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The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

110 reviews

kelly_e's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

Title: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
Genre: Non Fiction
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: June 12, 2014

T H R E E • W O R D S

Dense • Informative • Impactful

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.

💭 T H O U G H T S

The Body Keeps the Score was recommended to me by a mental health professional while I was searching for books in my own healing journey. My life has held trauma and grief, and I now know both have manifested in a variety of ways in my body. I was seeking to understand it all better so this book felt like the right place to start.

Based on his own research and that of other leading trauma specialists, this informative book details fascinating research on the topic. It examines the effects of trauma on the brain, the mind and the body. It explains how different parts of the body can hold trauma. It proposes several options for treatment. It challenges the status quo. In fact, it shines a light on the failures of the health care system and the lack of access to treatment options. I appreciated this critique of the system, because I have been there. Our society's reliance on medication doesn't solve the underlying issue, it simply offers a temporary band aid.

The information and research gets extremely dense and wordy at times, and in those moments I would find my attention withdrawing. In my opinion, without an expertise on the topic, it isn't an easily digestible read. The value for the average reader lies in the notion of having the ability to reclaim our lives in the wake of trauma.

In my opinion, this isn't necessarily a book to sit down and read through in its entirety. Rather it is best consumed in small portions, where you can sit with what you've read for awhile before coming back for more. Because there is so much information to digest, it can get overwhelming or even lost if read straight through.

The Body Keeps the Score is a transformative and necessary addition to the topic of trauma. The exploration of the mind/body connection was interesting and lead to many ah-ha moments for me. I came away understanding my own mind and body better, which is a gift in itself. I can see myself coming back to this at different times for reassurance.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• anyone who has gone through trauma
• mental and physical health care professionals
• loved ones of people who have experienced trauma

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The drug revolution that started out with so much promise may in the end have done as much harm as good. The theory that mental illness is caused primarily by chemical imbalances in the brain that can be corrected by specific drugs has become broadly accepted, by the media and the public as well as by the medical profession. In many places drugs have displaced therapy and enabled patients to suppress their problems without addressing the underlying issues."

"Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves."

"The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves."

Content Warnings

gabriella_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

I tried reading this book twice but had to stop because of how emotional it made me. But now that I’ve finally finished it, I wish I read it sooner. It was incredibly informative and absolutely heartbreaking. Some individual patient stories were gutwrenching, so it’s best to take breaks as needed. Listen to your body with this one. Reflect, and be kind to yourself.

Content Warnings

revived_reading's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

As a psychology major, this books is a wonderful read. It’s chock full of information on trauma, from the neuroscience and history of trauma research to just a few of the many treatments of trauma. Dr. van der Kolk dedicated his career to trauma research and really put care into writing this book to share this information that, unless you were to read academic journals, is not readily available to the general public or trauma victims.

After taking the months to read this book (seeing as the content is very heavy and there is a lot of material), I learned so much.

Content Warnings