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

challenging informative slow-paced

1.5

Oofta. I have very mixed feelings about this read. First off, I wouldn't classify it as a self help book. I do think that it can be a useful read if you work with children in any capacity. I found it fascinating to see that trauma produces actual physiological changes to the body, including recalibration of the brains alarm systems. Considering it is a psychology book, i wish it would have come with content warnings; i truthfully do NOT understand why the author went SO INTO DEPTH on the traumatic background of some of his clients. It made it an extremely slow, long, and hard read for me. I was also really disappointed to see that with all of the talk of childhood trauma, there were no studies or mention of children who go through adoption. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and War

Oofta. I have such mixed feelings about this read! First off, I wouldn't classify it as a self help book. I do think it is a useful read, esp if you work with children in any capacity. I found it fascinating to see that trauma produces actual physiological changes to the body, including recalibration of the brain alarm systems. I wish there would have been content warnings with the book though and I truthfully don't understand why the author went SO INTO DEPTH on the traumatic backstory of some of his clients. It made it a slow, long, and hard read for me! I was also really disappointed to see that with all the talk of childhood trauma, there were no studies or mention of children who go through adoption.