Trauma Treatment in Thailand
Trauma Treatment in Thailand

Voices In Recovery Podcast

Mike shares how his own recovery journey led him from large Canadian rehabs to running a small trauma-focused centre on the beach in Thailand. The conversation looks at addiction as a response to trauma and discusses how intensive, nervous-system-based therapy can complement or go beyond traditional 12-step approaches.

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1:38:34•15 Oct 2026

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Trauma Is the Fire: Mike’s Journey to a Small Healing Centre in Thailand

Episode Overview

Trauma is framed as the underlying issue, with addiction seen as a symptom or "compulsive self-soothing" rather than a defect of character.
Small, clinician-run centres can offer highly individualised care, including multiple one-to-one sessions per week and flexible, person-specific activities.
Evidence-based therapies like EMDR, Internal Family Systems and trauma-informed yoga are used to calm the nervous system and address core wounds.
Shame-heavy and rigid recovery approaches may keep people busy but often leave unresolved pain; adding trauma work can change long-term outcomes.
Meaning, purpose and safe relationships are presented as vital ingredients for sustainable recovery beyond simply stopping substance use.

“We have a saying at Yatra: addiction is the smoke. Trauma is the fire.”

What drives someone to seek a completely different way of healing trauma and addiction? This conversation between host David Lewry and guest Mike from Krabi, Thailand, walks you through that question in a very real, very human way. Mike, a Canadian in long-term recovery, shares how his journey from a chaotic upbringing and heavy substance use led him into traditional 12-step treatment work in Vancouver.

After years in large rehabs, he began to notice a pattern: people weren't just struggling with "addiction"—they were carrying deep, unaddressed trauma. As he puts it, "Addiction is the smoke. Trauma is the fire." You’ll hear how that realisation eventually pulled him all the way to Thailand, where he co-runs Yatra Center, a tiny, clinician-led trauma programme on the beach.

Instead of mass groups and rigid rules, clients get four one-to-one therapy sessions a week, including EMDR, Internal Family Systems, body-focused practices, trauma-informed yoga, breath work, and nervous-system regulation based on polyvagal theory. With only six beds and no investors, he and his wife Chu can prioritise "outcomes over incomes" and keep decisions genuinely client-centred.

The chat also gets into why shame-based approaches and old-school "defects of character" language miss the mark, how capitalism itself can grind people down, and why being busy can become just another compulsive self-soothing strategy. There’s light humour throughout, but they don’t shy away from tough realities—including grief, relapse, and the emotional cost of working on the "coal face" of human suffering.

If you’ve ever felt that standard recovery paths help somewhat but leave something burning underneath, this episode gives you a grounded look at trauma-specific treatment and asks an important question: what might change if the fire, not just the smoke, finally got some attention?

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