A renowned speaker, and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development.

Rather than offering quick-fix solutions to these complex issues, Dr. Maté weaves together scientific research, case histories, and his own insights and experience to present a broad perspective that enlightens and empowers people to promote their own healing and that of those around them.

After 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, Dr. Maté worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of four books published in over twenty-five languages, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. His book on addiction received the Hubert Evans Prize for literary non-fiction. For his groundbreaking 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 books include In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction; When the Body Says No; The Cost of Hidden Stress; Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder; and (with Dr. Gordon Neufeld) Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. He is currently writing his next book, The Myth of Normal: Illness and Health in an Insane Culture, out in late 2021. Gabor is also co-developer of a therapeutic approach, Compassionate Inquiry, now studied by hundreds of therapists, physicians, counselors, and others internationally.

Learn more about Dr. Gabor Maté: https://drgabormate.com/
Learn more about Compassionate Inquiry: https://compassionateinquiry.com/
Follow Dr. Gabor Maté on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabormatemd/

00:00:16 – Sean introduces Dr. Gabor Maté
00:05:12 – Gabor’s desire to be a doctor
00:07:23 – The limitations of Western medicine
00:16:33 – Mindfulness of death
00:18:18 – What Gabor gained from working in palliative care
00:24:47 – Question: Did your ability to help others deepen as you started looking inward?
00:26:50 – Confronting the dark parts of oneself
00:29:17 – Do you need to be completely healed before helping others?
00:29:44 – Is it enough to understand things intellectually?
00:30:25 – Being a mirror for clients
00:31:31 – The most important work you do is on yourself
00:37:58 – Why mindfulness must be integrated into how we live and act
00:41:14 – Mindfulness is not about bypassing our experience
00:44:33 – The neuroscience of emotions
00:46:07 – On rage, care, panic, and grief
00:47:11 – The most commonly repressed emotions
00:47:40 – What is the role of healthy anger?
00:50:34 – On pushing down our emotions
00:54:01 – Why do we hold onto emotions?
01:00:01 – On caring curiosity and triggering people
01:02:01 – Noticing when your ego is in the way
01:03:20 – Modeling vulnerability
01:12:02 – The essence of Compassionate Inquiry
01:16:27 – How to create a safe container when working with people
01:20:36 – On triggering people
01:23:09 – Short mindfulness meditation led by Sean
01:28:36 – The risk of exploitation and minding any of our own negative intentions
01:32:50 – Is there a relationship between repressed emotions and resentment?
01:35:41 – What can I do to better support healthy emotional development in children?
01:37:11 – On parenting
01:41:03 – Compassionate Inquiry example: harsh interaction with child
01:51:06 – We don’t react to what happens; we react to our interpretation of what happens
01:59:33 – Are tremors or shaking a sign of unhealed trauma?
02:00:53 – On prenatal and birth trauma
02:03:27 – What is the difference between healthy and unhealthy anger?
02:07:11 – You can be assertive without being triggered
02:11:47 – Compassionate Inquiry example: supporting those in service industries/need to people-please
02:22:45 – Can we hold onto ourselves in the face of what shows up before us?
02:26:49 – Compassionate Inquiry example: addressing a trauma you have no memory of
02:28:34 – Multiple kinds of memory
02:39:14 – Compassionate Inquiry example: healing a father-daughter relationship
02:48:17 – Closing words from Sean