Barbara Brennan - Education and Early Career

Education and Early Career

Brennan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1962 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and two years later received her Masters in Atmospheric Physics from the same institution. She then worked as an atmospheric physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. From 1970, she participated in courses at a number of uncredited institutions, offering courses in the "human energy field". She completed a two–year program in Therapeutic Counselling at the Community of the Whole Person in Washington, D.C., followed by a three-year program in Core energetics at the Institute for Core Energetics in New York, New York in 1978 and a five-year program in Spiritual Healership at the Phoenicia Pathwork Center in Phoenicia, New York in 1979. She was strongly influenced by Eva and John Pierrakos, who founded a system for self-transformation called the Pathwork, drawing on the ideas of Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen. Brennan worked with the Pierrakos, and became a Pathwork Helper and Core Energetics therapist. Brennan also took seminars with and was influenced by Rev. Rosalyn L. Bruyere. She developed her own private healing practice in 1977 and then established a training programme to teach others. Brennan has Ph.D.s in philosophy from Greenwich University and theology from Holos University, both earned in 2001. These universities are unaccredited.