About Brian D. Mahan, SEP
Brian D. Mahan, SEP, is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with more than 20 years of experience, author of I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour, and creator of The Mahan Map™. He treats developmental trauma, shock trauma, and the trauma of shame as physiological conditions more than psychological disorders, working physiologically and relationally to clear the old limiting beliefs that run on autopilot so people can return to their authentic selves.
I came to this work as a client, not as an add-on to my education.
How I got here
In 2003, a hit-and-run sent my car rolling across three lanes of a Los Angeles freeway. Miraculously, I walked away with a little road rash and whiplash. Then came seven to ten panic attacks a day.
Except I didn't know they were panic attacks. I thought I was cracking up or had become possessed, and sought out a referral for an exorcist. And I wasn't even Catholic.
Instead, I was referred to a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Three sessions later, the panic attacks were gone. Two weeks after that, I started training.
Before the wreck, I was a classically trained actor. My agent called me “The King of Callbacks” because I kept making it to the final meeting and not getting the part, including one to replace Johnny Depp on 21 Jump Street. I had the training. I also had toxic shame, the most skilled saboteur I've ever met.
Then for 12 years, I ran a concierge company in Los Angeles, connecting clients with the best trainers, chefs, massage therapists, and healers money could buy. They kept trying new practitioners because nothing stuck. Same for me. We were all treating symptoms and missing the root cause.
The deepest layer: shame
Twelve years into my practice, a webinar by Bret Lyon and Sheila Rubin of the Center for Healing Shame gave me language for the deepest layer of my own wounding. I trained with them, assisted them for four years, then taught alongside them.
What my clients taught me
Over time I noticed something. As clients healed from trauma and shame, their beliefs about themselves changed, often without us ever working on those beliefs directly. That pattern became The Mahan Map™.
“I refer to myself as a stress and trauma specialist, but in reality, I ultimately help people change their beliefs.”
Brian D. Mahan, SEP, I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour
Who I work with
Smart, capable adults who have already done years of reading, therapy, and inner work. Many are high achievers; many are helping professionals themselves. Individuals and couples, worldwide.
- Shock trauma: accidents, medical procedures, sudden loss, assault
- Developmental trauma: neglect, abuse, attachment wounds
- The trauma of shame: toxic shame, the inner critic, patterns that keep you small
Training and credentials
- Author of I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour, endorsed by four New York Times bestselling authors
- Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for more than 20 years
- Advanced training directly with Dr. Peter A. Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing®
- Assistant trainer to SE faculty Maggie Kline and Abi Blakeslee, helping train mental health professionals, many of whom later became my clients
- Certified Healing Shame Practitioner (Lyon/Rubin Method), 2017; former assistant and teacher of the method
- 26 of my clients have become Somatic Experiencing Practitioners themselves
In memory: Bret Lyon, PhD, SEP (1943 to 2025)
Bret Lyon, co-founder of the Center for Healing Shame, died on January 30, 2025. Much of how I understand shame, I first learned in a room in Berkeley with Bret and Sheila. His influence lives on in every session I hold.
What I'm working on now
- A second edition of I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour, and the audiobook.
- A memoir, Hello Murder. Hello Fodder., the story of my “family” (I don't use the F word very often) and what led me to become a trauma specialist.
How I work today
- My job is to get you to quit seeing me. I'd rather front-load you with tools than keep you coming back.
- I'm not a talk therapist. We work with your physiology in small, manageable pieces, without retelling your whole story.
- One-on-one, anywhere in the world. Individual and couples sessions, 60 or 90 minutes, on Zoom.
My life's mission is to help one million people properly heal from trauma.
Quick Answers
What are Brian D. Mahan's credentials?
Brian D. Mahan, SEP, is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with more than 20 years of experience and a certified Healing Shame Practitioner (Lyon/Rubin Method). He completed advanced Somatic Experiencing training directly with Dr. Peter A. Levine, served as an assistant trainer to Somatic Experiencing faculty, and is the author of I Cried All the Way to Happy Hour.
How did Brian D. Mahan become a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner?
After a 2003 car wreck left him with seven to ten panic attacks a day, Brian saw a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. After three sessions, the panic attacks stopped, and within two weeks he began training to become a practitioner himself.
Is Brian D. Mahan a licensed psychotherapist?
No, and that's by design. Brian D. Mahan, SEP, is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, not a licensed psychotherapist or talk therapist. Instead of talking through the story, his work addresses the physiology of trauma and shame, which is why many clients come to him after years of talk therapy.