Gabor Maté on transforming trauma

The renowned physician discusses the role of trauma in our lives, showing up as addiction, chronic disease and mental illness — and how recognising his own led to true healing.

Dr Gabor Maté was born in Budapest to a Jewish family, just before Nazi tanks rolled into the city.

His mother risked handing him to a stranger on the street to try and get him to safety.

Many years later, after establishing himself as a successful physician in Canada, Gabor looked at the problems in his work and marriage and wondered if they were linked to that early trauma.

He uses his own experiences as the test case for the effects of trauma on the body and is now internationally renowned for arguing that trauma casts a long shadow in our lives, showing up in addiction, ADHD, chronic disease and mental illness.

Gabor argues that realising the impact of trauma of all kinds allows for real healing — as has happened in his own life.

Dr Gabor Maté's new book written with Daniel Maté is called The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture and is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode of Conversations deals with trauma, early childhood trauma, mental illness, addiction, ADHD, chronic illness, epic life stories, origin stories, healing, autoimmune disease, and therapy.