ratbrain 's review for:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
3.5
informative reflective sad medium-paced
For reference, I am a counselor in training. This book shares some valuable research about the physical response to trauma, as well as potential treatment options that I found very interesting and useful. There were many ideas that I highlighted to look back on in my practice.

However, I found parts of the book incredibly repetitive. Also, Van Der Kolk spends way too long discussing specifics of his patients’ trauma (sometimes whole pages) that are completely unnecessary. This made me feel like he was sharing this for shock value and makes the book less than ideal for individuals with PTSD/C-PTSD. He makes some pretty clear leaps and assumptions. My background is in nonhuman primates, and one assertion he makes about them is wrong. This was minor and didn’t affect the content of the book, but it begs the question: are any other claims wrong?

As a future clinician, I’m glad that I read this and would recommend it to other clinicians in training. However, I think people reading this to understand their own trauma should exercise cautions and I don’t believe it should be recommended to clients by counselors. It’s clinical, triggering and can feel insensitive.
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