Trauma comes in many forms and its unconscious patterns affect our health behaviors. Healing from trauma requires a “full stack” approach, often including conventional medicine AND alternative medicine.

That’s why I’m excited to introduce you to Dr. Brad Jacobs, who is board certified in internal medicine and integrative medicine. He is the owner of BlueWave Medicine Clinic in Sausalito, California, and also co-author of the Anti-Inflammation Cookbook. He specializes in psychedelic medicine and a form of therapy called Hakomi.

Dr. Brad is now leading in-person retreats in Costa Rica on precision medicine and longevity. We’ll be talking about health transformation, longevity, and recovery from trauma by making diet changes to reduce inflammation and using psychedelic medicines. 

Dr. Brad has been involved with integrative medicine since he was 10 years old. He grew up doing martial arts, and that Chinese upbringing infused him with a different view of how to think about health and healing—not just the treatment of disease but the prevention of disease, thriving and flourishing. 

After attending Stanford Medical School, he came out ready to do what is now called integrative medicine, but back then was called alternative medicine.

Before starting his own practice, Dr. Brad spent the first half dozen years after his training running the UCSF Osher Center for integrative medicine. He founded that medical practice and center along with a couple of others in 2000, about 25 years ago, trying to provide conventional medical care in academic medical institutions. He spent a good decade there before going out on his own.

Over the years, there’s been a significant shift in medicine. Back when we started our practices, we weren’t sure what would happen. Right around that time, naturopathic medicine was licensed in California, which represented a real opening of this whole new perspective on medicine. 

Dr. Brad also served as board chair for the Academy for Integrative Health and Medicine, which supported many states in their efforts to gain licensure for naturopathic physicians.

The Ecosystem of Healthcare

When it comes to healthcare, Dr. Brad has always viewed it as an ecosystem. The patients are at the center—they’re the hub, and there are spokes on the wheel where different practitioners can all provide integral care. 

Functional medicine has been particularly successful in this regard. Importantly, it’s been patients themselves who have driven this movement; it hasn’t come from the top down.

Many people think they have to choose either conventional or alternative medicine, but it’s not an either-or situation. It’s about seeing the benefits or advantages of each different offering of medicine—from Chinese medicine to Ayurvedic medicine and beyond. 

Every system of medicine has something to offer. Why should we limit ourselves?

Different healthcare systems have different points of view about recognizing health and disease. Patients also have their own needs, preferences, and risk tolerance. We need to consider what’s best for them at any given point. For one person, Chinese medicine may not be as effective, whereas another person who feels very aligned with it might have a much better outcome.

David Eisenberg at Harvard did some great work looking at patient expectations and how they change the result and likelihood of outcomes. People say, “Well, it’s all in your head,” but that’s not true. We’re aligning our physiology with what’s occurring with the external world.

Health Transformation

Most people don’t think they need a transformation – it sounds like more than they want to handle. But transformation is the opportunity to look at things anew, to live a fresh life. It’s almost like being reborn, depending on how big of a transformation you’re looking for.

People want change, healing, and relief from their suffering. When we meet them there, we try to determine how deep they want to go into the swimming pool—do they want to stay in the shallow end, or do they want to go to the deep end? We tend to start in the shallow end with people and let them see what’s possible before going further.

Much of health has been focused on treating diseases to the exclusion of other approaches. 

If we look at the root causes of health issues—what’s upstream from conditions like heart disease—we can see how much our own physiology affects our health. How much did stress raise blood pressure, change cortisol levels, constrict heart arteries, or lead to poor dietary choices? 

These factors can contribute to heart disease, and addressing them requires transformation.

Transformation is about getting under the hood and going upstream to see what’s driving behaviors. Some people are more interested in this approach than others—some just want the pill or the herb, which is essentially just a pill as well. They don’t really want to look too much inside, and we’re happy to meet them where they’re at.

The Full Stack Approach to Health

Dr. Brad believes in approaching health with the full stack of cards available. For example, if someone has cancer and needs treatment, we use traditional means of treatment when they’re appropriate. 

For certain cancers like breast cancer, there’s really good treatment that far outweighs the risks, whereas for pancreatic or lung cancer, that might not be the case, depending on your case.

At the same time, addressing other pieces of the puzzle that may be more upstream and contributing to the problem—factors that result in glucose variability, increased insulin levels, more growth hormones, and potentially cancer recurrence. 

We need to consider food choices: What to eat to change glucose, insulin, and growth factors that could lead to cancer recurrence.

The full stack approach might include acupuncture, which helps regulate our energetic system, increases energy, and helps speed recovery of white blood cell counts after chemotherapy. 

There’s so much opportunity in this approach. It’s not conventional versus alternative—it’s a beautiful opportunity to bring it all together. With the right guide—someone like us—we can be the quarterback, advocate, and help navigate the course of action.

Understanding Inflammation

Inflammation is a key concept in health. It relates to what’s happening in our body’s processes—a calm versus a disruptive system. It’s almost like looking at a river: are there lots of rapids, or is it a smooth-flowing river? Rapids are caused by changes in elevation, rocks, and debris. In our body, these disruptions are influenced by how we eat and move.

It’s common sense, but not common practice. We all know we’re supposed to sleep and eat better, not be hard on ourselves or our friends, and move our bodies, but we don’t regularly do it. That’s why it’s important to have an accountability partner—a friend, loved one, or someone like a personal trainer or coach—to help hold you accountable so you can make common sense into common practice.

Dr. Brad has developed what he calls the “Six Pillars of Healthy Living,” an assessment that looks at these common-sense things that aren’t common practice. It helps focus on areas that need improvement, whether it’s relationships, sleep, or mental focus. 

These factors influence inflammation, which we can sometimes measure through blood markers like C-reactive protein, though these are fairly crude measurements.

We usually think of inflammation from an injury or maybe from certain foods, but emotionally stressful relationships or experiences in our lives can also increase inflammation. 

This highlights the mind-body connection—how what’s happening in our lives, even our interactions with other humans, can influence our physical health, including blood sugar, inflammation, and overall wellness.

Understanding Trauma and Its Impact on Health

Trauma comes in many forms. There’s what we call “little T trauma” and “big T trauma.” 

All of us have experienced some trauma in our lives, whether it was feeling publicly humiliated among friends when we were eight years old (which we still remember) or more severe experiences like being beaten, raped, or physically abused.

In extreme cases, trauma can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where we have recurring thoughts and have a hard time escaping them. These often show up at the end of our day or in our dreams. There are also less severe forms of trauma. The key is to normalize it—we’ve all experienced some level of trauma.

If you look at some Asian traditions, they view life as suffering. That sounds morose and depressing, but life isn’t only suffering—it’s replete with plenty of opportunities for suffering. Just like with pain, there’s the physical experience and then there’s our reaction to it. Our reaction is the trauma.

There are beautiful teachers who have shown how to deal with extreme trauma, like Thich Nhat Hanh, who witnessed his village being firebombed and his family members harmed. He demonstrated how to come to terms with it and forgive the perpetrators. 

It’s about the alchemy of transmuting that experience—we have our pain, and then we have our reaction to our pain.

Healing from Trauma

Many of our actions are based on unconscious patterns often related to our trauma. We have traumatic experiences as we grow up, and that informs our positive and negative, traumatic and non-traumatic experiences. This unconsciously sits beneath us and informs our beliefs—whether we believe someone is kind or not kind because they remind us of our mother or a good friend.

These unconscious patterns affect our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, and behaviors, which in turn affect how we live our lives and interact with others. They influence how we interact with our loved ones and partners, how we behave at work, what food we choose to eat, whether we exercise, and our relationship with healthy lifestyles.

It’s worth doing the work of reflecting on our lives and noticing these traumatic experiences, then partnering with a psychotherapist or someone skilled in trauma work to unwind and heal these wounds. It’s important to emphasize that healing is possible. 

While it’s crucial to validate and acknowledge what we’ve been through, it doesn’t mean that these experiences will inevitably make us more susceptible to certain health issues. 

We can intervene with methods like Hakomi, which is a body-centered and mindfulness-based approach to psychotherapy that emphasizes experiential learning and self-discovery, and other approaches.

It’s beautiful to watch when people are willing to address their trauma and previous life experiences. The transformation that happens is amazing. People go from “white-knuckling it”—trying not to eat unhealthy foods or forcing themselves to exercise—to finding that it comes with ease. There’s less effort because they lose the appetite and cravings for things that aren’t healthy for them.

We know certain behaviors aren’t healthy, but we can’t help ourselves because they make us feel better in the moment. Through approaches like Hakomi or psychedelic medicine, people can lose those cravings and appetites for unhealthy behaviors, making it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Psychedelic Medicine in Healing

Psychedelic medicine is shifting in its perception worldwide, with growing awareness of its benefits. For many years, these substances were portrayed as dangerous, and they weren’t available for therapeutic use. Now, there’s more research and a trend toward realizing that these medicines can be helpful in certain contexts.

The negative reputation of psychedelic medicine was largely politically motivated. In the 1960s, the government was unhappy with the anti-war movement and the civil rights movement, so they orchestrated a propaganda campaign to marginalize these populations by targeting psychedelics and other substances. They classified these as Schedule 1 drugs, meaning they supposedly had no medical purpose and were highly addictive.

Studies have shown that when looking at the spectrum of substances—both illicit and prescribed—in terms of societal harm and individual harm, alcohol is actually the worst, yet it’s completely legal, widely available, and socially acceptable. 

On the other end of the spectrum are LSD and psilocybin (magic mushrooms), which have minimal harm. In the middle are prescription medications like benzodiazepines (Ativan, lorazepam), which are widely prescribed.

There was a lot of promising research on psychedelics in the 1950s and 1960s. Fast forward 50 years, and in the last decade, we’ve finally been able to get more research on marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. It turns out that MDMA, for example, has been shown to be two to three times more effective than any other treatment for PTSD.

Meanwhile, antidepressants and long-term psychotherapy have shown to be only about 30% effective. Antidepressants often come with side effects like reduced libido, weight gain, and other issues. For people with PTSD who are at risk of suicide, having an effective therapy unavailable is tragic.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Dr. Brad also offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in his practice because it is a legal form of psychedelic medicine. Ketamine is actually an anesthetic, but at low doses, it functions as a psychedelic. It’s approved by the FDA for treatment-resistant depression and is used for hospitalized patients who are actively suicidal.

Ketamine helps open the box for people to look at their emotional content and trauma without the emotional reactivity that makes it so frightening and disturbing. Studies with MDMA show a similar effect—it separates the prefrontal cortex from the limbic system (the emotional part of our brain), allowing people to look at highly triggering emotional material without the emotional reactivity.

This separation allows people to experience the pain without the suffering, to reimagine the reality of their past, and to envision what’s possible for their future. 

There are ways to achieve this without psychedelic medicine, which is why Dr. Brad is interested in approaches like Hakomi, but psychedelic-assisted therapy has been a beautiful path for many people to find liberation from their trauma.

The Four-Step Method for Transformation

Many ketamine clinics operate in a way that keeps patients coming back repeatedly without addressing root causes. They provide the ketamine, which has a brief antidepressant effect, but they’re not helping patients make lasting changes.

Dr. Brad supports lasting change by using the four-step method for transformation he developed:

1. Preparation
2. Initiation (the peak experience)
3. Insights
4. Integration

The most critical part is integration – habituating the insights into your life. Without proper preparation and integration, the benefits of the peak experience will fade away. Most ketamine clinics don’t focus on these crucial elements.

When looking for someone to provide help, you want someone who will prepare you, guide you through the experience, and help you integrate it afterward. The easy part is the journey—getting put in the rocket ship and taken out. The real work is writing down your insights, voice recording your learnings to remember the tone, inflections, and emotional state, and then doing the work to integrate these insights into your daily life.

Clinical trials for MDMA have shown remarkable results with just three sessions over six months. They included preparation sessions before each MDMA session, the MDMA session itself (usually six hours), and then weekly integration for three weeks afterward. This was repeated for three months. 

The studies showed significant benefits at six months after treatment, and at 12 months, the benefits were the same or even greater, suggesting that the new neural pathways were becoming more ingrained.

This contradicts what we have been told—that neuroplasticity stops after age 20. We now know that we can continue to rewire our brains throughout life. With just three treatments, 75-80% of participants were essentially cured of their PTSD, compared to the pharmaceutical model which often requires daily medication indefinitely.

Moving Forward with Healing from Trauma

There are multiple approaches to healing, and it’s important to find what works best for you. If you’re unsure whether you need help, Dr. Brad suggests asking your loved ones for honest feedback about whether you seem stuck in cycles and could benefit from support.

It’s important to go slow and work with someone you trust who won’t take you straight to the “deep end.” Start in the shallow end, see how that feels, then learn to swim a little more before moving deeper. Approaches like Hakomi, EMDR, or other psychotherapies can be good ways to begin exploring these areas.

For people with PTSD, traditional sitting meditation can be challenging because when they become mindful, traumatic memories may surface, which can be overwhelming. In such cases, moving meditation might be more accessible. Yoga and Tai Chi are excellent forms of moving meditation that allow you to stay in your body, use your breath, and move through difficulties without having to sit still with disturbing thoughts.

Dance is another form of moving meditation, as are martial arts. These activities can help us enter a flow state or “the zone.” These practices become tools that we can use if we later choose to work with psychedelic substances or have more intense experiences. We can use our meditation and movement practices to help us navigate challenging moments during peak experiences.

Sometimes people come to deeper healing approaches when faced with serious health issues. When confronted with the possibility of surgery or a severe health condition, we may become more willing to try something different. This openness can lead to transformative experiences and healing.

Conclusion: The Future of Trauma Healing

The awareness and availability of psychedelic medicine are growing in the United States and around the world. While these approaches might not yet be part of standard care, they are increasingly recognized as legitimate ways that humans can heal.

It will likely take another five years for these therapies to become more widely available through official channels, though the current regulatory landscape could change. The research on substances like MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for depression and anxiety is extremely promising. This research is now being documented, published, and funded, which suggests it’s just a matter of time before these treatments become more accessible.

In today’s world, information is readily accessible, which is a great advantage. While there might be too much information and too many opposing views, if you actively search, you can find reliable information about these healing modalities and decide for yourself what might be beneficial.

For those interested in experiencing transformative approaches to health in a supportive environment, Dr. Brad and Dr. Sara Szal Gottfried host retreats in Nosara, Costa Rica, focusing on precision medicine for health span and longevity. These retreats include components on brain health, gut health, and the emotional elements and trauma that relate to health, with options for psychedelic medicine experiences for those who are interested.

These retreats provide an opportunity to step outside your usual day-to-day life and have expert guidance to examine root causes and address trauma. While it might seem challenging to take a week out of your life, the benefits of dedicated healing time can be immense. The retreat experience includes integration support afterward to help participants incorporate their insights into daily life.

If you would like to learn more about how Dr. Brad can help you check out his website here. You can also check out his clinic BlueWave Medicine’s website here. You can find Dr. Brad on Instagram @bradjacobsmd and Facebook @Brad Jacobs MD.

If you’re interested in Dr. Brad’s Precision Medicine, Longevity & Transformation retreats at the at Blue Spirit Resort in Costa Rica you can learn more about them here.

It is important to know that it is possible to recover from stress and trauma and truly heal, because you’re not likely to hear that from your standard doctor’s office. Keep in mind, most practitioners are not educated about diet, exercise, supplements, or stress recovery. 

I’m so glad Dr. Brad was able to join me on How Humans Heal today to discuss these important topics to help all of you know what is possible for transforming your health and recovering from trauma. 

Psychedelic medicines have been transformative for me and my recovery from stress and trauma. So much so that I’m in the process of completing the Integrative Psychiatry Institute Psychedelic Assistant Therapy Program, including training in supporting patients to use psilocybin, ketamine, and MDMA to recover from PTSD, and many other health issues. 

The way mental health issues are addressed at this point in time is severely lacking and even traumatizing for patients. We desperately need access to other options. 

I write about recovery from stress and trauma in my most recent book: Master Your Stress Reset Your Health. In the book, you’ll learn all about the human nervous system and stress response, how we all respond to stress differently, and how to understand your body’s unique response to stress, as well as how we can use natural approaches to help you recover from stress and trauma. 

It’s possible to erase the effects of stress and trauma, to heal from anxiety and depression, and to rebalance what was disrupted by stress, such as hormones, digestion, neurotransmitters, and immune function. In this way, we can also prevent long term health issues, including risk of cancer, heart disease, and cancer.  

I help patients to do this in my practice every day – by phone and zoom, anywhere in the world. You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

Once I meet with you one on one, we will create a strategic plan based on your health needs, including sessions with the health coach on my team to help guide you to implement my proprietary C.A.R.E. and Stress Mastery programs. 

If you’re dealing with persistent HPV I encourage you to check out my Say Goodbye to HPV Program here.You can access it from anywhere in the world because it is online videos, with handouts, recipes, resources, as well as live group sessions and a private app, where I teach you to implement my protocol to help you prevent cervical cancer and other HPV-related cancers.

You’ll also get access to order specialty testing I recommend to help us understand what your body needs in order to heal, as well as vaginal suppositories. I’d love to teach you how to heal and protect yourself from HPV. 

You can also go to clearhpvnow.com. There, you’ll find lots of resources and stories from women who’ve followed my protocol and cleared HPV to negative. 

Thank you all for joining me for this fascinating discussion with Dr. Brad Jacobs. I hope this conversation has provided valuable insights into integrative approaches to health, trauma recovery, and the emerging field of psychedelic medicine. 

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