[Video] Full Interview w/ Dr. Gabor Maté on Trauma and Healing in a Toxic Culture
So many of us share the feeling that modern life takes an unnecessarily heavy toll on our well-being, but few have illuminated the reasons behind this as insightfully as Dr. Gabor Maté — the renowned author, trauma expert, and retired physician.
In his most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture, Dr. Maté examines the impact of trauma and stress in modern lifestyles, as well as the cultural and systemic context that leads to these issues. It’s an incredibly eye opening book that helps to identify the root causes of, and compassionate antidotes to, the problems that so many of us are seeking to understand and move beyond.
Recently, we had the honor to interview Dr. Maté for our training on Healing Trauma With Compassion-Based Approaches. In this 45 minute session, he shares key insights from the book, including how trauma and emotional stress, such as childhood abuse or systemic racism, can manifest as physical conditions; the ways underlying trauma can manifest in destructive behaviors; and the role that compassion plays in reconnecting with the authentic self and healing from trauma.
We hope you enjoy the full session below. And, if you would like to explore these themes more deeply, you can purchase Dr. Maté’s book The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture here.
About Dr. Gabor Maté’s Latest Book, The Myth of Normal
By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing.
In The Myth of Normal, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems are actually seeing an upsurge in chronic illness and general ill health. Prescription drug usage, high blood pressure, mental illness, and so many other troubling issues are on the rise.
Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how the toxicity of today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance.
Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Co-written with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.
Learn More and Purchase the Book Here >>
About Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté (pronounced GAH-bor MAH-tay), MD, CM, is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The best-selling author of five books published in nearly 40 languages, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. For his ground-breaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. His most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture is a New York Times and international best-seller. His next book, co-written with his son Daniel, will be Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and their Adult Children, based on their popular workshop. Learn more at drgabormate.com
A brilliant exposition of the causes and manifestation of trauma, I feel truly enlightened and inspired by this talk. Thank you Dr Gabor Mate for your knowledge and wisdom and for passing it on to us in such a simple and understandable way, a wealth of knowledge and experience condensed in a truly humble manner. And thank you to the interviewer for her intelligent receptivity. A truly wonderful interview.
It’s rather affirming to know that unless we see change in ourselves, it’s difficult to see it someone else. This conversely helps us to guide the client to the employment of ‘agency’ where they are able to find the answers in themselves and move towards healing.
Thank you Gabor Mate for such a frank, down-to-earth conversation on trauma and how us as individuals can go on to experience healing. I will definitely have to read the book again!
What an inspiring discussion. Without shame, without blame. A new perspective to looking at addiction. Thank you
thanks a lot for this enlightening video. the world is sick and people are undergoing the consequences of capitalism and the rush after power and money in a blind way.
The Five levels of compassion was a new concept for me as I work with people.