Gabor has written and spoken on a variety of topics from ADHD to parenting to the origins of physical disorders and beyond. He is strongly committed and passionate about helping us understand and treat addiction and trauma.
In early 2018 Gabor joined the team at Wholehearted. Ever since we’ve been working closely to create high quality programs like this one.
Our mission is to develop valuable and needed programs that highlight Gabor’s insights and teachings about addiction in a simple and accessible form. By creating programs for individual struggling with addiction, family members, and loved ones, we seek to convey the importance of family, community, and connection to the understanding of addiction and trauma. We want everyone taking this course to come away with renewed hope and belief that it’s possible to overcome addiction and to find healing.
We realize that everyone’s experience is unique. No two individuals experience addiction in exactly the same way. Even two people exposed to the same traumas won’t necessarily respond with the same behaviors. As Gabor says, trauma isn’t what happens to us; it is what happens inside us as a result of what happens to us. Some of us have very supporting, loving families. Others may not have any family at all. Still others grow up in abusive, unstable, unsafe environments.
Gabor’s message is that all of us, regardless of our past experiences, our traumas, our behaviors, our beliefs, our biology, our family (or lack thereof) or how our brains are wired to respond, can find hope in the knowledge that we can heal from the traumas that have driven our addictive behaviors. And this goes for family members as well as those struggling with addiction. From our own wounds, and the knowledge of how those wounds impact us and those around us, we can find the motivation and strength to change. We’re never too old, or too “stuck in our ways.”
When we understand the connection between our earliest-in-life experiences in seeking the love and connection that were necessary, as infants, for us to survive, we begin the journey toward healing. When we understand how we adapted our behavior and beliefs to gain the love and connection we needed to survive, we learn how we can adapt and grow. And when we believe in ourselves, and cultivate empathy and compassion among those around us (whether they are our parents, children, siblings, other loved ones, or close friends), we nurture and rebuild our own perspective. That perspective change, in turn, helps rebuild our brains, deepens our connections with our loved ones, helps us to heal and rebuild damaged relationships, and enables us to permanently leave behind the pain and difficulty we have suffered.
As we developed this program, every member of the team who worked on it, from videographers and video editors to curriculum developers and writers to designers, photographers, and programmers, we are all immeasurably changed by it. We found that viewing and reading and thinking about Gabor’s work multiple times brought each of us to new insights and deeper understanding each time we worked with the material. And so even though you have finished this course, we encourage you to revisit it again soon. Watch the series more than once. Encourage your family to watch with you. Notice when something stirs you up, or where you agree or disagree with something. Pay attention to what you are feeling in your body. Read the course materials again. Share and discuss your reactions with those who experience it with you. If your experience is like ours, you’ll hear things you didn’t hear the first time, or you’ll take away new meanings to things you’ve heard before. This doesn’t mean you didn’t pay attention. It means your brain is changing, and your ability to understand and re-connect to your empathic, intuitive self is growing. Your self-awareness and capacity to connect to those around you is growing, and you’ll notice your understanding and patience for those around you growing as well.
Finally, this program is a living product. We are constantly refining and updating materials in it as Gabor has more information to share, and as additional knowledge and research comes to light. Part of what influences the improvements is feedback from you, the individual using it. So we would love to hear from you what you’ve taken from this course, what works, what didn’t, what you’d like to see improved, or anything else you have to share. We can be reached at [email protected]
If you’re interested in further growth and healing that expands on Gabor’s perspective, we will soon have a resource page with other books, videos, and courses that draw on the same perspective that informs Gabor’s approach to healing.
Finally, your support by purchasing this program make it possible for Wholehearted.org to grow and create more programs. 100% of your purchase goes directly into new programming. We invite you to explore our other courses as well as the free content we feature on Wholehearted.org. Production and development is expensive and time consuming. You’re helping us make this resource stronger and possible. Thank you and it’s our pleasure to take part in this journey with you.
The Team at Wholehearted.org