Workshop

Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture | Workshop with Dr. Gabor Maté

Dates

Prices

150 — 350 €

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Saturday
Time
11:30—15:00
Venue
Upper Stage

Tickets

Ticket presales will take place in two phases (A and B), with a limited number of tickets available in the first one.

—Presale Phase A

Onassis Friends: from 15 SEP 2025, 17:00
General public: from 20 SEP 2025, 17:00

—Presale Phase B

Onassis Friends: from 25 APR 2026, 17:00
General public: from 2 MAY 2026, 17:00

Type
Price
Full price
350 €
Onassis Friends
280 €
People with disabilities, Companions
150 €

The option of redeeming points or open tickets does not apply. Points are credited to Onassis Friends account with each ticket purchase.

Information

Language

The workshop will be conducted in English, and will be simultaneously interpreted in Greek.

Book signing

After the workshop, Dr. Gabor Maté will be participating in a book signing session.

The therapeutic workshop with Dr. Gabor Maté focuses on coping with trauma as a means of self-healing for our body. Based on his titular book, “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture.”

Photo: Tony Hoare

Half of North American adults suffer from chronic illness—a fact Western medicine views largely in terms of individual predispositions and habits.

Western medicine imposes two separations, neither tenable scientifically. First, it separates the mind from the body, largely assuming that most chronic illnesses have nothing to do with people’s emotional and psychological experiences. And yet, a large and irrefutable body of research has clearly shown that physiologic and behavioral functioning of human beings can be understood only if we integrate our body functions with those of the mind: functions such as awareness, emotions, our interpretations of and responses to events, and our relationships with other people. Second, Western practice views people’s health as separate from the social environment, ignoring social determinants of health such as class, gender, economic status, and race. Such factors, in reality, are more important influences on health and longevity than individual predispositions and personal factors such as genes, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and so on.

This talk shows how a society dedicated to material pursuits rather than genuine human needs and spiritual values stresses its members, undermines healthy child development, and dooms many to chronic illness, from diabetes to heart disease, from autoimmune conditions to cancer.

You will learn to:

  1. Identify two separations imposed by Western Medicine on the health and well-being of the population.
  2. Name three chronic conditions that are correlated with stressful social environments.
  3. Describe one shift in focus that would support a healthier population.