Who is Gabor Maté: the doctor that Prince Harry has chosen to speak publicly about his mental health

Prince Harry recently attended a book promotion event during which he spoke with the Dr. Gabor Maté, an expert specializing in trauma, addictions, stress and child development. In the interview with Dr. Gabor Maté, Prince Harry talked about his childhood and how therapy helped him deal with emotional problems.

The prince confessed to growing up in a broken home, and that her childhood was incredibly painful. He attributed much of his emotional and mental health problems to the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was just 12 years old, and how he did not receive adequate support from King Charles III at that time. moment.

During that conversation, Prince Harry also spoke about his difficulty finding a therapist to help him explore the trauma he had experienced during his childhood in these circumstances. But,Who is Gabor Maté and why has Prince Harry chosen him to speak now about his traumas? children in relation to their mental health?

Who is Gabor Maté: the doctor with whom Harry has been publicly honest

Gabor Maté is a doctor born in Budapest specialized in the treatment of addictions, attention deficit disorder and early childhood experiences. In fact, It’s one of the most relevant doctors in the world around trauma and is an expert in analyze the connection between emotional stress and numerous illnesses. According to Dr. Gabor Mate, emotions are the greatest physiological stressors and even He devoted an entire book to this topic: The price of stress (RBA).

Doctor Gabor Maté defends the connection between mental health and physical health and criticizes that medical specialists still treat the symptoms that the organism presents in isolation regardless the connection between the various manifestations or without asking why the psychological state before the onset of symptoms, and how this influences the course of the disease.

In this context, according to Maté, suffering some childhood trauma exponentially increases a person’s chances of suffering an addiction later, an explanation that would fit the case with Prince Harry’s personal history.

And it is that, as Prince Harry explained during the talk, when he lost his mother, King Carlos III only knew how to console him by telling him “everything will be fine”. After that, Harry explained, he simply left the room they were in. Harry identifies this lack of affection and empathy at such an important moment in his life as a traumatic experience that he was unable to overcome, which, according to the theory of Dr. Gabor Maté, could explain Prince Harry’s subsequent drug addictions.

The problem is that if that emotional block is prolonged in time, there comes a time when we will stop feeling even what is worth it be lived. When we turn to alcohol, drugs, the indiscriminate use of medicines or even food, we opt for anesthesia so we don’t feel what we keep under our armor.

As proposed by the Dr. Gabor Matéinstead of asking why I have this addiction, whatever it is, the real question would be: where does this pain come from? It is painful to reconnect with dormant emotions, but the effort is worth it: once physical and emotional liberation is achieved, we can recover our mental health.

What is Compassionate Inquiry: the therapy of doctor Gabor Maté

Dr. Gabor Maté has developed the therapy Compassionate Inquirywhose objective is Discover the person hiding behind the symptoms. According to Gabor Maté, in every human being there is a healthy part that can be listened to to overcome trauma. It is not about erasing the past, but about freeing the energy to express emotions and put them at the service of life.

The Aleceia Model, created by psychologists Mario C. Salvador and Carmen Cuenca, employs the therapeutic relationship in tune with the client to achieve healing from trauma.