A Tribute to Dr Allan Botkin, founder of IADC Therapy

On February 28, 2026, the world lost Dr Allan Botkin — and I lost someone who inspired and changed the entire direction of my life.

I first heard Dr Al's voice through my headphones back in 2016, on a podcast interview with Sandra Champlain. I was walking my dog listening to his story and was completely spellbound. Here was this Chicago psychologist describing how he'd accidentally discovered something extraordinary while doing EMDR with traumatised veterans — and discovered a brief therapy targeting sadness that could rapidly heal grief, and that often led to people feeling genuinely reconnected with the person who had died.

I thought: if this is real, this is what I want to do.

I bought his book and read it cover to cover, then read it again. I watched all his talks that I found on YouTube again and again. I'm pretty sure I listened to every podcast interview he ever did. For years I admired his work from the other side of the world, waiting for the right time to act on it.

I often heard Dr Al remark that IADC therapy needed university research trials to help bring it into the mainstream. At first I wondered why he wasn't doing that research himself, but then I realised his task was already big enough: helping the people who needed IADC therapy, building a network of trusted colleagues with whom to share his discovery, and training enough therapists that IADC could spread throughout the world — which it subsequently did. I promised myself that when the time was right, I would contribute to his mission by conducting that research.

That time eventually came. I trained in IADC therapy and then designed and ran a formal clinical trial at the University of Adelaide. I also wrote a book about my experiences, (Inspired Life, Beautiful Death), weaving together the research with the personal journey that led me to this work.

When I finally reached out to Dr. Al in late 2024 to tell him what I'd been up to, he responded immediately with great interest and enthusiasm. He went on to generously write the foreword to my book and supported and encouraged me from the other side of the world.

In 2025 I was able to travel to Chicago to speak at the IANDS conference. I was able to finally meet Al face to face, along with his lovely wife Barbara. Being able to spend that time with him was truly one of the highlights of my life.

[PHOTO] Dr Tom Nehmy and Dr Allan Botkin, Chicago, August 2025

Dr. Al had an incredible combination of charisma, intelligence, determination, and humour. I felt a bond with him long before we ever met and meeting him only confirmed it. I was proud when he told me he thought we shared many similarities as therapists, and in terms of our spiritual and philosophical worldview.

What Dr Al achieved is simply remarkable. He had the foresight and courage to take his clinical observations and turn them into what I believe is the most powerful grief therapy there is. He then spent decades training hundreds of therapists around the world so that IADC could reach the people who needed it. That mission now has a momentum that will carry on. Formal research is catching up to what Dr Al knew clinically all along, and there are IADC therapists in countries across the globe carrying this work forward.

What an incredible mentor and friend. I'm going to miss him enormously.

Thank you, Al. For everything.

— Tom

Sandra Champlain recently recorded a beautiful tribute to Al on her podcast Shades of the Afterlife (Episode 284: A Tribute to Dr. Allan Botkin).