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A review by novella42
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
slow-paced
5.0
A friend mentioned that they want to read this, and here was my advice:
Be gentle with yourself if you read it. The book is very very helpful for understanding trauma and the research on treatment methods.
But ironically, it is not written to be very accessible to people who have PTSD. Most of the chapters could absolutely benefit from some content warnings because of how Van Der Kolk goes into detail about patients' traumatic experiences. Some argue he does that too much, and some feel it's important and relevant.
I don't know, myself, but I will say it took me over six months to read it, and I had to switch back and forth between a hardcopy and an audiobook. It changed the way I saw myself, gave me a lot more compassion and hope. And I needed lots of breaks and self-kindness to get through it.
Be gentle with yourself if you read it. The book is very very helpful for understanding trauma and the research on treatment methods.
But ironically, it is not written to be very accessible to people who have PTSD. Most of the chapters could absolutely benefit from some content warnings because of how Van Der Kolk goes into detail about patients' traumatic experiences. Some argue he does that too much, and some feel it's important and relevant.
I don't know, myself, but I will say it took me over six months to read it, and I had to switch back and forth between a hardcopy and an audiobook. It changed the way I saw myself, gave me a lot more compassion and hope. And I needed lots of breaks and self-kindness to get through it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail