Our Team
Kent Bassett
Symptom Recovery Coach
Kent is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, film editor, and chronic symptom recovery coach. He directed and edited This Might Hurt (Austin Film Festival), a feature documentary about chronic pain and a radical mind-body treatment. Once on the fringes, the paradigm explored in the film, Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), was proven effective in randomized controlled trials and is now listed as a “best practice” by the HHS for addressing chronic pain.
Much of the drive to spend seven years making This Might Hurt came from Kent’s own struggle with chronic tendonitis and repetitive stress injury as a 22-year-old. Unable to type or even turn a doorknob without severe pain, he was forced to drop out of college. Although he saw several doctors and tried physical therapy, strength training, and opioids—his pain grew steadily worse. It wasn’t until he had an insight into the role of the brain in triggering real physical symptoms that he was able to completely recover.
After completing the film, Kent trained as a symptom recovery coach and works with people struggling with chronic pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and other chronic symptoms. He is pursuing a Master in Social Work degree (MSW) at Silberman School, Hunter College. His approach to coaching is influenced by his own healing journey that involved fear reduction, emotion-focused therapy, and mindfulness meditation. He’s completed Dr. Howard Schubiner’s and Hal Greenham’s live practitioner’s training, Freedom From Chronic Pain, as well as Mark Lumley’s Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) training. In 2023, he was invited to present at the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association’s annual conference for physicians, therapists, and coaches.
He draws from 15 years of practicing mindfulness (including 5 months of cumulative silent retreat practice at centers like Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock) and telling stories for film and TV. Kent holds an MFA in film directing from Chapman University, and a BA in history from Swarthmore College. His filmmaker site is here: kentbassett.com.
Kent has a background in struggles against oppression, so he’s attuned to how violence and bias affect people differently based on their gender, race, class, sexual identity, nationality, ability, and other factors. His style of coaching is evidence-based, and it’s personalized for each client depending on their interests, goals, and needs. You can find his media appearances here.
Dr. Rebecca Kennedy, MD
Medical Advisor for Mind-Body Insight
Dr. Kennedy grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she attended medical school at the University of Michigan. After her residency at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, she worked for a migrant farm worker clinic for five years doing full scope family medicine. For fifteen years she worked at Kaiser Permanente where she practiced family medicine and urgent care, and for her last few years, she treated patients with chronic pain in the integrative medicine clinic. She also served as the head of the Long Covid specialty group.
Dr. Kennedy has trained extensively in the mind-body medical approach trail-blazed by physicians like John Sarno, Howard Schubiner, and David Clarke. She sits on the board of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, whose mission is to end chronic pain. Dr. Kennedy sees patients throughout the world and can be reached directly on her site: https://resilience-healthcare.com.