We all have trauma in our lives. None of us has been loved perfectly or loved others perfectly. We all carry unresolved pain and we all deserve tenderness and compassion.

Dr. Gabor Mate, a renowned addiction expert who has spent many years working on the lower east side of Vancouver, says that the many forms of addiction in our society are coming from our endless search to relieve past pain and trauma and to externally fill a void we feel inside: “There are many, many addictions. Yes, there’s the addiction to drugs, but there’s also the addiction to consumerism, the addiction to sex, to the internet, to food. For each person there’s a different way of feeding the emptiness.”