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Conversations on Trauma with Dr. Gabor Mate & Special Guests
✓ Eligible for 5 CE Hours
Expert Series: Conversations on Trauma
This course offers a profound exploration into the multifaceted nature of trauma and its healing, integrating insights from leading experts Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, and Dr. Peter Levine. Trauma is explored as both an unhealed internal wound and a state of "stuckness," arising not only from individual experiences, but also from societal constructs and unmet developmental needs that deeply impact physical and emotional well-being.
Comprehensive Curriculum
Module 1 — Trauma, Psychedelics, and the Limits of Western Medicine
Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, and Dr. Scott Lyons
A candid conversation between Drs. Gabor Maté and Bessel van der Kolk on the emerging intersection of psychedelics and trauma healing. Dr. Maté shares his personal trajectory from ayahuasca ceremonies in Vancouver into clinical work with plant medicine; Dr. van der Kolk traces his research journey through MDMA-assisted therapy. Together, they explore the role of set, setting, and human presence in psychedelic work — why curiosity, support, and embodied touch are essential, and why no medicine works without a relationship around it. The conversation also turns to the appropriation and decontextualization of indigenous plant medicines in Western therapeutic settings, and the humility required to integrate these traditions with respect, scientific rigor, and spiritual depth.
Module 2 — The Origins and Faces of Trauma
Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Peter Levine, and Dr. Scott Lyons
Drs. Maté, Levine, and Lyons explore the systemic and developmental origins of trauma in modern society. The conversation traces how the loss of community, connection to nature, and indigenous wisdom around child-rearing has created the conditions for widespread trauma — and how the ACEs studies, despite resistance from mainstream psychiatry, have begun to shift that paradigm. Dr. Maté reflects on civilizational and intergenerational forces; Dr. Levine speaks to the body's innate resilience; Dr. Lyons grounds the conversation in pediatric neonatology and the early imprint of touch. Together, they ask: what would it take for our culture to stop hurting children — so that they don't have to deny reality in order to survive?
Module 3 — Healing the Legacy of Trauma
Dr. Albert Wong, Nkem Ndefo, Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Gabor Maté, and Dr. Scott Lyons
What is healing — and how is it different from liberation? Five master clinicians take up this question through their distinct lineages. Dr. Levine defines healing as feeling more alive, more real, and more connected. Nkem Ndefo distinguishes individual healing from the collective liberation required when wounding is ongoing. Dr. Maté frames healing as becoming whole — a return to the self that was always there. The conversation moves into grief, rage, and "rage-crying"; the role of compassionate witnessing in birth, death, and loss; and the question of how practitioners stay grounded enough to hold both pain and presence. The session closes on rhythm, practice, and discipline as the daily work of sustainable healing.
Module 4 — Healing Attachment Trauma
Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Gordon Neufeld, and Dr. Scott Lyons
Dr. Maté opens by naming his profound debt to Dr. Gordon Neufeld — his teacher, mentor, and co-author of Hold On to Your Kids. Together, the three explore why adult-child attachment is more vital, and more frayed, than ever. The conversation moves through the developmental science of attachment, the social-media-driven rupture of parent-child bonds (with reference to the Adolescence series), and the felt sense of attachment in the body. Dr. Neufeld articulates how playfulness, the "dance in the eyes," and the invitation to exist are the foundational expressions of secure attachment — and how unexpressed sadness blocks the return of play. The session culminates in a meditation on humor, sorrow, and the embodied capacity to be moved.
Faculty
Bessel van der Kolk (Dr.)
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., is a pioneering clinician, researcher, and teacher in posttraumatic stress, integrating developmental, neurobiological, and interpersonal aspects of trauma. His bestselling The Body Keeps the Score transformed how we understand trauma. With 150+ peer-reviewed articles, he has studied neuroimaging, memory, neurofeedback, Developmental Trauma, yoga, theater, and EMDR. He is founder of the Trauma Research Foundation, past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University, and PI of the MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study.
Peter Levine (Dr.)
Peter A Levine, Ph.D., is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma. He holds doctorates in both Biophysics and Psychology. He is the Founder and President of the Ergos Institute for Somatic Education and the Founder and Advisor for Somatic Experiencing International. Dr. Levine is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma (published in over 29 languages). He has received Lifetime Achievement awards from Psychoth erapy Networker and from the US Association for Body-Oriented Psychotherapy. He continues to teach trauma healing workshops internationally. Learn more at somaticexperiencing.com.
Scott Lyons (Dr.)
Dr. Scott Lyons (DO, PhD, MS, MFA, CHT, BMCP/T, RSMT, SME, BMCP, IDME, SEP, CST, BFA, RYT-500) is a Clinical Psychologist, Osteopath, and Mind-Body Medicine practitioner who specializes in therapies for infants, youth, and adults. Additionally, Dr. Lyons holds a BFA in Theater/Psychology, and an MFA in Dance/Choreography. Scott is the creator of The Embody Lab — a hub for embodied education, self-discovery and healing— and developer of Somatic Stress Release™ — a processes of restoring our biological adaptation system.
Albert Wong (Dr.)
Dr. Albert Wong is the Director of the Trauma Certificate Program at Somatopia. He maintains a private counseling and consulting practice centered around somatic psychotherapy and is the founder of the online somatic education platform, Somatopia: www.somatopia.com.
Nkem Ndefo
Nkem Ndefo is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit, a model that fosters embodied self-awareness, supports stabilization from the impacts of personal and collective trauma, and nurtures adaptive capacity in the face of stress—all within an ecologically sensitive and social justice-oriented framework. She brings extensive experience as a clinician, educator, researcher, and community strategist to innovative programs that address trauma and inequity, build resilience, and catalyze liberatory change for individuals and organizations across the U.S. and globally. Nkem is especially committed to working in solidarity with people most impacted by violence and marginalization.
Gordon Neufeld (Dr.)
Dr. Gordon Neufeld is a Vancouver-based developmental psychologist with over 50 years of experience with children and youth and those responsible for them. A foremost authority on child development, Dr. Neufeld is an international speaker, a bestselling author (Hold On To Your Kids) and a leading interpreter of the developmental paradigm. Dr. Neufeld has a widespread reputation for making sense of complex problems and for opening doors for change. While formerly involved in university teaching and private practice, he now devotes his time to teaching and training others, including educators and helping professionals. His Neufeld Institute is now a world-wide charitable organization devoted to applying developmental science to the task of raising children. He is a father of five and a grandfather to seven.