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The Intelligence of Survival
We’re Not Broken—We’re Adapted “What if your symptoms are not signs of dysfunction—but evidence of how intelligently you adapted?” I often hear people describe themselves as “broken” or “dysfunctional.” And I understand why—it can feel that way when you’re anxious, shut down, overwhelmed, or caught in patterns you don’t fully understand. But clinically, I don’t experience people that way. I experience them as adapted. Each of [...]
The Nervous System Runs the Show
Insight can bring awareness -but true healing is an embodied experience. When I reflect on my own process of healing—and I imagine it will be ongoing for the rest of my life—I can see how long I tried to create change “from the neck up.” I worked to shift my thoughts, behaviors, even emotions. And while that brought awareness, it didn’t always create lasting transformation. It [...]
The Practice of Staying
A different way to think about change—and what it really takes to heal I had a conversation recently that stayed with me. I was speaking with a spiritual teacher about the idea of grace—not as a theological concept, but as something deeply human. We talked about grace as the space we offer one another: patience, understanding, and the willingness to stay present with someone exactly as they [...]
Why So Many People Wake Up at 3 AM?
Understanding Nighttime Cortisol Rhythms: Gentle Ways to Help Your Nervous System Settle Back into Sleep For a period of time, I kept waking up at almost exactly 3:12 in the morning. Not 2:45. Not 3:30. Three twelve. Night after night. At first I assumed it was random. But after a while the pattern started to feel almost uncanny. I would wake up fully alert, and [...]
Your Traitor Within Podcast with Dr. Eva Altobelli: Healing the Parts That Learned to Survive
Your Traitor Within: Healing the Parts That Learned to Survive with Dr. Eva Altobelli In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW sits down with Dr. Eva Altobelli, MD, addiction psychiatrist and founder of Home-LA, a holistic mental health center in Los Angeles that integrates psychiatry, psychotherapy, and ketamine-assisted therapy. Dr. Altobelli shares how childhood experiences can shape the internal survival patterns we [...]
AAAP newsletter, Addiction Psychiatry Insights
Featuring Eva Altobelli, MD Brave New Medicine: Ketamine’s Promise and Pitfalls (page 22). Excerpt: "Ketamine has undeniable therapeutic potential. When delivered within a structured, multidisciplinary framework—including careful preparation, guided administration, and integrative psychotherapy—it can be profoundly transformative. It offers individuals the possibility of loosening rigid patterns of thought, healing trauma, and reconnecting with meaning. However, when ketamine is prescribed or distributed without context—especially in the [...]
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June 2, 2026
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