Compassionate Inquiry and Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture

Dr. Maté will be presenting at the 2024 Somatic Trauma Healing Immersion in San Diego, California, USA on February 29 – March 1, 2024.

Compassionate Inquiry™ is a psychotherapeutic method developed by Dr. Gabor Maté that reveals what lies beneath the appearance we present to the world.

Using Compassionate Inquiry, the therapist unveils the level of consciousness, mental climate, hidden assumptions, implicit memories and body states that form the real message that words both express and conceal.

Through Compassionate Inquiry, the client can recognize the unconscious dynamics that run their lives and how to liberate themselves from them.

Dr. Maté will model the process of Compassionate Inquiry with course participants and instruct therapists in the practice of this powerful technique to help clients access deep healing and transformation. This will be both an experiential, participatory workshop where participants will be guided through their own personal process, as well as an introduction to the training to teach the method of Compassionate Inquiry to health professionals, therapists and social workers.

Based on The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Half of North American adults suffer from chronic illness – a fact Western medicine views largely
in terms of individual predispositions and habits.

Western medicine imposes two separations, neither tenable scientifically. First, it separates
mind from the body, largely assuming that most chronic illnesses have nothing to do with
people’s emotional and psychological experiences. And yet, a large and irrefutable body of
research has clearly shown that physiologic and behavioural functioning of human beings can
be understood only if we integrate our body functions with those of the mind: functions such as
awareness, emotions, our interpretations of and responses to events, and our relationships with
other people. Second, Western practice views people’s health as separate from the social
environment, ignoring social determinants of health such as class, gender, economic status,
and race. Such factors, in reality, are more important influences on health and longevity than
individual predispositions and personal factors such as genes, cholesterol levels, blood
pressure and so on.

This talk shows how a society dedicated to material pursuits rather than genuine human needs
and spiritual values stresses its members, undermines healthy child development and dooms
many to chronic illness, from diabetes to heart disease, from autoimmune conditions to cancer.