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

reflective slow-paced

3.0

For full disclosure purposes, this book was suggested to me by my therapist with the idea that I would learn more information about how to deal with my own trauma. It was really fascinating to read about Dr. van der Kolk's research and the early research done on PTSD. The stories told in here were also really interesting (but sometimes triggering) and it was interesting to see how different schools of therapy were used. A critique I have however is that sometimes, depending the story, Dr. van der Kolk had a bit of a voyeuristic tone to them, which sometimes left me feeling underwhelmed by the narration. And while I did identify with some of the points expressed and learned a lot of generalized information about PTSD, the structure and voice of the novel left much to be desired. Maybe this is a mistake on my part, but the novel sometimes felt very academic to me and while that is okay for me personally, I think some of the jargon might be off putting to those looking to discover help for what they are experiencing.
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