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 suddenly my brain wanted to review everything—my schedule, conversations from the day, the future of humanity… you know, the usual middle-of-the-night material. Eventually I learned that this timing is actually quite common. In the early morning hours the body naturally releases a small rise in cortisol, a hormone that helps us wake up and mobilize energy for the day. It’s part of our normal [...]

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 carry into adulthood — patterns that sometimes become what Jessica calls the “Traitor Within.” Together they explore how automatic reactions formed in childhood can quietly guide our behaviors, relationships, and sense of safety long after the original circumstances have passed. Drawing from over two decades of work in addiction psychiatry, trauma recovery, and psychedelic-assisted therapy, Dr. Altobelli discusses the importance of relational healing — [...]

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 form of at-home lozenges or mail-order businesses —it risks becoming another agent of sedation rather than liberation: a pharmacologic shortcut that soothes symptoms while bypassing deeper work." Read Full Article AAAP Newsletter: Addiction Psychiatry Insights

  Inside the Nervous System: Dr. Eva Altobelli on Integrative Psychiatry & Polyvagal Healing — Recalibrated Vision with Bianca Ariel, MBA Jump to: About Dr. Eva Altobelli Integrative Psychiatry Explained Polyvagal Healing & Nervous System Insights Practical Tips for Mental Wellness Listen to the Full Podcast About Dr. Eva Altobelli Dr. Eva Altobelli is a leading integrative psychiatrist based in Los Angeles, specializing in treating complex mental health challenges through a holistic, patient-centered approach. With a focus on understanding the interplay between the mind, body, and nervous system, Dr. Altobelli integrates conventional psychiatric treatments with innovative modalities that promote long-term wellness and nervous system regulation. Integrative Psychiatry Explained Integrative psychiatry combines traditional psychiatric approaches—such as medication management and psychotherapy—with complementary therapies to treat the [...]

How is it that psychedelics can change the way we think? Some neuroscientists think of  the psychedelic experience biochemically; serotonin excitation creates an opening to question deeply held beliefs. That opening can lead to a dopamine-driven “wait, there are so many other possibilities” moment, which can shift how we think. This made me wonder: is the therapeutic change driven more by neural excitation and inhibition than by the experience itself? There are ongoing studies looking at whether psychedelics still work without the psychomimetic component. I’m curious—if we remove the altered state, does the change still happen? Or is the intensity of the altered experience relative to the healing potential?  Abraham Maslow spoke  about peak experiences—those moments that feel almost perfect. They can come from a mystical moment; drumming, dance, or [...]