“Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside of you, as a result of what happened to you.” – Dr. Gabor Maté
The Wisdom of Trauma movie and Talks on Trauma event
Follow link to watch the full movie and learn about recordings of the expert trauma series with multiple video interviews.
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What is trauma?
Dr Gabor Maté is a physician and renowned expert in addiction, childhood trauma and mind-body health.
He explains in an interview:
“The origin of the word ‘trauma’ is the Greek for ‘wound’. Trauma is a wound. How I think about it is that if I wounded you, if I cut your flesh, the healing would involve scar tissue forming.
“If the wound was great enough, you’d get a big scar, and it would be without nerve endings so you wouldn’t feel, and it would be much less flexible than your normal tissue.
“Trauma is when there is a loss of feeling and there is a reduced flexibility in responding to the world. This is a response to a wound.” He continues:
“Trauma is a psychic wound that hardens you psychologically and then interferes with your ability to grow and develop.
“It pains you and now you’re acting out of pain. It induces fear and now you’re acting out of fear.
“Trauma is not what happens to you, it’s what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.
“Trauma is that scarring that makes you less flexible, more rigid, less feeling and more defended.”
From interview article “Dr Gabor Maté on Childhood Trauma, The Real Cause of Anxiety and Our ‘Insane’ Culture,” HumanWindow.
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The movie and series of interviews with trauma experts is presented by Science and Nonduality.
One of the pages for the series summarizes:
Trauma “is the root of our deepest wounds.
“Dr. Maté gives us a new vision: a trauma-informed society in which parents, teachers, physicians, policy-makers and legal personnel are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms and judging, but seek instead to understand the sources from which troubling behaviors and diseases spring in the wounded human soul.
“With this film, we hope to touch many people, begin a conversation, and develop a common understanding about how trauma impacts our individual lives, communities and society as a whole.”
Gabor Maté is “a Hungarian-Canadian physician. He has a background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development and trauma, and in their potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, including on autoimmune disease, cancer, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addictions, and a wide range of other conditions.” (Wikipedia)
The Wisdom of Trauma movie and Talks on Trauma event
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Sia on dealing with trauma
Singer, songwriter, voice actress and director Sia (Sia Furler) has talked about having complex PTSD from a number of childhood, developmental and adult traumas.
In a 2020 magazine interview, she commented:
“I got married, got a divorce almost as quickly. That was super devastating. It brought up a lot of developmental trauma…
“I had a lot of suicidal ideation over the last three and a half years. I couldn’t get out of bed.
“I thought I’d been living with bipolar two, and then I was actually correctly diagnosed as having complex PTSD from a number of childhood and developmental things, and then a bunch of adult trauma as well.”
She adds,
“And then I also think that getting famous should fall under a traumatic category, and I think that’s why a lot of our celebrities are in rehab and killing themselves.”
She mentions one form of therapy that has helped:
“I have an attachment injury, or I had an attachment injury. And what I needed to do was three years of extreme attachment repair work, which is the newest kind of psychology.”
(From article Sia Opens Up About Dealing With Suicidal Thoughts And PTSD.)
The image above is from her video conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté for the Trauma Talks series of The Wisdom of Trauma event.
Here are some excerpts:
Sia: I’m a trauma baby, as is, I think, pretty much everyone in Hollywood.
Gabor Maté: We find out over and over again, [movies are] created by really traumatized people.
Sia: Yeah
Gabor Maté: So I’m wondering what connection you’ve made between trauma and Hollywood and creativity?
Sia: Well, I can tell you that I’m grateful that I had the childhood I had – which is something I could never have said two or three years ago. I was still upset and angry and resentful. Now I’m grateful because I know that it informs my work and it allows me to attune to other people who are in pain.
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Alanis Morissette is another of the speakers.
In a magazine interview she talked about one of many life experiences that can be affected by trauma: pregnancy:
“It’s this whole chemistry of emotions. Hormones and chemicals that are just coursing through your body. It [can] be triggering, or flashbacking, or re-traumatizing.” (SELF mag. June 26, 2019)
The Wisdom of Trauma event team announces “We are delighted that we have added to the schedule Alanis Morissette, one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians in contemporary music.
“Her deeply expressive music and performances have earned vast critical praise and seven Grammy awards. Her conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté is on the topic of Self-expression and Mindfulness in Healing.”
The Wisdom of Trauma movie and Talks on Trauma event
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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