Keep Talking Episode 91: Paul Conti - Understanding Trauma
Paul Conti is a psychiatrist, a trauma expert, the former Chief Resident at Harvard, and the author of "Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic." During our conversation, Paul talks about the precise definition of trauma: something that overwhelms one's coping mechanisms and changes the brain, his own personal experience with trauma, the state of mental healthcare in America, how we know one has experienced trauma, how trauma often leads to hidden shame that prevents healing, what trauma is not, how he has stepped outside of mainstream healthcare practices to help his patients, and suggestions for mitigating the negative effects and suffering caused by trauma.
Paul is extraordinarily open and informed about the subject of trauma. It is his view that having a holistic approach to treatment and taking the time necessary to establish rapport with patients is key in understanding and addressing the root-cause of his patients' ailments. This was one of my favorite conversations in a long time, and it ends on a note of hope: by providing some tools that are already available for those in need and noting tools that may come in the near future to help human beings become well.
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(00:00) Intro
02:26 Defining trauma
07:29 How do we know someone has experienced trauma?
11:06 Paul's personal experience with trauma.
17:49 Quote about addressing symptoms in medicine system.
18:13 How Paul knew he needed help addressing his own trauma.
26:32 What isn't trauma?
28:56 Scientific evidence of trauma.
30:39 What commonly causes trauma?
34:13 The relationship of trauma and shame.
40:16 Hope for addressing trauma in modernity, particularly for men.
46:56 Failing to seek help due to social conditioning.
52:00 Paul working outside the medical system and creating rapport with patients.
01:00::08 Tactics for overcoming trauma and suffering
01:06:31 Where we are in our understanding of the mind and brain
01:11:29 MDMA therapy and what Paul is hopeful about in the future