual cue to remember they have tools when they are dysregulated.
The bracelet holds 50 Playful Tools For nervous system resilience.
Step Three: Students Start Their Nervous System Deep Dive
The Artist & The Brain
An Experiential Module in Creative Neuroscience
(8 Hours of Guided Exploration)
What if your creative blocks weren’t personal failures, but predicted states of the nervous system?
In The Artist & The Brain, students gain a cutting-edge understanding of how the brain predicts experience, how it integrates sensory and emotional information, and how those predictions shape every brushstroke, installation, and performance. This isn’t theory for theory’s sake, it’s applied neuroscience for the practicing artist.
Through playful, real-world exercises and reflective tracking, students begin mapping their own nervous system states, learning how stress, flow, freeze, and connection impact their artistic choices and community interactions.
This module demystifies the invisible undercurrents of the creative process, offering artists tools to create not just from talent, but from a deeper awareness of the mind-body system as their primary instrument.
It’s not therapy. It’s not clinical.
It’s artistic mastery through the lens of embodied science.
Let’s not just teach students what to make. Let’s teach them how they are made,
oh, and how to play with it!
Step Four: Students Explore Their Nervous System States (Month 2)
Nervous System Mastery for Artists
A Science-Based Approach to Creative Presence and Performance
(Masterclass Module)
Whether stepping onto a stage, into a critique, or in front of a camera—every artist must eventually present their work.
This masterclass bridges the gap between the science of safety and the art of presentation, offering a transformative toolkit rooted in neuroscience and performance technique. Rather than relying on years of trial-and-error, students learn how to regulate their own nervous systems—unlocking clarity, confidence, and creative presence under pressure.
Led by Ruby Rose Fox, a seasoned performer and educator in applied neuroaesthetics, this course teaches artists how to identify and shift their nervous system states to better meet the moment—be it an exhibition opening, thesis defense, or live performance.
This is not therapy. It is not mental health support.
It is a shortcut to mastery, offering practical, embodied tools to help artists bring their boldest, clearest selves forward when it matters most.
Because how you show up is part of the work.
Step Four: Students Explore THE DOPAMINE GAME (Month 3)
The Dopamine Masterclass
Rewiring Reward for Sustainable Creativity
(A Neuroscience-Driven Workshop for Artists and Innovators)
In a culture of burnout, comparison, and constant striving, what if the issue isn’t your ambition, but your reward system?
This masterclass takes artists deep into the science of dopamine; one of the brain’s primary neurotransmitters of motivation, drive, and desire. Guided by the latest neuroscience and taught by working artists who understand the stakes, students will explore how dopamine shapes not just addiction and distraction, but creative rhythm, satisfaction, and long-term resilience.
Designed for any artist navigating the highs and lows of inspiration, deadlines, and self-doubt, this course demystifies the biological patterns that underlie creative obsession, boredom, procrastination, and pleasure.
Students walk away with:
A clear map of how their nervous system craves, resists, and repeats
Tools to break cycles of burnout and reclaim focus
A deeper understanding of how to make sustainable, soul-aligned art in a dopamine-saturated world
This is not a productivity hack.
It’s creative recovery—a restoration of agency, rhythm, and reward for artists who are ready to work with their biology, not against it.
Step Five: Students Explore Superplay (Month 4)
Superplay: The Science of Pretend
A New Evolutionary Framework for Artists Navigating Identity and Risk
What if pretend wasn’t just child’s play, but a sophisticated, evolutionarily advanced state of consciousness?
Based on Ruby Rose Fox’s original Superplay Theory, this module introduces students to the neurobiology of role-play, performance, and creative identity construction. Drawing on emerging neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and the lived experience of artists, Superplay reveals how the act of “becoming” through art is not just expressive—it’s biological.
Students learn:
Why presenting one’s work can trigger anxiety, shame, and nervous system dysregulation
How to identify the neural “rules” that govern risk, role, and self-expression
How to exit toxic creative patterns by embracing play as a regulated, repeatable state
Superplay gives language—and science—to what artists have always intuited:
That art is a high-stakes game of pretend, and the nervous system is both the canvas and the player.
This course equips students not only to make bold work, but to safely inhabit the selves that art requires them to become.
4 Bonus Workshops During Semester (Saturdays at 2pm CT)
Extra Resources For Students
MuscleMusic App
for Nervous System Tracking
TWO
Weekly Community Support Zooms
Superplay: Your Nervous System is You (Audiobook)
You Are The Tuning Fork doesn’t just develop nervous system leaders, it relieves staff from carrying the emotional and physiological weight of student dysregulation. It also serves as a neutral, non-institutional buffer between students and the institution when conflict inevitably arises.
Institutional/Structural Support
Nervous System & The Arts
Semester Cohort Training with Ruby Rose Fox
October 15 – December 15, 2025
(One-Year Access for Completion)
🎒Course Materials:
Nervous System Tool Kit Bracelet
Musical Nervous System Cards
MuscleMusic App
📅 Weekly Breakdown + Dates
WEEK ONE: The Artist and The Brain
Theme: Building your personal map and understanding your nervous system as your first instrument.
Dates: October 15–October 19
Wed, Oct 15 – Ruby’s Story: How We Got Here
Assignment: Your Nervous System StoryThurs, Oct 16 – Fox Method Core Principles
Assignment: Integration ReflectionFri, Oct 17 – The Body Budget & The Brain
Exercise: Stop, Drop, and RollSat, Oct 18 – The Brain and the Comfort Zone
Assignment: It’s Totally Possible & Remember WhenSun, Oct 19 – What Are Emotions?
Lecture: The Constructed Theory of Emotion
WEEK TWO: Mapping Your Nervous System
Theme: Understanding your internal world to lead yourself and your audience.
Dates: October 21–October 25
Tues, Oct 21 – Meet Your Instructor + Neuroception 101
Wed, Oct 22 – Nervous System States
Thurs, Oct 23 – Play Mode – The Safe & Social System
Fri, Oct 24 – Move Mode – The Fight or Flight System
Sat, Oct 25 – Preservation Mode – The Freeze System
Assignment: Defense Mode Mapping
WEEK THREE: Shifting & Performance Tools
Theme: Daily nervous system strength + emergency triage tools.
Dates: October 28 – November 1
Tues, Oct 28 – Daily Strengthening with the WEEBSS System
Wed, Oct 29 – Micro-Shifting & BMWs
Thurs, Oct 30 – Triage I: Preservation → Move Mode
Fri, Oct 31 – Triage II: Move Mode → Play Mode
Sat, Nov 1 – Performance Tools + Pre-Show Nervous System Game
WEEK FOUR: Dopamine Week
Theme: Reward prediction, motivation crashes, and healing your creative drive.
Dates: November 4–November 8
Tues, Nov 4 – Dopamine Dips: Am I in Freeze?
Assignment: Dopamine Self-AssessmentWed, Nov 5 – Embracing Boring + Peaches & Pumpkins Game
Thurs, Nov 6 – Embracing Pain to Clear Your Brain
Fri, Nov 7 – Dopamine Group Challenge + 1-Hour Meditation
Sat, Nov 8 – MuscleMusic: Dopamine, Cosmos, and Harmony
WEEK FIVE: SUPERPLAY Week
Theme: Unshaming, expansion, and playful transformation.
Dates: November 11–November 15
Tues, Nov 11 – Superplay & The Safe and Social Bypass
Assignment: Superplay ReflectionWed, Nov 12 – Unshaming the Nervous System + Harmonics Assessment
Thurs, Nov 13 – Nervous System Leadership & Shifting Clients
Assignment: Shifting ScriptsFri, Nov 14 – Nervous System Limitations + Stage Fright
Assignment: Start Your Stage Fright EssaySat, Nov 15 – Surprise, Surprise! (Experiential Superplay Day)
WEEK SIX: Advanced Practice & Integration
Theme: Mastery, embodiment, and crafting your lifelong nervous system practice.
Dates: December 12–December 15
Fri, Dec 12 – Protein and Mixed Signals
Sat, Dec 13 – Move Your Center
Sun, Dec 14 – Protocol in Practice (Final Lecture)
Mon, Dec 15 – Integration + Closing Reflections
📝 Final Deliverables:
30 Nervous System Check-Ins (ongoing)
Final Essay (Week 5)
Final Exam (Week 6 or later)
📌 Notes:
Zooms are recorded and available inside your student portal.
You have until December 15, 2027 to complete certification.
All Students Who Finish All Course Work Can Become Certified In
The Fox Method
It turns breakdowns into breakthroughs.
When students learn to recognize stress as biology, not failure,
they stop spiraling. They start creating again.
No more shame spirals or ghosting. Just grounded, resilient artists.
It honors every background and brain.
Different cultures. Different neurotypes. Different emotional maps.
This game levels the playing field with tools for all nervous systems.
It’s trauma-informed, playful, and radically inclusive.
Nervous system tools to steady the chaos.
Artists feel deeply. That’s their gift, and their struggle. It’s also what causes a lot of departmental chaos.
This game teaches students how to feel without drowning.
When nervous systems regulate, drama drops, communication improves, and real connection happens.
It helps them perform without burning out with weekly Zoom support.
Performance anxiety. Creative blocks. Emotional exhaustion.
These are nervous system issues—not personal flaws.
This game helps artists stay present, powerful, and lit up from within.
It builds rock solid community.
When students learn to recognize stress as biology, not failure,
they stop spiraling. They start creating again.
No more shame spirals or ghosting. Just grounded, resilient artists.
What this program isn’t…
What This Program Isn’t
This is not therapy.
It is not a substitute for clinical mental health treatment.
It does not diagnose, treat, or promise to heal trauma.
If you are in crisis, we encourage you to seek professional, licensed mental health support.
What This Program Is
This is a nervous system-based training program designed for artists, by an artist.
It offers science-backed tools that help you understand, track, and shift your internal state, not to pathologize it, but to partner with it.
It’s about learning to work with your nervous system, rather than against it.
It’s about building creative resilience, emotional range, and sustainable performance.
It’s about reclaiming your body as your instrument, alive, expressive, and deeply wise.
You don’t need to be “fixed.”
You need to be heard, held, and given tools that honor your biology, your art, and your complexity.
This is that space.