Thought leader | Dr. Gabor Maté, M.D.

Oct 24

Dr. Gabor Maté, M.D.

Physician · Trauma & Addiction Specialist · Author · Speaker

If you’ve ever wondered why stress makes you sick, Dr. Gabor Maté explains it like only a physician can. He was a thought leader in connecting everyday stress, trauma, and repressed emotion directly to illness, burnout, and addiction — years before it was mainstream. A Hungarian-born Canadian physician (MD), he spent years in family practice, palliative care, and in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with patients struggling through addiction and HIV. What he kept seeing was that every “problem” — from ADHD to drug use — was rooted in unhealed trauma and disconnection. That’s what made him different: he didn’t ask, “What’s wrong with you?” He asked, “What happened to you?” One of his biggest impacts has been showing women how silence, people-pleasing, and over-functioning break the body down.

Spotlight: The Myth of Normal, Chapter 13 — how women’s bodies pay for disconnection

Topics: Addiction, ADHD, women and repressed emotion

Noteworthy Ideas: “I ask not what is wrong with the addiction but what is right with it?”

What We Use: His link between repression and illness for women specifically, his trauma theory, his compassionate approach

Start Here: Podcast interviews on YouTube such as “The Myth of Normal — Full Interview” on Impact Theory and this conversation on The School of Greatness

Body of Work