Dr. Gabor Maté on Trauma, Addiction, and Healing

“Addiction is not a disease. It's an attempt to solve the problem of emotional pain.”

In this episode of the Mindspace podcast, Dr. Joe speaks with Dr. Gabor Maté, retired physician, author, and world renowned educator. Dr. Maté has more than 20 years experience in family practice and palliative care. He has worked for more than a decade at the Portland Hotel in downtown East Side Vancouver with patients who suffer from mental illness and addiction.

He is a world renowned expert in trauma, addiction, child development, psychedelics, and the relationship between stress and illness. He is the best selling author of four books like When the Body Says No and The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, for which he won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. And he is currently finishing his fifth book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture due out in April 2022. His works have been translated into more than 25 languages. And he also offers online video courses including Wholehearted's Healing Trauma and Addictions.

His work now centres around educating the public on the impact of trauma and human development and training therapists in Compassionate Inquiry. Compassionate Inquiry is a therapeutic method developed by Dr. Maté whose focus is on helping the patient to “recognize the unconscious dynamics that run their lives and how to liberate themselves from them.” He also just released The Wisdom of Trauma on June 8th, 2021, a movie about his life’s work.

Dr. Maté and Dr. Joe spoke about:

- Gabor’s personal history with trauma

How traumatic experiences affect human development

• The effects of trauma and stress during pregnancy and childhood on human development
• How children adapt to trauma
• The relationship between modern society, parenting, and child development
• The wisdom of trauma
• The definition of addiction
• His view of the problems with the disease model approach to addiction
• His non-pathologizing approach to understanding and treating addiction
• The link between trauma and physical illness
• The role of psychedelics in healing trauma
• What he is optimistic about

Connect with Dr. Maté on his site, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

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