Brian D. Mahan, SEP · Author · Creator of The Mahan Map™
You understand your patterns. So why can't you change them?
Even high achievers who “know better” keep repeating their past. After 20 years of sessions, Brian D. Mahan, SEP, found the reason: old beliefs, forged in shame and trauma, keep running on autopilot. The Mahan Map™ is the direct route out.
“My job is to get you to quit seeing me.”
It's a terrible business model, but I can't do this any other way.
One-on-one sessions on Zoom, for individuals and couples, anywhere in the world.
The Mahan Map™: changing the neurobiology of how you think, feel, speak, and behave
Six movements. Three kinds of wounds. Most of the time spent where most approaches rush: reorganization and integration.
Explore The Mahan Map™You're in the right place
People come to me for:
- PTSD and panic attacks
- CPTSD and childhood trauma
- Shame and a relentless inner critic
- Self-sabotage and limiting beliefs
- Imposter syndrome and high-functioning anxiety
- Freeze, shutdown, and emotional numbness
- Fear of success
- Perfectionism
- People pleasing and codependency
- A nervous system that won't settle
- Emotional unavailability: keeping people at arm's length
- Feeling unreal or detached from yourself (depersonalization)
- Depression
- Habits and addictions
- Grief and loss
- Couples who want to change together
- Anger, overwhelm and brain fog you can't explain
- Burnout, and a body that's starting to break down
If you nodded even once, you're not broken, and it isn't a lack of willpower.
Your future doesn't have to look like your past
Trauma is not a life sentence. Neither is shame. Here's what changed for people who once sat where you're sitting.
You can't change the past. But you can change who you are and your relationship to it.
What clients say
“Brian is a profoundly talented practitioner and deeply committed to helping people heal from trauma. I'm proud to call him a teacher and a friend.”
“His work and his teachings are game changing.”
“Brian has the profound ability to lead me towards the truth. Always.”
“Traditional therapy made me relive my trauma by having to tell the same story again and again, without seeing any improvement. Brian takes you to the core issues in a whole new way so that you actually heal!”
“Brian creates a safe space to start with the ‘facts’ of your traumas. Then with brilliant compassion he helps you develop an acute awareness of the physiology of what's happening in your body. At first glance, it seems like you're just helplessly looking at the pain. And then you realize it's an unfailing tool that masterfully releases it.”
“He told me in our first session that his goal was to reach a point, as quickly as possible, when I no longer needed to see him. That is not the attitude of most of the practitioners I know. And, I did reach that point...”
“I had terrifying panic attacks which debilitated me and brought me down to the ground from a secondary trauma, and all of his soothing techniques all worked to fast track my healing when talk therapy made it worse.”
“It's not easy or lazy work, but well worth it... especially if you've tried other types of therapy and haven't found real change.”
“Brian's book “I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour” and his work with trauma and shame were a lifeboat for me at a devastating time in my life. His insight, generosity, knowledge, and experience gave me invaluable tools and support to heal. I am eternally grateful.”
Three ways to begin
Work with me one-on-one
Individual and couples sessions, 60 or 90 minutes, on Zoom, anywhere in the world. Request session information, and a short email from me arrives right away.
Request Session Information
I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour
What to Do When Self-Help or Talk Therapy Haven't Really Helped
For trauma survivors, especially those who aren't aware they are trauma survivors, and for anyone who struggles with shame without knowing it's shame. With humor and without a single platitude.
Get the Book (US)“Simply a must-read.”
Marie Forleo, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Start free, tonight
Two one-page CURIOSITY practices I give clients. Use them the next time the voice in your head turns on you, or a conversation starts to go sideways.
Both are free one-page PDFs.
Quick Answers
What is somatic therapy, and is it the same as Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic therapy is the general name for body-based approaches that work with the nervous system and physical sensation, not only with thoughts and the story. Somatic Experiencing® (SE™), developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, is one specific method within that field. Brian D. Mahan, SEP, is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and The Mahan Map™ is grounded in Somatic Experiencing.
Does Brian D. Mahan work with PTSD?
Yes. PTSD is one of his specialties. Brian D. Mahan, SEP, was diagnosed with PTSD after a 2003 car wreck; after about six months of Somatic Experiencing, his doctor removed the diagnosis from his medical records. How sessions work
Can somatic therapy help with CPTSD?
Complex PTSD (CPTSD) most often follows prolonged or repeated trauma that was hard or impossible to escape, frequently in childhood. Many people with CPTSD look for body-based work after talk therapy has brought understanding but not change. Brian D. Mahan, SEP, works with developmental trauma, shock trauma, and the trauma of shame as physiological conditions more than psychological disorders. He does not diagnose, and no diagnosis is needed to start.
How is Somatic Experiencing different from talk therapy?
Talk therapy works mainly with thoughts and the story. Somatic Experiencing works with the physiology underneath, the reactions that fire before there's time to think. Many of Brian's clients come to him after years of talk therapy that brought insight but not change.
Does Somatic Experiencing work over Zoom?
Yes. Brian D. Mahan, SEP, has worked with clients remotely since the early 2000s, first on Skype and now on Zoom, with clients around the world. How sessions work