Who is Gabor Mate? Meet Prince Harry’s ‘trauma expert

The “trauma expert” Prince Harry will join for an intimate live chat to promote his memoir is a Hungarian-Canadian doctor who was once threatened with arrest for using a “spiritual” psychedelic drug to treat patients.

Gabor Maté has 20 years of experience working with people suffering from addictions and mental illness, with other specialties such as stress and child development.

The 79-year-old will join Harry on Saturday to talk about “living with loss and the importance of personal healing”, followed by a live Q&A session.

Dr. Maté has a heartbreaking personal story that has shaped his career. Born in Budapest in 1944, his maternal grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz when he was five months old.

He was taken from his mother as a baby to save his life, while his father was subjected to forced labor by the Nazis.

The academic has described how he was unable to look at his mother when they were finally reunited due to feelings of ‘abandonment, rage and despair’.

He says that the trauma he suffered continues to affect his adult life, which causes him to have an intense emotional reaction when he perceives a threat of abandonment, especially from his wife.

He also believes that it may have shaped his ‘addiction’ to buying classical music.

“While writing about my tough, drug-addicted clients, I was certainly able to recognize similar areas in myself and their behaviors,” he said. Classical Voice in 2013.

“Working through the emotional dynamics and being with the void that addictions try to fill just helped me understand myself better.”

The author is an outspoken supporter of drug decriminalization and has used the Amazonian plant ayahuasca to treat patients suffering from mental illness.

The psychedelic plant, taken as a prepared drink, causes people to experience hallucinations and other side effects, including vomiting.

Ayahuasca has traditionally been used by shamans and traditional healers, but is now popular with Western tourists.

It remains illegal in the US, UK and Canada, and in 2011 Canadian authorities threatened to arrest Dr. Maté if he didn’t stop using the drug to treat his patients.

Dr. Maté regularly broadcasts his opinions on a variety of topics, and in 2021 he appeared in a podcast series by comedian Russell Brand where he discussed the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“There is no way you could have created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population,” he said.

Dr. Maté called Gaza the “biggest open-air prison in the world” and said that “given those conditions, of course people will opt for extremist leadership,” a reference to Hamas’s 2006 election victory.

“The disproportion of power, responsibility and oppression is so stark on one side that you take the worst you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand, and it still won’t face Israeli repression, murder and dispossession. of the Palestinians,’ he said.

He has published a series of books including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Close Encounters with Addiction, When the Body Says No, The Cost of Hidden Stress, and Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder.

He has received the City of Vancouver Award of Civic Merit and the Order of Canada for his work on addiction and other contributions related to mental health.

Prince Harry’s decision to select Dr. Maté to help further his memoir is another sign of his interest in therapeutic healing, having previously spoken about his experience going through therapy.

The event, organized in collaboration with Harry’s publisher Penguin Random House, will take place on Saturday 4th March at 5pm UK time.

It comes at a fragile time for the Sussexes, who have seen their popularity ratings drop significantly in the US since the release of Spare last month, and now face the decision to attend Charles’s coronation.

Since December of last year, Harry’s popularity has plunged 48 points and Meghan’s 40, giving them net approval ratings of -10 and -17 respectively, according to a Redfield & Wilton poll for Newsweek.

While Andrew is still viewed negatively after his New York civil trial against his sex accuser Virginia Roberts, which he settled out of court, his net approval rating sits at -2, with 26 percent of Americans saying they they like it compared to 28 percent. who does not.

The Sussexes’ nosedive in popularity comes just days after they were mocked by South Park, a satirical cartoon famous for having its finger on the pulse of American culture.

Respondents were asked if they felt positive or negative towards Harry, Meghan and Andrew, and the results are likely to make for sober reading for the couple.

Some 32 per cent felt positive for Harry, compared to 27 per cent for Meghan and 26 per cent for Andrew.

However, 44 per cent felt negative towards Meghan, compared to 42 per cent for Harry and just 28 per cent for Andrew.

Harry’s chat with Dr Maté will be the prince’s first major appearance since his January publicity blitz to promote Spare ahead of publication.

It comes as he and Meghan are faced with a major decision about whether to attend King Charles’s coronation in May amid the ongoing split between them and the rest of the family.

Harry previously demanded an apology from his brother, Prince William and his father, for himself and his wife Meghan for the allegations he made at Spare.

These include the claim that William insulted the Duchess, before punching Prince Harry so hard that he landed on the ground.

The Palace declined to comment at the time.

Sources suggest that neither William nor King Charles are prepared to offer any apologies before the coronation.

“There is still a great deal of ill will simmering in the family,” said one.

Save the date cards are scheduled to go out in two weeks to the 2,000 guests who have been chosen to attend the scaled-down spring ceremony.

The number of 8,251 who attended Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 has been reduced to simplify the event amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Formal invitations for those who have indicated that they will accept will not be posted until three weeks before the event itself.

A well-placed source says Harry has made it clear he wants a private apology of some sort from both Charles and William if he’s going to attend.

It’s unclear if Meghan will attend the ceremony if Harry decides to, but as the date chosen for the coronation also coincides with their son Archie’s fourth birthday, there are doubts she’ll be there regardless of the ongoing family feud.