What happens when doctors spend their entire careers learning to suppress their emotions?
In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with clinical psychologist Sacha McBain, PhD, a national leader in medical traumatic stress, to unpack what happens when physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers are repeatedly exposed to trauma without being given the tools to process it.
Sacha explains how emotional suppression can shrink our “window of tolerance,” leading to hyperarousal, irritability, shutdown, and disconnection, and how those reactions don't just affect clinicians themselves. They can change team dynamics, undermine psychological safety, increase the risk that people won't speak up about potential errors, and ultimately affect patient care.
The conversation explores:
• What medical trauma actually is and why we don't talk about it enough
• Why “just push through it” can make trauma worse
• The science behind the window of tolerance
• Why some physicians respond to bullying and pressure by working harder while others shut down
• How physician culture can perpetuate trauma from one generation to the next
• Why psychological safety is also a patient safety issue
• How a patient's experience of trauma can shape their relationship with healthcare
• Why we can't humanize patients if healthcare workers aren't being humanized themselves
• What trauma-informed care can change for both patients and clinicians
Sacha also discusses her new patient-facing workbook on medical trauma and how clinicians can better understand what patients and families may be carrying into the hospital.
If you've ever been told to toughen up, push through it, or leave your feelings at home, this conversation is worth hearing.
Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD
Guest: Sacha McBain, PhD
Connect with Sacha: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/sacha-mcbain-phd
Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective
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