top of page

Episode 160: The Biology of Creative Healing: Safety & Self-Love with Adam Roa

  • 5 days ago
  • 8 min read































"Creativity is the process of putting together patterns you've never put together before." 

 — Adam Roa



What if the key to healing isn’t more therapy—but creativity?

Adam Roa’s poem “You Are Who You’ve Been Looking For” has reached over 250 million people, making it the most viral live poetry performance in history. But before that poem existed, Adam spent 25 years emotionally shut down. He didn’t remember his childhood sexual abuse until age 30.


His journey reveals why creativity can create neurological safety for emotions that were once too overwhelming to feel.


Creativity isn’t about talent—it’s about pattern disruption. When you turn pain into a poem, song, or painting, you force your brain to organize that experience differently. Research shows the nervous system recovers on its own timeline: for example, a study of college athletes found that extreme fatigue took 5.5 months to recover—not weeks. This episode explores why safety must come before expression, and how the creative process can rewire neural pathways when talk alone can’t reach what’s stored in the body.


In This Episode You'll Learn:


 (01:00) What poetry has to do with your nervous system’s capacity to heal  (03:45) Why Adam’s viral poem reached 250 million people  (05:30) How childhood trauma stayed hidden for 25 years  (08:00) Why acting became Adam’s first safe space to feel emotions  (12:00) The moment poetry became a survival mechanism after heartbreak  (17:00) How creativity rewires neural pathways associated with traumatic events  (22:00) Why one poem can play multiple roles in your healing journey  (27:00) What happens when you write for yourself but release for others  (32:00) Dr. Aimie shares her song “Letter to the Me” publicly for the first time  (47:00) Adam performs “You Are Who You’ve Been Looking For”  (54:00) The journey from viral success to learning what self-love actually means


Notable Quotes


Adam Roa: 

"All depression is from suppression. There's something that needs to be felt." 

"Treat yourself like someone you love." 

"Every piece of art is its own ceremony. Its own medicine." 

"I write poetry for me. Once I release it, it's yours."


Dr. Aimie Apigian: 

"You start needing to make it safe for feelings to be present." 


Episode Takeaway

Creativity offers something unique that we often miss in healing conversations.

When Adam turned his pain into poetry, he wasn’t just expressing emotions—he was forcing his brain to find new patterns. That’s what creativity is: putting together patterns you’ve never put together before. When you do that with pain, you give your nervous system a new reference point.


This is why safety comes first in the Foundational Journey. Adam found acting before poetry because his character was allowed to have emotions he wasn’t. The creative container made feeling safe before he could feel as himself.


We have to create conditions where safety exists. Then the body can do what it was designed to do.


I shared one of my own songs in this episode. That was new for me. Claiming “artist” feels vulnerable—but that’s exactly why it matters.


Resources/Guides:


Related Podcast Episodes:


About the Guest:

Adam Roa is an internationally recognized artist, poet, and transformational coach whose viral poem "You Are Who You've Been Looking For" has reached over 250 million people, making it the most viewed live poetry performance in history. He has shared the stage at global events including TEDx, Oslo Freedom Forum, and Mindvalley.


Through his workshops, courses, and coaching—where clients have paid up to $1M for personalized mentorship—Adam helps individuals and organizations unlock authentic confidence, creative expression, and deeper connection. His mission: to help people fall in love with being themselves and turn their lives into works of art. 


Your host:

Dr. Aimie Apigian, double board-certified physician (Preventive/Addiction Medicine) with master's degrees in biochemistry and public health, and author of the national bestselling book "The Biology of Trauma" (foreword by Gabor Maté) that transforms our understanding of how the body experiences and holds trauma. Through her practitioner training, podcast, YouTube channel, and international speaking, she bridges functional medicine, attachment and trauma therapy, facilitating accelerated repair of trauma's impact on the mind, body and biology.



How Creativity Heals What Talk Therapy Can't—The Biology of Creative Expression


His poem reached 250 million people. But before Adam Roa wrote “You Are Who You’ve Been Looking For,” he spent 25 years emotionally shut down.


He didn’t remember his childhood sexual abuse until age 30. For decades, he carried an internal sense that something was wrong—without knowing what. The story his brain constructed was simple: there is something inherently wrong with me.


This is what unprocessed trauma does. It generates implicit narratives that operate outside conscious awareness.


In this episode, we explore why creativity creates neurological safety, how the creative process alters trauma-related responses, and why healing requires more than cognitive understanding.


Why Creativity Works When Talk Therapy Hits a Wall


Talk therapy primarily engages the prefrontal cortex. It helps us label experiences, recognize patterns, and develop insight. These functions matter—but trauma is not stored solely in the thinking brain.


Trauma is encoded in the body, in implicit memory, and in automatic nervous system responses. This is why someone can fully understand why they react a certain way and still be unable to change the reaction.


Adam defines creativity as “the process of putting together patterns you’ve never put together before.” This definition is central to healing.


When you write a poem about a painful experience, you are not just expressing emotion. You are requiring the brain to reorganize that experience in a novel way. This disrupts the neural loops that keep replaying the same internal story.


Journaling can help. But journaling often reinforces existing thought patterns—research shows that roughly 95% of our daily thoughts are repetitive. Creativity requires novelty. Novelty is what drives neural change.


The Safety Problem Most People Skip


Adam didn’t start with poetry. He started with acting.


As the son of a Filipino immigrant father who modeled emotional stoicism, Adam grew up in an environment where emotional expression was not safe. His nervous system adapted by shutting down.


Acting gave him a workaround. His character was allowed to feel—grief, rage, vulnerability. And the more deeply he felt, the more he was rewarded: stronger performances, external validation, professional success. This created a positive reinforcement loop for emotional expression.


At the time, he didn’t consider himself creative, and he didn’t understand what was happening neurologically. But he had found a safe container for emotions that had nowhere else to go.


This is the step most people skip. They try to move directly into deep emotional work without first establishing safety.


Safety comes first. You need a container that allows feeling before the nervous system will permit feeling.


How Depression Connects to Suppression


Adam shared a statement that stopped me: “All depression is from suppression. There’s something that needs to be felt.”


When emotions have no outlet, they turn inward. The physiological energy that would normally move through expression becomes trapped. This is not a personal failure—it’s a biological process.


Creativity provides a channel. Writing, painting, movement, sound—these forms allow emotion to move without requiring analysis.


This does not replace professional treatment for clinical depression. But it helps explain why creative expression can be a powerful complement to therapy: it reaches what cognitive processing alone cannot.


The Identity Shift That Unlocks Creative Capacity


For years, Adam said he wasn’t creative. Many high-achieving people say the same thing—even while solving complex problems, building companies, and innovating daily.

The identities we hold shape what the nervous system permits.


When Adam stopped saying “I’m not a singer” and began claiming a creative identity, something shifted. His unconscious processes began generating creative material—melodies, phrases, ideas—without deliberate effort.


I experienced this myself. For decades, I identified as a physician and educator, not an artist—even while writing songs and playing piano. Claiming “artist” felt vulnerable.

In this episode, I shared one of my songs publicly for the first time. That vulnerability matters. Healing isn’t only in creating—it’s in claiming.


Why One Poem Can Play Multiple Roles in Healing


Adam described writing a poem called “A Mannequin’s Dream” over six weeks.

It began in anger. He wrote until that emotional charge was exhausted, then stopped. Weeks later, after further processing, he returned to the piece. The middle emerged from heartbreak—and from the compassion that followed it.


The ending came last. He wrote the resolution he wished had happened. Something released.


One poem. Multiple nervous system states. Anger, grief, integration.


This is what Adam means when he says every piece of art is its own ceremony—its own medicine. The creative process meets the nervous system where it is and helps it move somewhere new.


What This Means for Your Healing


You don’t need talent. You don’t need to share what you create. You don’t need permission.


Write three lines. Draw something intentionally imperfect. Hum a melody no one will hear.


The healing is not in the quality. It’s in allowing emotion to move and forcing the brain to create new patterns around old pain.


Start small. Start private. Start now.


FAQ

1. How does creativity help heal trauma?  Creativity forces the brain to form new patterns around painful experiences. When you turn pain into a poem, image, or sound, you disrupt the neural loops that keep replaying the same implicit story. This rewiring occurs because creativity requires novel organization, which repetitive thinking does not provide.


2. Do I need to be talented for creative expression to help?  No. Healing occurs in the process, not the outcome. Private, imperfect creative acts still engage neural novelty and emotional release. The nervous system benefits from expression—not from external validation.


3. Why do some people feel emotionally shut down?  Emotional shutdown develops when expressing feelings was unsafe early in life. The nervous system suppresses emotion as a survival strategy. This adaptation can persist into adulthood, often without conscious awareness. It is protective, not pathological.


4. What's the connection between depression and suppression?  When emotions have no outlet, the physiological energy associated with them turns inward. Adam Roa describes this succinctly: “All depression is from suppression.” Creative expression provides a pathway for that energy to move. This does not replace clinical care, but it helps explain why creativity can support healing.


5. Why does safety need to come before creative expression? The nervous system will not allow access to intense emotions unless it perceives safety. Adam found acting first because his character was permitted to feel what he was not. Establishing a safe creative container prevents overwhelm and makes emotional access possible.


Helpful Research

  1. Expressive Writing and Health Pennebaker, J.W. & Smyth, J.M. (2016). "Opening Up by Writing It Down." Guilford Press. Decades of research demonstrate that expressive writing improves immune function, reduces physician visits, and decreases symptoms of depression and anxiety. The mechanism involves cognitive processing of emotional experiences through narrative formation.

  2. Neural Plasticity and Creative Expression Bolwerk, A. et al. (2014). "How Art Changes Your Brain." PLOS ONE. Visual art production increases functional connectivity in the brain's default mode network, associated with psychological resilience. The research suggests creative activity creates measurable neural changes beyond what passive art appreciation provides.

  3. Emotional Suppression and Health Outcomes Gross, J.J. & Levenson, R.W. (1997). "Hiding Feelings: The Acute Effects of Inhibiting Negative and Positive Emotion." Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Research demonstrates that emotional suppression increases sympathetic nervous system activation and is associated with poorer psychological and physical health outcomes over time.


Disclaimer:

By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical, psychological, or mental health advice to treat any medical or psychological condition in yourself or others. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your own physician, therapist, psychiatrist, or other qualified health provider regarding any physical or mental health issues you may be experiencing.


Comment Etiquette:

I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Please share and use your name or initials so that we can keep this space spam-free and the discussion positive 😌

 
 
 
bottom of page