Dr. Eugene Lipov, who helped develop the use of Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB) for PTSD, announced the release of his new book, “The God Shot.” The title also refers to a medical procedure he calls a “Dual Sympathetic Reset (DSR).” It is a bi-level SGB. His message is that trauma can be “fixed” medically, and that understanding the science can heal its legacy.
But this is the problem: he doesn’t really understand the science of trauma, not the way Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) sees it, or the way complex trauma actually works, and not the way environments keep people unsafe. If he did understand it, he wouldn’t say that he and his mother “caught PTSD” from his father, and he would look beyond the limited treatments his clinics offer and espouse.
His first book calls the human nervous system “The Invisible Machine.” That’s a metaphor, not actual science. Still, in that volume, he quotes a December 2020 Report on Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics that discusses “Allostatic load,” the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. He conveniently overlooks this essential context in his promotional materials, and he overlooked it during a video interview with me for his podcast
The doctor says these shots “reset” the nervous system, but there is no “reset” switch in our bodies. SGBs can’t fix the nervous system, and they don’t erase survival adaptations, history, or the environment that keeps the system on edge. Over 5-½ years, I’ve had 28 SGBs, including four of the DSRs. For someone like me, living with decades of severe trauma, abuse, neglect, and chronic nervous system stress, these shots give a break, a temporary relief.
Dr. Lipov also claims the SGB lowers norepinephrine in about 20 minutes, and the person feels relief. For me–and for others who have shared their experience in PTSD forums–it takes days, sometimes up to two weeks, for the full effect to appear. When I told him that during the video meeting, he said, “Interesting.” He exhibited no curiosity or attempt to understand my experience. They did not align with his message, and my experience threatened the structure to which his identity and privileges are tied. When someone’s nervous system and identity are fused with rank, any exposure of that structure feels like danger. That explains the rapid response with control and silencing. Such dismissal is consistent with the worldview he promotes: bodies as machines, trauma as something you can fix with a procedure, patients as objects to be optimized rather than humans embedded in relational histories.
From an IPNB perspective, what’s happening in my body makes perfect sense. Years of extreme trauma and ongoing stress leave a system deeply stuck in survival mode. The SGB can downregulate sympathetic arousal for a while, but the whole network of adaptations across my body and relationships has to catch up slowly. The relief doesn’t appear instantly because my system is still sorting through years of hypervigilance, chronic threat, and lack of safety. This is the depth of my survival adaptations, signaling that they need more time, consistency, and supportive environments.
Like any nerve block, “The God Shot” can’t fix the environment. It can’t change toxic family dynamics, lack of attunement, empathy, compassionate witnessing, or verification of strengths and lived experience. I noted this during the interview, and Dr. Lipov agreed, “It’s just a little bit of anesthetic.” But those relational and environmental supports are what actually allow a complex PTSD system to heal. I told him that the environment is the problem, that hierarchy drives our distress. That’s when he shut it down. Interview over, never aired. Reality doesn’t fit his model. By taking control of the conversation and maintaining his control over me, he was protecting the hierarchy on which he depends for his status.
For me, the effects of the shot have lasted between 12 days and 90 days. Only recently have I had relief that lasts up to 90 days. That is because my environment continues to be unsafe. When there is no accountability for my abusers, including some who caused extreme, egregious harm under the guise of “standard treatments,” there is no way to feel safe.
This is why the books, Stella clinics, and the procedures are self-promotional tools. They sell the idea that trauma can be fixed medically, in a clinic, with a shot. His shot, “The God Shot.” The commercial model depends on people believing that, because the real work–changing the conditions under which people struggle–can’t be marketed. That’s what he didn’t want to talk about, and why he ended the interview when I showed him my painting that depicts the oppressive effects of hierarchy. By controlling the conversation, cutting me off, and disengaging when my reality didn’t match his story, he protected himself and the hierarchy that gives him power, authority, and status. That structural power differential lets him be “the expert,” run clinics, build his brand, and be shown deference.
A Stellate Ganglion Block may reduce acute sympathetic intensity for some people, and that can bring relief. But relief is not the same as healing. Without changes in environment, relationships, power dynamics, and ongoing stress, the body often returns to the same protective state. Framing SGB as a breakthrough cure risks repeating the same reductionism on which the mental illness industry relies.
SGBs are useful. They give the system a break, and for me, each has been one rung on the ladder out of severe dysregulation hell. But nerve blocks don’t touch the domination hierarchy, the chronic stress of the culture, the abuse, or the structural oppression that keeps people unsafe. And they don’t offer the relational experiences that allow a complex PTSD system to heal. The critical work lies in changing those conditions. But there is no profit or glory in that.
