The Wisdom of Trauma: Reclaiming Wholeness
A 4-Day online retreat
In this unique online retreat, Dr. Gabor Maté will share decades of teachings and research on healing trauma. He will help us discover the roots of our trauma and build a relationship with it, so we can begin to uncover our true selves from beneath the hurts and adaptations which have left us stuck in contraction, defense and reactivity. The retreat will include daily teachings, exposure to trauma-revealing tools and case studies. Much of the time will be spent in one-on-one Compassionate Inquiry practice.
Join Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Julie Brown Yau & Betsy Polatin MFA, SEP for a 4-day live, online retreat March 4–7, 9:00am–12:15pm PST. We will learn to:
- Disentangle from unconscious patterns that no longer serve us
- Uncover unconscious feeling states and access early traumatic events
- Develop self-compassion through the Compassionate Inquiry technique
- Discover the wisdom of our body
- Use meditation and breathing practices to generate calm and stability
- Cultivate patience, respect and choice in the healing process
- Find a balanced stance in ourselves
- Increase our capacity for self-expression, connection and aliveness
Anger, sadness, fear, shame, or self-loathing can all be symptoms of trauma. They are some of the threads we will be following to their source, to reveal the original wound. Meeting discomfort and difficult emotions is deeply spiritual work that can bring us closer to our true self.
We will be compassionately guided through self-inquiry and supported by somatic practices; this combination invites pain, discomfort and repressed emotions to come to the surface to be experienced, witnessed and worked through in a safe, supportive setting. Acceptance, allowing, non-judgement, expression and self-compassion are the ingredients needed for resolution.
Why Attend?
- to be introduced to the process of Compassionate Inquiry
- to understand your own triggers and their origin
- to recognize mental-emotional patterns and drivers, and how they limit your wholeness, choice and freedom
- to bring healing and integration to trauma from past traumatic events
- to find a greater sense of aliveness by completing unresolved or repressed emotions
- to participate in daily, live inquiry sessions with Dr. Gabor Maté
This program will feature Dr. Gabor Maté’s unique therapeutic work and teaching, Compassionate Inquiry, enhanced by movement and breathwork led by Betsy Polatin. Dr. Julie Yau will add emphasis on the somatic expression and resolution of trauma. We will explore emotional realities and traumatic imprints that spiritual modalities often ignore.
The teaching will be articulated in four main themes:
1. Recognizing Trauma
2. Loosening the Grip
3. Expanding Compassion
4. Developing Resilience
Who is this online retreat for?
This will be an in-depth program, suitable for therapists, spiritual seekers and anyone looking for a profound, experiential understanding of their traumatic imprint and the hidden beliefs that sustain it.
The content of this course will be similar to what was presented at the “Returning to Ourselves” 2020 retreat. If you attended that event, this retreat will allow you to deepen your experience and understanding of the material.
Presenters
Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté, M.D. is a specialist on trauma, addiction, stress and childhood development. 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. 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. Gabor is also the creator of a psychotherapeutic approach, Compassionate Inquiry, now studied by thousands of therapists, physicians, counselors, and others in over 80 countries.
Julie Brown Yau
Julie Brown Yau, Ph.D. has a 33-year background in psychological, somatic, and spiritual traditions, providing a unique depth of knowledge and experience. Julie specializes in the resolution of developmental trauma, also intergenerational, and acute trauma. She is an author and speaker, with a passion for helping individuals and groups establish well-being that provides positive qualities of agency, a heart-centered capacity for compassion, presence, and their sense of wholeness.
Julie was also the director of education and program development at CCALS for 15 years, currently the trauma and spiritual care consultant. Julie has taught and lectured in hospitals, universities, and the UCI center for Integrative Medicine; she continues to lecture and write on the topics of trauma and spirituality. She is an authorized teacher of Shri Vidya, where she combines the resolution of trauma with specific spiritual practice. Julie has a private practice in Laguna Beach CA.
Betsy Polatin
Betsy Polatin, MFA, SEP, an internationally recognized breathing/movement specialist and best- selling author, has been teaching for 45 years. Her unique and intuitive perspectives are greatly influenced by the study of movement, breath, and trauma, as well as the teachings of spiritual and meditation masters. She speaks at conferences around the world.
As a well-known educator, she’s had numerous articles published in the Huffington Post, and is the author of The Actor’s Secret and Humanual.