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 took me years to recognize what was missing. Real change began when I started to include the body When I began to understand the role of the nervous system in shaping how we think, feel, and respond. That shift opened the door to a more embodied path of healing, health, and wholeness. As this became clearer in my [...]
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 are. It struck me how much this mirrors the work we do. So much of healing doesn’t come from pressure or perfection. It comes from relationship—from the ability to stay connected to someone, even when they’re struggling. Especially when they’re struggling. This is, at its core, what harm reduction asks of us. Harm reduction is often misunderstood. In [...]
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 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. [...]
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 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 [...]
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 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: Integrative Psychiatry & Polyvagal Healing | Dr. Altobelli on Recalibrated Vision with Bianca Ariel, MBA
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 [...]
ARTICLES:
Analysis of the concept of Psychedelic Integration and its practice. (15-20 min read)
https://www.frontiersin.org/