Keira Barr, MD
I’m Dr. Keira Barr, a double board-certified dermatologist, psychodermatologist, nervous system educator and somatic therapy practitioner exploring the mind-skin connection. I’m interested in collaborations that bring neuroscience, the body, and the arts together to support healing, embodiment, and a deeper relationship with ourselves and others.
II’m Dr. Keira Barr, a double board-certified dermatologist, psychodermatologist, and somatic trauma practitioner exploring the mind-skin connection and the role of the body, creativity, and community in healing.
My work sits at the intersection of dermatology, nervous system regulation, trauma-informed care, embodiment, and the healing arts. I’ve led a pilot study incorporating movement, expressive arts, mindfulness, and somatic practices for people living with chronic skin conditions, and my publications explore the emotional, relational, and psychophysiologic dimensions of skin health.
Through my group programs, I center the healing power of connection in community through body-based practices, expressive arts, and accessible neuroscience. I’m excited to join the NeuroArts community to collaborate with others who are reimagining healing through science, creativity, relationship, and the wisdom of the body.
Interests
I’m interested in exploring how neuroarts can help create more embodied, relational, and restorative approaches to healing, both within medicine and beyond it.
As a dermatologist, psychodermatologist, and somatic trauma practitioner, I’m especially drawn to the skin as a sensory, emotional, and relational organ. The skin is constantly receiving information from the environment through touch, temperature, light, texture, sound, rhythm, beauty, safety, and belonging. I see neuroarts as a powerful way to deepen how we understand and support that lived experience.
I’d love to explore interdisciplinary collaborations that bring neuroscience, dermatology, somatics, expressive arts, design, and aesthetics together in service of healing. This could include programs for patients living with chronic skin conditions, restorative spaces for clinicians and caregivers, community gatherings centered on body-based practices and creative expression, and new models of skincare that move beyond products alone into ritual, sensory experience, nervous system support, and connection.
I’m also interested in the role of physical spaces, product development, and aesthetic environments in helping people feel safer in their bodies. How might a dermatology clinic, skincare ritual, retreat, community program, or educational experience be designed to support regulation, repair, creativity, and belonging? How can the arts help translate science into felt experience, especially for people who have felt disconnected from or at war with their bodies?
I’m excited to be in conversation with others who are asking similar questions and imagining new ways to bring the body, the arts, neuroscience, and collective healing into everyday life.
