The Healing Beyond Recovery Podcast with Mike Govoni

Ep 6: The Root Cause of Addiction & How To Heal In Recovery w/ Taruno Steffensen

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About this Episode:

This episode covers a lot of ground! As Taruno says “trauma & addiction” are two sides of the same coin and in order for successful treatment both have to be addressed in the individual.

Taruno speaks in depth about how trauma is an incomplete cycle of energy that resides in the body and needs to be discharged for the person in need to not be driven by the primal trauma responses of “fight or flight” or shut down ”immobilization” response. He says “all addiction is an attempt to regulate the nervous system” and this is at the root of why addiction occurs.

He shares practical tools and tips as well shares many other modalities that one can begin to implement to not be at the mercy of trauma symptoms and live happily in your body. 

Key Points:

10:20- The GOAT (greatest of all time) of trauma healing Bessel van der Kolk 

11:11- The issues are in the tissues 

12:00- Trauma & Addiction – two sides of the same coin 

16:18- Addiction arises as survival strategy 

17:42- The addiction always does something for the addict 

19:14- Heroine and a mothers love 

21:30- The biological effect of trauma -Trauma equals lack of support 

28:40- The arousal cycle of trauma 

30:00- The short term solution for the addict 

30:33- Addiction is always an attempt to regulate the nervous system

42:48- Feeling safe in your own skin 

44:28- The relationship between trauma and addiction 

50:28- “They lost nearly all” from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous 

52:30- Some insight into the life of Bill Wilson (the founder of AA) and trauma 

53:20- Without healing the trauma, the addiction just changes forms 

55:02- Step 8 & 9 – Bill Wilson womanizing 

55:37- Our partners want to know when we are unfaithful – was Bill gaslighting? 

57:03- Eckhart Tolles’s quote on addiction 

57:55- What’s lacking with the 12 steps – we really aren’t addressing the pain & trauma 

About Taruno Steffensen:

aruno Steffensen has personally been in recovery for over 28 years and made it his life’s work to help others in recovery to experience healing from the root cause of addiction— trauma. Taruno is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, certified sex addiction therapist and Somatic Experiencing (SE) practitioner. Taruno has personally studied and learned from the of the best doctors, researchers, practitioners and healers such as Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, Pia Melody and many more. Taruno worked for The Meadows, a world renowned facility in Arizona for the treatment of addiction and trauma. He currently works as part of Bessel Van der Kolk team in Boston and also supports his clients in his private practice in Brookline, MA. He is happily married and has two dogs that he loves dearly. 

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