I am graduating in May with a MSW/MBA degree. I am over 55, a life of experience, and the whole system of university instruction and the system of for profit medicine is a huge atrocity against our citizens and against humanity. I regret going through all of this only to realize how wrong this profession is for me and for the persons treated. I would like to know what you would do in this case. I will finish my degrees, but I don't think I will be a therapist. Or support that system.

I like this guy Daniel. There are many reasons. Here are a few: 1. He left a career he worked hard for. (shows integrity) 2. He could evaluate his family of origin for what it really was, and not stay victim to it (shows honesty) 3. He is vulnerable to share his story on Youtube to help others.(not easy with all of the trolls out there) (Shows good will) 4. He seems to thoughtfully weigh out all of his thoughts and actions (Shows compassion) 5. He has the strength of empathy. (Undervalued strength right there) 6. He has a lot of knowledge and experience to share If you watch his videos, it is heartwrenching to see all of that was lost on his family of origin. Thanks for the videos, and I am happy to sign your guestbook! Daniel, if you ever come out to Southern California. We can grab a meal and chat! It is on me! 👍🙂 From, Robert Higgins

Hello, in rural Australia we have farmers and families traumatised by suicide. I showed your suicide harms video too the suicide support group that has government support. I thought it would be well received. I thought I would share their constructive criticism as I would like your thoughts on it. From Gov group Criticism Re video on YouTube from Daniel Makler. Some valid universal pieces in amoungst his talk. “His terminology isn't inline with 2005 Suicide Prevention Australia or MindMap. The terminology is: Death by suicide, Suicide ideology, Curtailed suicide plan.” I was also told the video was not fit because it was dangerous and used wrong messages I thought your video might actually reduce suicide contagion in rural farming outback Australian towns. Where suicide is glamorised by the community especially if a sheep farmer passes from suicide etc Thank you for sharing your ideas I’m a bit sad it doesn’t relate in my country town people Best wishes mate Steve

Hi Daniel, I can honestly never thoroughly describe how much resonance I legitimately have about reflective statements about almost every aspect of childhood trauma in your YouTube videos. I would be more than delighted to become a case study for an extremely enlightened person who either aspires to be or is becoming a professional with psychotherapy/hypnotherapy, because I promise you I can provide every self reflective statements that every divinely guided person is looking for about childhood trauma integration. Instead of writing an actual essay or a book as a comment on your website, I absolutely agree and can describe in exact details how daunting yet eternally rewarding the entire process, especially the middle to ending stages of childhood trauma integration truly are. I hit the biggest psychological jackpot, I truly believe. Thorough acknowledgement of your childhood trauma while expressing an incredible amount of self care are imperative all throughout childhood trauma integration. I define childhood trauma integration as acknowledgement of your childhood trauma with a constant focus on healing fractured aspects of it while daring yourself to be more gentle with yourself than you ever were as well as more gentle than anyone else has ever been with you. All throughout my childhood trauma integration process, I would constantly with a lot of patience focus on the root cause of any kind of fractured emotion or thought that I can't psychologically define. Needless to say, the results of my childhood trauma integration consist of no more repressed anger or issues with anger (all notions of outbursts /teeth grinding have been removed from my physilology), extremely little resistance for immediate self reflection and an incredible willingness to proceed with a psychological completion process. Even though I am completely unaware whether or not you have heard of or have actually listened to any of Teal Swans videos, Teal Swan designed a revolutionary healing process called the Completion Process which enables an individual with any degree of trauma to minimize their fractures as much as possible and you have provided hundreds of videos that actually resonate with a lot of Teal Swans principles such as prioritizing self care at all costs, especially if you are single, have no children or are in an unhealthy relationship with anyone, with children. Nonetheless I am legitimately delighted every time I come across someone who always wants more enlightenment. Thoroughly enjoy the rest of the year and many years to come, Daniel. Sincerely, Audrey

Louise Hansen commented (shared with permission) on new film about Gabor Mate: "The Wisdom of Trauma, and my response, recommending your Film: "Take These Broken Wings" Psychosis: “A mantra is a beautiful thing, there is no question about it, but nothing is bigger than silence.” - Sadhguru “What if psychosis is not losing touch with reality? What if it is us touching reality?” - Dr Louise Hansen The portal for genius is also the same portal for insanity. Like the matrix. There is no key. There is no door. There are no walls. The highest realisation: freedom. So how does one break the boundaries of their physical body and psychological structure? Clarity. A large scale vision, Borderless and boundless, The highest realisation, I am that which is not. My brother always said that I should write a book. I never saw the point when there are a million books that use the same old words simply to transcend them. It would mean nothing to a child joyfully whole in their ordinariness and make no sense to an adult practiced in judgment and criticism. How did they get like that? Narrow. Rigid. Inflexible. Divided. A scientist knows a frog with his intellect, through means of dissection. He pulls it apart, knows all its pieces, and then it is dead. However to experience the same frog, or love, requires a different intelligence: awareness. To simply embrace it as it is. I had my first experience of this during my PhD on the neuroscience of emotion. I asked the question where is emotion in the brain? Well it was not just in the brain. Turns out this is a living cosmos! As I experienced myself as a piece of the entire universe, I made the mistake of assuming others would understand. They did not. A PhD is meant to be an original contribution to knowledge. How does one explain to their supervisors, family and friends, that the entire cosmos dwells within each and every one of us? They thought I was mad. I ended up in a psychiatric hospital for six months with psychosis. I went from teaching psychology at the University to a disability pension, put on every medication and had twelve sessions of electroconvulsive therapy. It took approximately three years for my brain to recover. My treasured insights I had forgotten and were buried deep in my subconscious. Remarkably, seven years later as a Provisional Psychologist I had exactly the same experience. This time completely grounded. The only way I can explain it is that my psychosis was not losing touch with reality; it was touching reality. Reality simply is; neither this nor that. It is what it is. There is only life; the rest is imagination. The difference between a mad man and a Guru is that the madman experiences this unwillingly and the Guru experiences it willingly: freedom. This time I knew I had not discovered anything new. Wisdom traditions and mystics have always known this. You cannot squeeze the universe, nor a precious life, into any box, including science. Life is a far larger phenomenon than any thought or instrument or label. Hence the pointlessness of this book. My brother was right though. I was in a unique situation because I had an opportunity to share the experience from the inside out. I am a licensed Psychologist and a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology, with 20 years experience. I’ve had psychosis, completely destroyed myself, recreated myself, and overcame a second episode knowing fully what was happening. Apart from feeling unable to share this with my family or colleagues, in fear of being re-hospitalised, or reported to the psychology board, what was most terrifying is that this second episode would be classified as “Schizophrenia” in the West, and yet similar experiences are embraced as “Enlightenment” in the east. What was one to do? “A mantra is a beautiful thing, there is no question about it, but nothing is bigger than silence.” - Sadhguru Today the top neuroscientists agree that our reality is an illusion and that we are all hallucinating. When we agree on a shared hallucination we call this normality. When we disagree we call this insanity; or genius. While Western psychology labels and pathologises anything abnormal and rejects anything it cannot measure, Wisdom traditions knowingly encourage and prepare you for this. For Wisdom traditions, the intellect is limited for it is a cutting instrument and narrowly focused in its scope: that is why in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few. For Wisdom traditions, the mind is insanity; the only sanity is reality. So unlike the West, they embrace and prepare you for this. For it is not a case of if, but when, this happens to you. Beautiful and plentiful tools are provided of what to do: Wisdom. So what is a genius in a world of illusion? My hope is this story will shed some light. They say a fool does what he does not like. An intelligent man does what he likes. And a genius does what needs to be done. He not only masters his threat system, for survival, he also develops his self soothing system, for peace, joy, love, compassion, blissfulness and ecstasy. For if one is unable to drop their fight mode, they will unknowingly conquer and divide in many disguises. And when the entire universe resides within you, what is there to unnecessarily gain or lose? This story is dedicated to every human being who has been hospitalised or incarcerated, for having the highest realisation and a large scale vision; that what lies within each and everyone of us, is neither this nor that: for it can never be named, to remain borderless and boundless. Dr Louise Hansen Psychologist PhD in Psychology Human Rights Activist *This piece is in no way intended to minimise psychosis or mental illness. It is a simple interpretation of my lived experience of psychosis. There is no question both episodes I was unable to function or care for myself. Both required hospitalisation. Both took months, the first took years, to recover from. Thank you to my family, friends and medical team who kept me safe and supported my recovery. This piece is also not intended to criticise Psychology or Western science. It is simply pointing out the limitation of using intellect alone with phenomena like the mind and existence. Self-compassion (kindness, common humanity and mindfulness) also exist. #HealingTrauma #Justice4Humanity #WeAllBelong my reply: Thank-you for this very personal and very inspiring story. I am so grateful to you for this. I had depression and numbness, which is much more "culturally acceptable." I don't know if this would be of interest to you or not, but I found Dan Mackler's films available for free on Youtube, really helped me realize how we all are conditioned to fear Craziness, and are "brainwashed" at a very early age to fear Madness and so called Schizophrenia. In Finland they have an 80% "cure rate" for so called "Schizophrenia" mainly through non-profit, community based Mental Health Care, with medication used as the last resort,not the 1st. It is my belief, that Culturally, we are taught to fear "Madness" and "inner voices" in part because with have Inner Divine Guidance//Bodily Knowing that would continually Guide us to "Do the Right Thing" if only we would listen. I have had powerful, "irrational” >>more accurately “a*rational" inner guidance several times, including guiding me to sit with one of my root Teachers, Papaji. For some reason, I never feared this Inner Guidance...It was more the Courage to follow this Guidance, when it didn't go along with the larger "Cultural Narrative." Who closes down her Psychology practice, just a few months after attaining my license, and about to make a "good career" and instead goes to India to sit at the feet of a man who laughed a lot, could stop just about anyone's mind, and whose biggest advice was: "Just Be Quiet!" I am only BEGINNING to appreciate that the verbal, logical narrative going on incessantly like tickertape in our heads, including the "Inner Critic" is only a very small part of all that is available, especially through the Body//Embodiment, through Spontaneous Creativity, through Entheogens, Through Love! Thank-you Louise, Gabor, Zaya, Maurizio and special thanks to the panel today on Indigenous Perspectives on the Root Causes of Addiction, with "Woman Stands Shining" //Pat McCabe, Gina Perez-Baron and Daniel RYNO Herrera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfKc-TknWU&t=854s

Hi Daniel, I'm pursuing an education to be a counselor. I've been volunteering as a Listener on 7Cups for 9 months and I have a great mentor who has a background in psychology. Today we had a mentee-mentor chat because I kept having difficulty not crying when listening to a member. He gave me a link to your YouTube video, and I learned a lot from it. I just wanna say thanks a lot for what you do. I've been watching your YouTube video a lot and plan to learn some more from you. If you could give me suggestions on how to be a better counselor, I would love to hear and work on it! Hope you have a nice day, Daniel, God bless!

Dropping by, after hearing about you on 5/8/2021. Thanks.

Daniel, i love you. Thanks so much in helping with my breakthrough, also, with helping with my 3 beautiful daughters in their grieving. I am a patrion but they are slow in returning an email when you forget your password. Anyways, I love you, thanks for liberating people 🙂

Hi Daniel, I found your videos on YouTube, and wanted to mention I really appreciate what you are doing! Also, so sorry to hear about your mugging, and the subsequent invalidating remarks you've been subjected to by 'Commenters' trivializing your pain. I understand what that is like, and come from a family which could be the "Poster Child" of trauma and multi-generational dysfunction (so I get that things are not always what they seem to a casual observer). You don't know me obviously, but I really like you! You seem way cool. I hope you are starting to feel better. Send me an email if you are ever in Pittsburgh, I'd like to meet you in real life! Keep on smiling, and grow your hair long again, it looked very cute that way! Lol, sorry, hope I'm not over-stepping to say that!

Sherie G. gr8ideas@fiber.net Hello. I live in California near Los Angeles. About 3 years ago I ran across one of your first videos explaining why you left the psychoanalysis field in New York. Impressive. I learned a lot from watching that and others you have since sponsored. I am not actually employed in the Mental Health Field, however, I have done a lot of research on the horrible side effects of ECT (Electro Shock Treatment) and the psychotropic drugs given. Including Prozac, Xanax, Ritalin and others. From my own research I have actually helped people get off of "mood altering drugs", and have helped them return to a normal life, drug free. My own sources include books I have read by Thomas Szazs, Peter Breggin and others. Also, Leonard Roy Frank, an ECT survivor in San Francisco has written some telling books on the subject. Many years ago Thomas Szazs started a group that I have volunteered with - located in Los Angeles. Citizens Commission on Human Rights. They have a lot of free literature that I have used and/or given out. I am impressed with your decisions. Continue doing such wonderful work. Sherie G.

Hi Daniel, I've already commented recently on your welcome page. Hope it's okay to write another one here. First, just watched your video on being mugged. I'm very glad you're okay. What a thoughtful, good way you responded to the two young men by allowing for your common humanity to manifest in the context of their otherwise dehumanizing act. Second, I have three questions about what might be called the anatomy or architecture of trauma. (If you do wish to respond to these questions, please don't rush on my account under the circumstances you're in; I express this now while the spirit moves me, not with any expectation for you to respond). Before I ask the questions explicitly, let me try to set the context, which has to do with a central theme of yours, namely the root of trauma in childhood experience, particularly people's childhood experience of having their sense of themselves shut down by their parents (who were likely acting out of unresolved trauma from their own childhoods). You've also pointed out that society beyond the family unit is a potential source of trauma (e.g., in the excessive authority and thereby de facto freedom to traumatize that parents often have over the children, who are often not believed, for example, when they report their parents). And you've also pointed out, or effectively revealed, that formal education can itself be a source of trauma (e.g., insofar as the field of psychotherapy is more preoccupied with profit than helping people equally,or insofar as the field de-emphasizes the significance of trauma in order to placate professionals who have their own unresolved traumas). My first question: are the above three sources of trauma (i.e., parents, parent-centric society, and profit-oriented/trauma-placating professionalism) a kind of perverse trinity? That is, are they three dimensions of the same phenomenon of trauma, meaning that an authentic triad of parents-society-professionalism is necessarily part of trauma's resolution (allowing that these terms can be played out in unconventional ways, for instance by recognizing the role of an authentic parent in people who aren't necessarily one's official parents)? My second question: if the above line of thought has any truth to it, is it not possible, if only in theory, for a particular experience of trauma to be explained by one of the dimensions - or by one combination of them - more so than any other? For example, could one be traumatized not by one's parents per se, but by the broader parent-centric society? To elaborate on this theoretical example: say one's parents do a beautiful job of validating and fostering one's identity, only for a school system to indoctrinate one into believing that parents, whether good or bad or some mixture, by default have the primary say in their children's development (e.g., by a teacher not believing a student's reason for missing a class unless a parent has signed an explanatory note, which could be a traumatic experience if, say, for instance, the reason has to do with a terrible accident involving the student's parents, rendering them unable to write a note). Or, to give one more theoretical example, say one's parents and one's society have been nothing but nurturing, yet the formal knowledge that one studies suggests otherwise. To extend this example: say one well on the path to enlightenment until, for some reason, one becomes enthralled by Jordan Peterson in a university setting and thereby believes in his approach to parenting, overlooking its authoritarian implications (which you do a splendid job of critiquing by the way)? In short, it seems to me, that one can have good parents and live in a bad society with bad forms of education in it; or one can have good parents and live in a good society but get a bad formal education; just as one can luck out in all three areas, and so on and so forth. So, third question: am I confusing issues or is there any truth to my meanderings?

Hi Daniel. Wanted to know if there are any hubs for therapists who have the same convictions as you. I wanna find a good one instead of endlessly sifting through the bargain-bins of pill-pushers and mystics. Its taking so long and has sucked a lot of the drive out of me searching for that one therapist. I would appreciate if you could point me towards any database of some kind, or some rubric of how to find a good one (I've also watched your YT vid on it). Maybe one day you or others could create a website or app that centralizes actual therapists, like Psychology Today but without the pop-psychology and pills. Thanks for fighting the good fight.

Hello Daniel: I have just recently found your website and looked a little bit into your work and your approach to your life. The ideas and comments really resonate with me as a parent of 3 adult sons. My middle son has fairly recently decided to distance himself (essentially stop all communication) from my husband and me. He is married and his wife has had breast cancer which has resulted in their not being able to have children. I am sure this is extremely painful for him. I unfortunately commented on his simultaneous very significant weight gain which could certainly damage his health. Since expressing that concern, the door has shut and no communication is accepted or acknowledged Has been a couple of months and could go on indefinitely I suppose. I am trying to prepare for that potential reality. I just wanted to tell you it is so helpful to watch your video and read about your life and your "advice" for parents who have to face up to a child deciding to pull away from a parental relationship. As I look back at my own background ,weight and appearance were a constant theme in my family of origin which in retrospect was not a healthy approach to living one's life. Wish you the best in your work and will keep following!! Best. Phyllis

Interesting stuff about sexual orientation. If there was an intervention to make someone bisexual or pansexual would that be acceptable?

Hi Daniel. I was just wondering how you've been. We spoke a few times in the past at events in NYC. I appreciate your work you have done and enjoyed speaking with you in the past. I have been free from psychiatry/mental health system for some time now and live in The City myself now. That move alone probably saved my life. Thanks and be well.