From Trauma to Triumph: A Journey with Dr. Brian Alman

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:01:00

Today's guest is a true pioneer in the field of trauma leading and mind body wellness. Dr. Brian Alman is the world's leading authority in accessing the unconscious mind to heal trauma, resolve stress and activate inner wisdom.

With over 25 years of experience helping tens of thousands of people worldwide, from Fortune 500 executives to everyday individuals, Dr. Alman's evidence based methods have provided the gold standard for those who feel like they've tried everything without success.

As a treatment solution expert in the landmark Adverse Child Experiences study, working alongside Dr. Vincent Felitti, Dr. Alman has helped bridge the gap between understanding trauma and actually healing it. His works led to a reduction of over 35% in medical visits and saved billions in healthcare costs.

He is the author of 15 books including less Stress now and Less Stress for Kids. And his work is endorsed by thought leaders like Deepak Kopra and John Ossarov. We welcome him to the podcast. How you doing?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:02:10

I'm doing well. Thank you very much for inviting me.

I just want to stay right at the beginning and I said this before we got on the air, is that I've been watching your podcasts and I'm really grateful for how deep you go and how much compassion you have because you're curious.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:02:29

Yeah.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:02:29

And you bring out the best in the podcast and the people you're interviewing. And I went right to Apple and gave you a five star rating on the Apple podcast opportunity. I wrote your review.

So I encourage your viewers and listeners to do the same thing because I'm sure they've been enjoying you for a while and follow you. And I just started to get to know you in the last month as I've been watching your podcast. But I'm very impressed. Five star rating.

I encourage your viewers, listeners go to Apple, wherever, YouTube, Spotify, wherever you watch the podcast and give the five star rating because you know the value you get from these podcasts.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:03:11

Definitely. And that was an unpaid endorsement. So I appreciate that.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:03:17

Yeah, we work for free.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:03:18

That's why we work for free and the love of people we like to do this for. I want to ask you my favorite question. I want you to think about this. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:03:30

When I was very little, five years old and I grew up with the freedom of being able to explore out mother Nature.

Lots of trees and woods where I lived and I was the youngest of four kids and I love, you know, being out there in the woods and the whole thing was as I know all of us were raised, you know, you can Go out when it's light out, be in before it gets dark. You know, all that. So the advice I got that was very helpful.

And by the way, I heard this every single day from a very wise sage guru woman, mother by the name of Phyllis. She said to me, when you need a helping hand, look at the end of your wrist.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:04:19

Oh.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:04:22

Because out in the woods, sometimes you lose your way. Sometimes the situations you didn't expect. The brook turned into a river, the creek turned into a big deep stream.

There is animals, there's loneliness, it gets dark. I mean, there's so many challenges.

And I was out there by myself and I did this on a daily basis when I wasn't in school or doing other things that kids do like sports and friends and family. And so I was always exploring. Mother Nature was my big guru. But her advice, when you need a helping hand, look at the end of your wrist.

Thought of it all the time. And now of course, I'm teaching that. So very prophetic it is.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:05:05

I love that picture of you because I used to do that too when I was, I get on my bike and I would go off and ride and just find a spot in nature that I could just lay on the park bench and just be quiet, be just me out there.

And I think back to it now, it's like we have so bubble wrapped our kids that we were afraid to let them go out and do that because the world seems very different, very chaotic compared to when we were younger and it seemed more innocent.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:05:34

It's true. I mean, there's something about Mother Nature that of course can be dangerous. We all know that.

We know about the storms, the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the earthquakes. Mother Nature can be dangerous. And it's also the most peaceful place in the world to be. So it's both. And that's the world we live in too.

It can be a tornado, a hurricane, a tragedy on a daily basis. And it's also the most peaceful place we can be.

So yes, as we agreed, we need to depend on ourselves, but we also need to find people that we can trust, we can depend on, that are part of our team, whether they are our kids or our spouse or our friends or teammates at work or sports, whatever it is. So yeah, there's always that yin yang, always that paradox of, you know, I want to stay safe and be safe, but it's not always safe, right.

Want to be with great people that have integrity and spirituality and love. But not all people are like that. So how do we cope and deal with these adverse Adult experiences, adverse childhood experiences.

How do we protect our kids but also give them the wisdom to grow as a person through every situation? I mean, every life is every day. And so we're learning something new every day.

And we're constantly having to adapt to new situations because the days don't really repeat themselves, even though people say same day, you know, the sayings. But no, actually, there's a lot of variation in an hour, never mind a day. That's why instead of one day at a time, I say one situation at a time.

e day at a time? This is like: 1700

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:07:37

That's right, exactly. So I'm curious, Doc, can you think about your journey and the path you've been on?

Who are some people in your life who served as mentors or inspiration for you along your journey?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:07:51

Yeah, well, as all of us, I think we've all had people that have helped us, and we've had situations that have really hindered us. I was born missing part of my back, part of L4 and L5, so I had chronic back pain growing up. I still went through the woods and explored.

I still competed in sports, but a lot of times I was in pain and dragging my leg. And, you know, the PE coach would say, you're faking it. Just get in there. Keep doing it. You know, nobody could see inside.

X rays showed I was born missing part of my back. The nerves are being pinched in between L4 and L5. So I had big challenges that I had to do my best with.

And oddly enough, my best friend's dad had a limp from having polio as a kid, and so he had a physical problem. So he was very sensitive to. He could see when we raced running that I had to stop halfway or when were playing.

I was great for a while, and then I had a pause. And so his name was Joe. Joe is very supportive and compassionate from a young age. I'm talking kindergarten, first grade, second grade.

And just showed me how compassion and support could make such a big difference, because kids aren't that supportive of you when you're dragging. Get in there. Get in. You know, come on. Yeah, you know, you're going to get an effort today. You know, you got. You get a lot of lack of support.

Joe was a big one for me because he showed me how deep compassion could go and how much it could help. As I studied, I got Very interested in psychology.

Sort of how the mind might be able to help me with my pain, but also what makes people tick, what makes us different. I was always fascinated with. I even knew the word psychology. How come people are the way they are, how their childhoods make them.

I always wondered about things like that. Probably from being out Mother Nature, how this tree end up bending this way, how these branches not grow in this cyber.

I'm always really curious about how things evolved or how things developed. So in all my reading, I kept running into a medical doctor who's in Phoenix called Milton Erickson.

And he had written the best books, the best articles that were easy to read. Really interesting about mind, body healing, about medical hypnosis, about self hypnosis, about meditation, mindfulness.

Before these things were even discussed and talked about. He was a leader. So I wrote him a note and told him what I told you about my back. I was more missing more of my back.

Really wish I could do something with the power of my mind. But I tried physical therapy. I tried meds. The doctors tell me to get surgery. If I get the surgery, I could be crippled the rest of my life.

What do I do? So fortunately for me, he wrote me back and he said, well, I'd be interested in training you because I got into it because of my pain.

He had polio as a kid. He wasn't supposed to make it past 17. I met him when he was 75. Just to give you his story. Okay, Milton Erickson.

So I really didn't want to get an MD or PhD, which is what he insisted on to train me. But I ended up agreeing because he wasn't going to train me any other way. I just wanted to help myself and help other people. It was very simple.

So I ended up getting a PhD in psychology with his help. He helped me with my dissertation and he helped me write my first book, which became very popular all around the world. It's called Self hypnosis.

I'm actually doing a whole new version of that book right now. And he helped me get my first teaching job at the university, my first job in a private practice. I didn't even have a master's degree.

Very, very helpful. When I was training with him for my back pain, I realized that what was going on physically is also going on emotionally and psychologically.

That you can't really separate ourselves spiritually, mentally, physically. We're one whole being and everything impacts everything else.

And sadly, the person who taught me, when you need a helping hand, look at the end of your wrist. I was only 20, and she was in her late 40s.

My mother, she got ALS, which is Lou Gehrig's disease, which she was in the prime of her life and went down fast over about a year and a half's time. I was. I was devastated emotionally. I never felt that kind of pain or helplessness. Anybody has been with anybody that has a terminal illness.

You still feel so helpless and so hopeless. You want to do everything you can. So Milton Erickson helped me through that pain. So that emotional psychological trauma. He was incredibly helpful.

So I'm getting training for my pain, my back, my motions, my family, socially, relationships.

And all of that training, all that mind, body healing training, got me a job at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego with a medical doctor by the name of Vincent Felitti, who did the adverse childhood experiences. The ACE study said, I read what you've been writing about. I've seen some of your videos of you working with people.

Would you be willing to see some people that aren't really getting better? We're not sure how to help them.

But maybe some of your work, getting to the unconscious mind, getting to the innermost person, getting to the person's inner doctor, all these things you've been writing about, maybe that'll help our people. This was even before the ACE study started. So I said, yes, of course. I'd love to. So we started collaborating. I started working with him in groups.

I started working with him with families, people with most difficult life traumas you could ever imagine, certainly more difficult than I had ever imagined. And we had a lot of success in a short amount of time.

And people got better when they connected with that inner wisdom, that inner voice, that inner true sage, that inner doctor. Well, that was the beginning of 14 more books. And my most recent one is with Dr. Felitti. It's called From Trauma to Enlightenment.

It'll be out at Christmas this year. And we are reviewing. We've been meeting every week for really over 25 years. And we're meeting this week.

We're watching all the videos we did with all these people and seeing really what are the themes? What helped the most? What are these people saying? What do we do? How can we use these videos to help other people?

And so those early experiences, mentors to Milton, to Vincent, and now, of course, you'd probably agree, my best mentors are the clients and the people I work with, of course. Oh, my goodness.

I learned something new from every single person, every company, every sports team, every organization, every health care provider, everyone I work With I learned so much. Ask a question, listen.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:15:08

Oh, yeah.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:15:09

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, yeah. I say to my kids, you know, I really. They say, oh, well, it sounds like you're saying you get smarter every day. And I said, yeah, yeah.

The way I think of it, I just joke with them. Yeah, I'm getting less stupid every day, let's put it that way.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:15:23

There you go.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:15:25

You know, yeah, this.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:15:27

That was a great lead up because I really want to get into this idea of you're an expert in assessing the unconscious mind, but that's not something that we're very familiar with, most of us. So kind of give us what that is.

And how does that help unlock not only healing trauma, but some of the things you just mentioned about physical things?

Because if body is all one whole organism, if we're only trying to treat one piece of it, we're missing out on the other parts that are also affected by whatever that thing is that we're dealing with.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:15:58

Exactly. Well, really, it took me many years to make it simple because it's so complex.

But I can tell you, literally everybody has three parts of their consciousness. They have their conscious mind, which is their everyday mind.

Where they're going, what they're doing, what time it is, are they on time for work, on time for school, did they do their homework, Are they ready for the meeting? So the conscious mind is our everyday mind, and we spend a lot of time in our conscious mind. How am I feeling? What am I thinking?

How we doing at work and our relationship? Conscious, conscious, conscious. Okay. Everybody also has a subconscious mind, and this is the part that's the most misunderstood.

The subconscious mind is like the basement in the junkyard where the conscious mind pushes the things down that are either inconvenient. I don't want to think about this right now. I don't want to feel this right now. I. Somewhere else.

I can't do it, or I don't know what to do with this, so I'll just push it down. And so the subconscious mind becomes the storage area, the garage, the basement, the junkyard for the conscious minds.

Stuff that it doesn't know what to deal with.

Now, most people in the field of trauma and psychology and medicine and coaching, they think of the subconscious mind as this great resource of creativity and affirmations and meditations. Well, sometimes it does come up with really good ideas. I'd say about 10% of the time. The other 90% of the time, it's preoccupied with.

With trying to make you perfect, doubting you, getting into all the what ifs that you haven't thought of. What if that happens? What if this happens? What if what do you know? What if rainy day. What if your job goes away? What if somebody gets sick?

What if, what if what? So the junkyard, the basement. The subconscious mind is the what if. The perfectionist, the skeptic, doubter, subconscious.

Now here comes the most important part. And this is what I discovered working with thousands of people who really taught me what doesn't work and what does work.

In fact, Dr. Felitti and I were in a group for four years together. Every week we met with people that nothing had really helped them. They called themselves a losers group.

We didn't like that name, but they insisted, and nothing had worked. They thought of themselves as losers, whether it was weight or pain or family or trauma. And we learned what didn't work.

These people showed up every single week, and it wasn't easy. But in that same group, we learned a lot about what does work or what could work.

And they actually got a lot better over those weekly meetings for four years. That turned out to be very useful for Dr. Fletti and I and also the participants. But we learned about this third part, this unconscious mind.

Your unconscious mind is the innermost you. It's the inner you. It's the true, authentic you. Here's the way to think about it. It's always present. It's always spontaneous.

There are no affirmations. There are no repetitions of what you want to accomplish. There's no script, there's no formula, there's no public path.

Your unconscious mind isn't like anyone else's unconscious mind. It. It's your inner wisdom. It's the deepest you. It's the place you go.

So if you're spiritual, this is the place you connect with God is from your unconscious mind.

If you're more a person who doesn't necessarily follow a formal religion and you have your own version of this, it's your closest connection to what it feels like to be connected to God, higher self. So spirituality, your unconscious mind, is your always available, always present inner wisdom.

Creative, imaginative, sensitive, compassionate, friendly, caring you.

So when you're struggling with anything physical, emotional, relationship, money, work, whatever your challenges are, you have to listen to your conscious mind because it's going to tell you what. Well, I'm scared, I'm worried. I don't know what to do. I'm just overwhelmed. What if? Okay, you listen to your subconscious.

Oh, I'm glad you said what if. Yeah, what if. Hey, did you know the sky is falling. What if, what if the sky really is falling? Then what are you going to do?

And by the way, you're not perfect for, you know, so you're not okay. And if you're not perfect, you're not okay.

So the subconscious mind and the conscious mind tend to be where people spend 90% of their lives going back and forth. Here's how I feel. Well, you shouldn't feel that way. Yeah, but here's what I'm thinking. Oh, no, I was afraid you'd be thinking that.

So they go back and forth and back and forth between their conscious and subconscious. This is an ongoing debate, an ongoing dialogue that most people do about every decision in every part of their life. And non stop.

They even do it when they're dreaming. Oh my goodness. Okay, and the unconscious mind, this is where you get the peace and quiet. This is where you get the peace of mind.

This is where you get that sensitive, quiet place where the answers just bubble up from inside of you. So yes, it's a big move to learn how to trust your unconscious. It's actually just trusting yourself.

But you spend so little time connecting with your unconscious. You're like, oh, no, I've got to figure this out in my subconscious mind. I got to figure out what I could do wrong.

I got to figure out all the what ifs. That's what my parents taught me. Always be ready for the what ifs and be perfect. Make sure you're perfect. Okay. Geez. Okay.

And then all the emotions that we have, you know, we're emotionally driven, so we can bounce from hopeful to hopeless in a moment. We can bounce from, you know, courageous to scared in a moment. Emotions are always moving and always alive. But we wouldn't want to get stuck there.

They're parts of us, they're important. Just like the subconscious, it's a part of us. It's important. By the way, that subconscious, that inner judge, inner critic, never satisfied.

Perfection is part of us. A lot of people try to get rid of that. They try to get rid of it. I'm going to stop being negative. I'm going to stop being judgmental.

I'm going to stop being a perfectionist.

Well, having taught in dozens of countries and now, you know, I don't even know how many thousands of different people that inner judge, inner critic, subconscious perfectionist, it has a lifetime membership. Oh no, you couldn't get rid of it with a lobotomy. And by the way, this is why a lot of people do drugs, is to shut up.

That inner Critic, inner judge, never satisfied perfection. Well, there's not enough drugs in the world to shut up your subconscious and your inner judge, this is why people drink all the time, is to forget.

Forget. I don't even want to think about this. I don't want to think about. No, no, no.

Well, you could drink all day, every night and you're never going to get rid of it. Why people? Oh, I just want to be less anxious and less stressed. I want to be less judgmental.

Well, in 20, 30 seconds you're going to be less anxious from that. Now in 20 years it's all going to catch up with you and that's not a thing.

So whether you're drinking, smoking, doing drugs, whatever your addiction is, the addiction is to quiet, at least temporarily, the subconscious, the traumas, the difficult life experiences, the adversities, all that judgment, all those feelings and you're much better off instead of repressing and internalizing those to learn how to safely express them and give them a voice and release them because they're on your team. They're part of you.

That rings of the tree, you still have the five year old ring, you still have the 14 year old you, you still all the rings of the tree, you still all the years of your life, they're all you. Yes, your present ring, your unconscious is the best place to be. But all those other rings, they're going to be with you forever.

Don't cut the tree down. Dig out the drought and rainy year rings of the tree and then try and glue the tree back together. Guess what? That doesn't work.

No, that'll kill the tree.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:24:49

It sounds like. Yeah, you know, as you're talking about this, it reminds me of my Hebrew studies when I was the seminary.

As, as the Hebrew people tried to explain that part of them that connected with God and they, the word, what they described, it was the endmost being is where I think the Greeks would call their soul. Um, and it's like they would say it's kind of in your gut.

But the Hebrews kind of describe it as this kind of, this inner part of you that, that, that, that God part that you described.

It's a beautiful way you described because it's like, yes, we don't, we don't want to trust that because I think as I would put it, Satan kind of goes with our subconscious and goes, these are all the things that are wrong with you. The, the accusing part. This was, you can't stop this, you can't, you can't beat this.

And so we're always warring with the unconscious and the subconscious parts of us. And it's like, so you, you feel that internal conflict all the time.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:25:50

Right? Right.

When I work with people that have a strong religious part of their life, and I'm talking about many different religions, but you know, we could say Jesus, we could say Hebrew, Jewish, we could say any religion of any kind. When I help them, I facilitate them getting to their unconscious. That's the one skill that I know I can achieve with anybody I've ever worked with.

I can help them get to their unconscious and help them connect with that inner wisdom. When it's a person who has a rich religious life, it's really important to them. They live it every day.

I will ask them a question about, okay, so we've gone through your conscious. I understand all these emotions, all these feelings. You've given them a voice.

You've been journaling, you've been talking out loud, eyes open, eyes closed, non dominant, dominant hand. You're really expressing beautifully.

You've given your 15th row, I call it the 15th row of your movie perspective, your subconscious, your judge, your critic. You're never satisfied. You're professional affection, you've given that a voice.

You've been talking out loud, eyes open, eyes closed, non dominant, dominant. You've been giving it a voice. That's beautiful.

Now we're going to go to your unconscious and what I say to them is, this is where you're going to get your spiritual solution. And this comes from working with religious people who really help me discover this phrase, this way of describing it.

Now my spiritual solution is just going to come to me. Now. The paradox is you've got to go through all of the conscious emotional stuff, right?

You've got to go through all the Satan, judge, critic, negative, perfection stuff. Those are bridges, not walls. You try to repress them, they get stronger and stronger until they take revenge.

You express them, they become bridges counterintuitively to your inner wisdom, to your, what I call this last row perspective, to your connection to God, that innermost you where you can listen and receive the spiritual connection. And I've said to people thousands of times, when we get here now, this is a process.

It might take people an eight hour session at the beach with me to get it. It might take them three days, it might take them four hours, they're going to get it. It's not an on off switch like a light switch.

There's actually the process, that conscious, subconscious, unconscious process they have to go through to get it for themselves. I will ask them in that moment when they're in their unconscious and they're waiting for the spiritual solution.

I'll say, what would Jesus say to you right now when they're super clear in their unconscious? And the wisdom and the peace that flows in that moment, it's inspiring to anybody of any religion.

And I'll say the same thing to people of other religions, whatever their religion is, I will be respectful and ask them, what would God say to you right now? Or however they phrase it, right? And that peace of mind, that inner peace, physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual peace.

And it's amazing the wisdom that comes from the unconscious once you've released and expressed and gotten the conscious and subconscious understood, reassured. I'm not going to try to get rid of you. I'm not going to try to kill you anymore. I'm not going to try to assassinate or suicide you anymore.

Don't worry. I'm over that. I just learning my lessons. You're on the team. You made it okay. I'm changing your positions and your roles.

You're going to be doing different things than what you've been doing, but you're still going to be available and around. And then they get to that spiritual solution, they get to that piece. And I'm amazed what people come up with and how fast people get better.

Sometimes I think of myself this way as sort of like the maestro with the orchestra. And I have no instrument. I'm facilitating. And you, the group, the team, the company, they are the orchestra, they are the ones with the instruments.

They're the ones really playing. So I'm facilitating your unconscious.

And I really have the catbird seat because I know everybody has an unconscious and everybody can get to this wisdom. I've seen it with athletes that couldn't win that win the Olympic gold.

I've seen it with companies that have been struggling to survive, become tremendously successful. Because you and I know, and I know we agree on this. First things happen on the inside, then they happen on the outside, right?

Not the other way around.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:31:08

Right.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:31:09

You know, oh, if I just had more money and I just got richer, everything would be better. No, all you're going to be do, all you can do is be.

Have more money and still be miserable, you know, and, you know, when I taught in India, I saw people from all over the world coming to India to talk to gurus because they had success, financial success, lot of it. And they're saying, hey, you know, I'm empty though, now what do I do? And they'd go to all the ashrams.

And I'm talking brilliant gurus, philosophical teachers, wonderful people. And this was people from Japan, America, Western Europe, Australia, every country in the world. They're in India looking for the inner answers.

And you know what's so great is that so often the best gurus and the ones that I really loved, and I've written about this quite a bit, they would turn it back on the person and say, what do you feel is the best thing for you to do about your wife, your kids, your family, your health, whatever it is? So it was just that they gave so much support and acceptance and space that the person could finally discover their own best answers.

Because people have been saying to them forever, what do you think? Do what you think is best. Trust you got. Do whatever you think. And it never helped.

But there's something about being in this space, whether it's with you, another person with me, or within yourself, where you just are spiritually, wherever you are, to just have that openness and support and space to come up with your own best answers. All of a sudden, you're wiser than you were just a moment ago.

And that's what these people were doing in India and still do to this day, where they give people that support and acceptance in space to discover their own best answers.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:33:00

So I'm sure people hearing this going, oh, this sounds phenomenal, and I want to dig more into this. Where do I start? How do I get help immediately from the trauma? Because we don't like trauma. So people listen to this going, so where do I start?

What do I do?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:33:16

How I do?

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:33:17

How do I get to that point where the subconscious, I mean, the unconscious mind is helping me to heal from my trauma and my other ailments.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:33:27

Okay, well, again, like we were talking earlier, it's taken many years to make that an easy answer, but it was always a very complicated answer. Okay, so there's a few very simple steps. Okay? The first one is you answer the adverse childhood experiences assessment. It used to be 10 questions.

Now, Dr. Fletty and I added two questions based on feedback from thousands of people. So now it's 12 questions. It's free. It's@trusage.com my website.

Then you answer the positive childhood experiences assessment, because as we've been talking and you asked him about mentors and support people, which we, you. We've all had. You want to answer the positive childhood experiences questions. That used to be 10 questions. We added two. Now it's 12. It's free.

These will take you five to 10 minutes to answer. Then you'll really have the landscape of the work you need to do, both dealing with the adverse and how to utilize the positive.

And then you move into the actual solutions, the steps, the processes. The nice thing is the processes are usually two to three minute techniques.

They're all evidence based, clinically proven, they're all science backed, tested with hundreds of thousands of people, they're in dozens of countries, they're available in every language. And you can find out about that@truesage.com where most of these things to get started are free.

So you'll really feel like you're learning a lot right away. And then of course, people can reach out to me, you know, through you, through my social media.

I do a new video every single day on all the social media platforms. I'm always available to people by email or text. And I get back to everybody myself because I'm the patient too.

I go out into the field because of my pain. I know what it's like to wonder, can anybody really help me? I've had trauma, I'm going through trauma, can anybody really help me?

Not just try to help me, not just try to sell me something, but can somebody really help me? And it's a yes.

And I'm happy to be that bridge and I'm happy to help people learn how to help themselves because ultimately we find the best answers inside of ourselves after reaching out, of course, to people that can help us and mentors. But ultimately the best answers come from within ourselves and as you would say, from God.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:35:54

Right.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:35:54

And however you phrase it, your own inner connection to God or God, wherever, spiritual solution, however you phrase it, the answer is yes, that's right.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:36:07

How is this different depending upon the culture you're in? Because I know everything has to be tailored for where you're from, your existence.

Have you discovered, like, is one particular culture or group more challenging to work with than others?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:36:24

I would have to say yes. We've worked with people from just about every culture. We have our work in just about every single language.

And we get letters from people in countries we've never heard of, not even sure what continent they're on. So, you know, we connect with people from all over the world all the time that want to learn more, just like what we're talking about.

The cultures that tend to be more repressive don't feel what you feel. That's not okay. Don't think that that's wrong.

So the cultures that are more repressed are the most difficult because we learn these things very young. And so we actually learn to internalize and push it into our bodies, become the receptacles for all that repression.

And so those are the cultures that are the most challenging and is the people that actually have been trained, conditioned, programmed to think they're better off pushing things down, holding things in, internalizing. Don't say anything nice people. Don't talk about difficult things. That handshake agreement that all kids are raised with.

So those are the cultures that are most difficult because we have to let them know. You actually have to accept the part of you that wants to repress and not express and hold it in. That's an important part of you.

It's a survival mechanism, a coping mechanism. Your parents taught it to you with love, with care. It's well intentioned, no one to blame, no problem.

We need to listen to all of that, all that repression, all that pushing down. We need to give it a voice. There's exact techniques that I teach people how to do so that you can get to your unconscious and your inner wisdom.

But those are the most difficult, Keith. They're the ones that are, you know, no, don't hear dirty laundry. Don't ever tell anybody about your mother's drinking.

Don't tell anybody about your father beating all the kids. Don't bring in. And don't talk about the sexual abuse in the family. Nobody. Don't even bring up the uncle's name. Don't even bring that up.

The kids, stop. No, no, no, no, no. So where does it go? It goes in our bodies, it goes in our emotions, it goes. It goes in our subconscious mind.

And those are the experiences that have to be disentangled from and like deconditioned and expressed and, you know, sort of resolve to the best of someone's ability to get to their unconscious. Because as we agreed earlier, those are bridges, not walls. It's okay. They're repressed. It's okay. You've been doing this for 80 years, 30 years.

However long you've been doing it, we're going to utilize it as a bridge. And so your repression is going to become the bridge to expression in safe, positive, meaningful ways.

But yeah, to answer your question, Keith, those are the most tough, most difficult cultures.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:39:23

Yeah. So for the basement, subculture is starting to flood into the main building, right?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:39:28

Yes, exactly. That's it. I mean, that's real life. That's what happens with our adversities and our traumas.

It overflows and it messes us up at work with our Kids with our, spouse with our. You know, it just overflows everywhere. You know, my cup runneth over, under some really bad ways here, you know, and. Okay, well, let's get to it.

Let's get to. And here's the important thing about the unconscious mind is getting to it. You have to resolve the root cause of the trauma.

Not just the ACE score, but the category of the adversity. You know, what age were you at? How long did it go on for? Who were the people that helped you, that hurt you?

So you actually have to go into the roots to be able to help people get to their unconscious, which a lot of people think, oh, I'll just do my affirmations. I'll just think positive. I just won't think negative. I'll just get right to the resolution.

Well, you know, that's like painting your car a different color so it'll run better. You're not getting to the engine. You got to get to the engine. You have to get to the root cause.

Like in all business or in all family and all medical situations, you have to get to the root cause to help people get better. And with mental health, emotional health, trauma, and overlooked because it's not understood. Took us decades to figure it out.

You have to get people to resolve and heal the root cause. And that's the ages you were at and all the severity of it and the relationship you have with the person that, you know traumatized you.

And there's a lot there. The good news is you start feeling better right away.

When you do the right work, you never feel worse before you feel better, which is a huge relief for people. And everybody gets better much faster than they thought they would. Not the on, off switch fast, but very efficiently.

People get better much faster than they thought they ever would. And, you know, usually people have been working on themselves for years or decades.

So it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, in just a matter of weeks, I'm feeling like, so different. I'm doing things so different. How could this be that in a week or two or three, things are so much better?

Because you've had the resources inside you the whole time. Your potentials are there. You just had to resolve the root cause, get through that flood as you described it so beautifully.

Or maybe not so beautifully, but truthfully, you know, and be able to get to your own unconscious.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:42:08

So you've worked with over 135,000 people. Is there a story that reminds you of why the work that you do matters?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:42:17

Well, we were helping 25,000 people a year for over 25 years. Okay? To do the math. Okay.

And we have been in many, many countries doing very large training programs for professionals and practitioners, from nurses to doctors to therapists to coaches, and of course, with families. And we've worked with four generations of family sexual abuse, all four generations on each other. That was very intense.

We've worked with survivors of wars, many different wars, and the family members, the kids, the grandkids, the impact generations later. And we've also worked with perpetrators, people causing the damage, you know, doing the killings, you know.

So I think the biggest lesson was some of the people that were referred to me from Dr. Felitti, who weren't getting better, as they used to say at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, where we collaborated, they're not dying and they're not getting better, and we don't know what to do with them. Those 20% of people using 80% of our services, they're very expensive, but we're not helping them and they're not getting better.

They're coming every week for 20 years with a different problem and symptom every week. What can we do? And that's when they used to call me the doctor of last resort. But the physician of the year of Kaiser, Dr. El Ray, changed that.

He goes, no, no. Dr. Brian Allman is the doctor of first resort because he's who we're going to send people to to begin with.

So they have to go through all that other stuff.

And the challenge was, and I remember really clearly I was getting referred people that I actually felt uncomfortable with, just like, oh, my God, they did that. They're responsible for that. Oh, my God. Those are the kind of people that I just never understood. And, you know, oh, my God.

I don't want to say anything terrible, but I just didn't see them.

My medical doctor partner, you know, said one time when we're seeing people at death's row who had all high ACE scores, he would say, you know, some people just don't deserve to live. And I'm like, what? What? But they all have an unconscious and inner wisdom.

He said, yeah, but, you know, they've been at this damaging life approach for so many decades that they've gone from human to animal. And I'm like, oh, I don't even know if I can deal with that one. So it was a little trouble for me because I respected this person, still do so much.

But that was his experience, and he was just being honest. Okay? So having to see people and help People that year, a year ago, a week ago, years ago, I would be like, I don't think so.

Oh, my gosh, you know, that's too terrible. That's too much. You know, hurting the kids and people and killing. Oh, my God.

And so I realized because these people are getting referred to me, they have nowhere else to go. They have nobody else that will help them. No one else knows how to help them. I do know how to help them. So I have the skills. Will I. Am I comfortable?

Do I want to? Do they deserve it? And I realized I had to go deeper into my own compassion, into my own acceptance of people.

And so I actually spent time, you know, time and energy. How deep can I go with compassion to people that are mean, that have done bad things to good people? How deep can I go into acceptance? Acceptance?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I can do this. I don't. But I no point trying to help them if I can't go deep enough to help them.

Even if I know how to help them. I have to be real. I have to be, you know, really present to do my own best work for them, and I spend time on it.

And I went deeper than I ever thought I would ever thought I could. Into compassion, into acceptance. It was a very challenging time for me to really face the music. You know, let's see.

You know, okay, you're doing all this great work. People appreciate you, you know, all over you, buying your books to come in your workshop, seeing his client. But how deep can you really go?

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:47:01

Right?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:47:01

Okay, okay, okay. Let me face the music. Let me ask. So I worked on it and I visualized it, and I practiced it, dealing with these people.

And, you know, did the mental rehearsal, did the emotional rehearsal, did the spiritual rehearsal, did everything I could to prepare. And I realized, wow, I can go a lot deeper than I've ever gone with compassion, with acceptance.

I can go a lot deeper into healing than I've ever gone, ever wanted to go or thought I would go. And I was able to help a lot more people achieve a lot more results because of my ability to go deeper.

And my work really blossomed at that point with those very difficult people, but also with everybody I was seeing, because I could go as deep as deep could go to the center of the earth, to the deepest part of the ocean, to the deepest part of humanity, and find compassion and acceptance to be able to help people. And I was like, oh, my God. I'm actually okay with this. And I'M doing it, and yikes. Okay.

And, yeah, of course, those people, you know, benefited tremendously, and they would not have had any other help or any other resources. So it's absolutely the right thing to do. It's like we all probably all say, yeah, we're doing God's work anyway. It comes through us.

You know, we're doing our. We're doing the work. Yeah. It's the right thing to do. It's not about us and our personality, our ego or degree or, you know, our.

No, this is bigger than us. You know, healing and helping. It's bigger than us. I know that's true.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:48:48

So you kind of led me to my.

My favorite question, my second favorite question, and that is, with all that you do and the impact you're having, what do you want your legacy to be?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:49:01

I love that people will realize that they can be healthier and happier than they've ever been before, and they can help other people be healthier and happier than they've ever been before.

So really honoring the legacy of helping people tap into their unconscious, their spirituality, their inner wisdom, their true authentic self for themselves to develop their potentials and also to contribute to the world to make it a better place.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:49:38

That's great. I love that.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:49:40

Yeah.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:49:41

So in season six of the podcast, we are doing something new with our guests, and we're doing a surprise question. So pick a number between 1 and 5 for your surprise question.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:49:51

3.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:49:52

3. Oh, here we go. Would you rather have unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos for life?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:50:05

That is funny. Well, I love both, so this is especially challenging. Sushi tacos. Yeah. So I have to pick. And the answer can't be both.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:50:22

No, it can't be both.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:50:23

Can't be both. Okay, because that would be my answer if it could have been both. I'll go with tacos.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:50:38

All right, there we go.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:50:41

That was tough.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:50:42

It was tough. We go deep on this podcast.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:50:45

Yeah. And have fun at the same time.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:50:49

And have fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us. Where can people connect with you? Where can they best find your books and.

And everything on social media?

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:50:59

Okay, so my name's Dr. Brian Alman, and so if you Google Dr. Brian Almy, B R I a N a L, M A N. You'll find me everywhere on Google. As I said earlier, I do a new video and a new post every day on Tik, Tok, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube.

So I love to share and to help people help themselves.

My company is true Sage like the word true sage and the analogy there is that you are your own true sage and the whole company is about helping you connect with your own true sage. So if people go to trusage.com they can get information about almost everything I do. My books are on Amazon, of course.

And so you follow me on social media, it's Dr. Allman. Dr. Allman. And yeah, follow me on Instagram and on LinkedIn and Facebook and watch the videos and connect with me, ask me questions.

I would love to connect with all your viewers.

And by the way, because like I said at the beginning, giving you the five star Apple rating, I did prepare because you're so generous, a free gift for all your viewers and listeners. I want to match your generosity. So if people go to, let's say Facebook or Instagram, whatever you use at Doctoralman and mention you.

Okay, mention our podcast together. I will send them a 30 minute deep dive experience and experience into their unconscious, their inner wisdom, their true authentic self.

So I have that ready. Just write to me and then I'll figure out because I created a few of them, which one will fit your viewers or listeners the best.

But I prepared them, they're available for free.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:53:00

Wow.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:53:01

Because of you and your generosity and your spirituality and your kindness and so connect with me on social media, wherever you go, I'm there. Connect with me at my website. I will get back to you one on one. It'll be confidential, just be between us.

So please feel free and I will answer any question you have about adverse childhood experiences, adverse adult experiences, trauma, well being, wellness, the unconscious, the inner you. And so that would be. Those are some resources and actually something free because of you, Keith.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:53:40

Well, thank you so much, Dr. Almond. I appreciate your work with this. I appreciate this conversation. Thank you for what you do.

There's so much hurt and pain out there and to help people to move beyond that and to heal is so important in our life today.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:53:57

Exactly. And we will do it.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney: 00:53:59

Thank you, my friend.

Dr. Brian Alman: 00:54:01

Yes, thank you.