Your Traitor Within: Healing the Parts That Learned to Survive

Описание: 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 — the idea that real transformation often happens through safe, collaborative connection between clinician and client.

The conversation moves between clinical insight and personal reflection as Dr. Altobelli shares her own story of growing up in a chaotic environment and how those early experiences shaped her tendency to over-function, constantly “doing” instead of allowing space for stillness and self-connection.

Jessica and Dr. Altobelli also discuss:

• how trauma can limit our ability to imagine new possibilities for ourselves
• why safety is the foundation for emotional healing
• the difference between doing and being in modern culture
• how ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can help people access insight and shift long-standing patterns
• why healing is often more effective when approached collaboratively rather than through rigid treatment models

Dr. Altobelli explains how Home-LA (Healing Opportunities for Meaningful Evolution) was created to bring together a multidisciplinary team that can support individuals through many different paths to healing — including psychotherapy, psychiatry, trauma recovery work, somatic practices, and psychedelic-assisted treatment.

The episode highlights a powerful reminder: the “Traitor Within” is not something to hate or eliminate, but rather a survival strategy developed in childhood that can be understood, softened, and transformed with awareness and compassion.

About Dr. Eva Altobelli

Dr. Eva Altobelli, MD is an addiction psychiatrist and the founder of Home-LA, a holistic wellness center in Los Angeles that integrates psychiatry, psychotherapy, and ketamine-assisted therapy. For more than 20 years, she has worked at the intersection of mental health, addiction, trauma, and recovery.

Her work combines evidence-based psychiatric care with relational and holistic approaches to healing. Dr. Altobelli is trained in Internal Family Systems therapy and holds certifications in psychedelic therapy and research through the California Institute of Integral Studies and MAPS.

Through Home-LA, she and her team offer individualized treatment plans designed to help clients reconnect with themselves, explore new pathways toward healing, and participate actively in their own recovery process.

Learn more about Dr. Eva Altobelli

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  / eva-altobelli-md-210b878  


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  / homela_psychiatry  


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