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Bessel van der Kolk

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The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma Paperback – Import, 1 December 2015

by Bessel Van Der Kolk (Author)

77,069 ratings

#1 Best Seller in Post-Traumatic Stress

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A world expert presents a sympathetic exploration of the causes of trauma and the new treatments making it possible for sufferers to reclaim their lives

What causes people to continually relive what they most want to forget, and what treatments could help restore them to a life with purpose and joy? Here, Dr Bessel van der Kolk offers a new paradigm for effectively treating traumatic stress.

Neither talking nor drug therapies have proven entirely satisfactory. With stories of his own work and those of specialists around the globe, The Body Keeps the Score sheds new light on the routes away from trauma - which lie in the regulation and syncing of body and mind, using sport, drama, yoga, mindfulness, meditation and other routes to equilibrium.

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Review

An astonishing and important book. The trauma Bible. I cannot recommend it enough for anyone struggling with...well...anything -- Tara Westover

Fascinating, hard to put down, and filled with powerful case histories. . . . the most important series of breakthroughs in mental health in the last thirty years -- Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself

A gripping bestseller about where trauma goes, and its disastrous effects on both individuals and societies. Deeply interesting. ― The Times

Nobody can stop talking about this book right now . . . you might want to listen -- Maddie Bender ― Men's Health

Dr. van der Kolk's masterpiece combines the boundless curiosity of the scientist, the erudition of the scholar, and the passion of the truth teller -- Judith Herman, M.D., author of Trauma and Recovery

Everyone should read this book -- Nigella Lawson

A seminal book that outlines the author's pioneering work -- Thea Jane May ― Vogue

Draws on 30 years of experience to argue powerfully that trauma is one of the West's most urgent public health issues... Packed with science and human stories ... van der Kolk has a lot to say, and the struggle and resilience of his patients is very moving ― New Scientist

Fundamental in understanding how our physical self is connected to all the things we go through and beyond -- Gemma Cairney

A masterpiece of powerful understanding and brave heartedness, one of the most intelligent and helpful works on trauma I have ever read. . . a brilliant synthesis of clinical cases, neuroscience, powerful tools and caring humanity, offering a whole new level of healing -- Jack Kornfied, author of A Path With Heart

Book Description

A world expert presents a sympathetic exploration of the causes of trauma and the new treatments making it possible for sufferers to reclaim their lives

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 December 2015
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141978619
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141978611
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 390 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.7 x 12.9 x 2.77 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 26 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1 in Psychological Pathologies (Books)
- 1 in Trauma Psychology (Books)
- 1 in Post-Traumatic Stress

Customer Reviews:
77,069 ratings

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Bessel van der Kolk

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Bessel van der Kolk (born 1943) is a Boston based psychiatrist noted for his research in the area of post-traumatic stress since the 1970s. His work focuses on the interaction of attachment, neurobiology, and developmental aspects of trauma’s effects on people. His major publication, the New York Times bestseller, 'The Body keeps the Score', talks about how the role of trauma in psychiatric illness has changed over the past 20 years; what we have learned about the ways the brain is shaped by traumatic experiences; how traumatic stress is a response of the entire organism and how that knowledge needs be integrated into healing practices.

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Customers find the book easy to read and consider it core reading for almost everyone. They appreciate its information quality, particularly how it helps understand the impact of trauma, with one customer noting its use as a support text in psychology and counseling courses.

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55 customers mention ‘Readability’50 positive5 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and consider it a must-read, with one customer noting it's a solid standard text for psychologists.

"...Intelligent, beautifully written and a MUST for every home." Read more

"OMG, what a journey, what experiences what insights...." Read more

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48 customers mention ‘Information quality’48 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enlightening and full of information about trauma, with one customer noting its use as a support text in psychology and counseling courses.

"...Bessel talks about the many consequences of trauma, effective treatments and our social responsibility to work towards ending abuse...." Read more

"...Essential reading to develop awareness of how our bodies do keep the score. Intelligent, beautifully written and a MUST for every home." Read more

"OMG, what a journey, what experiences what insights...." Read more

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Megan
Brilliant Read for anyone who has experienced trauma or works with children
Reviewed in Australia on 13 February 2025
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Eye opening and insightful. Bessel talks about the many consequences of trauma, effective treatments and our social responsibility to work towards ending abuse. Conventional drug treatments are given too much credit (due to their profitability) whilst there are many much more effective treatments (that he describes in detail and backs up with research)

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Marilyn
What everyone needs to know
Reviewed in Australia on 22 August 2024
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How our body accumulates all the pain - emotional, mental, spiritual and physical - we fabricate daily and stores it for us.
Essential reading to develop awareness of how our bodies do keep the score.
Intelligent, beautifully written and a MUST for every home.

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2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer
brilliant
Reviewed in Australia on 23 September 2024
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OMG, what a journey, what experiences what insights. From the early days and conversations with Freud through Psychopharmacology to Neurofeedback and so many encounters in between. Thank you

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2 people found this helpful

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Emmy
Interesting read
Reviewed in Australia on 13 November 2024
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Enjoyed this read, very informative

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LC
Great size, quick delivery
Reviewed in Australia on 26 May 2025
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Great book, quick delivery

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David
If you or someone you love have suffered from trauma...
Reviewed in Australia on 1 August 2024
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I found this helpful in my own recovery from complex trauma and addiction, but it also helped me to understand others. It's clear and informative each chapter is divided into discrete little sections that are easy to digest which make it easy to read.

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M. T.
Great book
Reviewed in Australia on 13 December 2024
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This author's expertise is outstanding.

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Amazon Customer
Powerful, impactful, emotional reading.
Reviewed in Australia on 19 November 2024
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I've wanted this book for a while and it is every bit as thought provoking and i pactful as I knew it would be. Trauma does not go away. Our bodies hold onto it. This book shows us how to navigate the legacy of trauma. Highly recommended.

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Lisette
Bra bok
Reviewed in Sweden on 29 September 2024
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Bra bok med nyttiga lärdomar, oavsett läsarens ålder.

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Yessica
Muy interesante y sanador
Reviewed in Mexico on 10 June 2024
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Es un libro que puedes leer sin saber nada de psiquiatría o psicología, trae incluso varios esquemas que explican todo muy bien. Me encanta que no es un libro tipo "superación personal" (que igual no tiene nada de malo), sino uno que relata con fundamento, casos reales y evidencia científica los procesos de trauma y recuperación. Personalmente, el proceso de lectura también sirve mucho para validar tus sentimientos, es muy bello❤️‍🩹

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Yessica

Muy interesante y sanador

Reviewed in Mexico on 10 June 2024
Es un libro que puedes leer sin saber nada de psiquiatría o psicología, trae incluso varios esquemas que explican todo muy bien. Me encanta que no es un libro tipo "superación personal" (que igual no tiene nada de malo), sino uno que relata con fundamento, casos reales y evidencia científica los procesos de trauma y recuperación. Personalmente, el proceso de lectura también sirve mucho para validar tus sentimientos, es muy bello❤️‍🩹

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Carolina
Muito bom!
Reviewed in Brazil on 28 April 2024
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Vale a pena a leitura!

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Super
Reviewed in Turkey on 3 February 2025
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Super

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Tom Cloyd, MS MA
Buy this book!
Reviewed in the United States on 28 September 2014
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Psychiatrist, professor, world-class researcher, and traumatologist Bessel van der Kolk MD requires no introduction to trauma psychotherapists. My enduring impressions of him over many years is one of relevance, cogency, frankness, and accessibility - served up with a subtle dash of impishness. He tends to be a bit disruptive - something of a provocateur - and everything of his I have ever read has taught me something, confirmed something important, or pushed my thinking in a new direction. When he has something to say, I want to hear it.

However, I almost didn't buy this book: I was put off by the title. Familiar with major reviews of PTSD psychotherapy outcomes research, I know that research support for body-oriented approaches to treating psychological trauma psychopathology is thin at best, and such treatment models simply do not have the research validation of either EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and PE (Prolonged Exposure), neither of which are especially body-focused.

J. Interlandi's excellent article anticipating publication of this book - "A Revolutionary Approach to Treating PTSD" (New York Times Magazine, 2014.05.22 - available online) - initially supported my fears that for some inexplicable reason van der Kolk was now promoting some treatment model for which we have little confirming research. "Psychomotor therapy is neither widely practiced nor supported by clinical studies," Interlandi informs us. Provocateur he may be, but I'm strongly biased in favor of paying attention to therapies for which we do have solid empirical validation. Our clients do not deserve to be experimental subjects - maybe not even if they agree to this, as I'm not sure they can ever know enough to make a truly informed consent. Knowledge that PTSD and related disorders are usually highly curable, when using the right treatment protocols, sadly remains the possession of a minority of people, even in the professional psychotherapy world.

Yet the account of van der Kolk's therapy work in Interlandi's article is gripping. Becoming completely absorbed in the account, I was convinced. (I've been here before, reading van der Kolk's own accounts of his work.) And so the disruption begins! Deeper into the article, he has me. Van der Kolk's critique of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy - a general class of therapies) and PE (E. Foa's exposure therapy model) is withering and correct: neither really work. "Trauma has nothing whatsoever to do with cognition...It has to do with your body being reset to interpret the world as a dangerous place....It's not something you can talk yourself out of." Interlandi reports that "That view places him on the fringes of the psychiatric mainstream."

But he's right, and I can't stress this enough. Why? Because as a trauma treatment professional I'm well aware of what the trauma treatment outcomes research actually says. The best current summary of this research well may be chapter 2 of Ecker, et al.'s (2012) "Unlocking the emotional brain". (Buy this book, too!) Ecker et al. brilliantly presents a synthetic summary that encompasses 11 existing therapy models which actually DO cure trauma psychopathology, if done right. In this context, what van der Kolk is doing makes perfect sense. Finally, it appears, the trauma psychotherapy field is moving toward a consensus which has strong credibility.

Van der Kolk's new book has many virtues. Parts One and Two (102 pp) provide a substantial review of the neuropsychology of trauma's impact on a person. It's fun, interesting, informative reading, for professional and layperson alike. Part Three (64 pp) surveys childhood development, attachment experience, and "the hidden epidemic of developmental trauma". Van der Kolk has for years been a leading champion of the idea that there is a type of PTSD which substantially differs from all the rest. It develops in response to chronic child abuse and/or neglect. I completely share his belief that the diagnosis of Developmental Trauma Disorder (sometimes called C-PTSD, with "C" meaning "Complex") is overdue for formal recognition. I find his review of the struggle to legitimize DTD as gripping and distressing as anything else in the book. It is anguishing to know that a major problem exists, AND that the psychiatric establishment simply refuses to acknowledge it. DTD/C-PTSD is no fantasy. We see and treat these people, as children and adults. They exist, and they are nothing like "ordinary" PTSD treatment clients.

Part Four (29 pp) focuses on memory. I've long thought that much writing on treating psychological trauma seems to miss the point: trauma memory is what causes the problem. Deal with that and the symptoms vanish. Why is this so hard to understand? Yet, it is not a common understanding at all. Explaining how trauma memory works is invariably enlightening to my clients. And experiencing what happens when we change the nature of trauma memory is revelatory to someone who's lived with it for years, if not decades. As he does throughout the book, van der Kolk offers fine stories about clients who have experienced exactly what I've seen happen in my clients, making excellent use of what cognitive research tells us: people understand things best through narratives. Offer a good narrative and you convince.

Psychological trauma therapy is complex, but we are now well prepared to launch into the book's core content - Part Five (154 pp), "Paths to Recovery". He gets right to it: we cannot undo the trauma, but we CAN undo its effect on us, and so get our "self" back. Ch. 13 reviews existing therapies. His approach is to repair "Descartes' Error" (see Damásio's 1994 book of that title) by viewing mind and body as a single coherent functional unit. His topical coverage is complete and his critique of current therapies acute - not to be missed.

He then writes of the importance of language (Ch. 14). We construct our narrative mainly in words, and the words we choose are critical. But language is not enough (this anticipates his next two chapters). Our senses encompass a larger world, and it's center is our body, where all our sensory receptors are located. Then he introduces the treatment model he's long advocated: EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). I'm trained in EMDR, and in fact van der Kolk and I had the same instructor for our advanced training: Gerald Puk PhD. Van der Kolk tells an amusing and self-deprecating story about his advanced training experience, in which Puk was able to provide a strong corrective to his approach to clients. This is typical van der Kolk - he's a truth-teller, even when it may put him in a poor light! And,after all, at this point he has nothing to prove to anyone.

Finding an EMDR therapist is not hard (see his "Resources" section). Nor is it hard to find a yoga instructor, and yoga is what he advises for helping a trauma victim get back into their body. Yoga is a wise choice, because it is available, already widely known, and adaptable to a wide range of individuals and capabilities.

There is much more in Part Five, and the focus is on self-empowerment. "Victim no more!" as they say. Most trauma therapists have a keen interest in seeing their clients leave therapy charged up and ready to fully embrace their life - that certainly is my own emphasis. Van der Kolk's thoughts on self-empowerment for those in recovery from psychological trauma will be invaluable to any trauma psychotherapy client.

For psychotherapy professionals, this book will be both delightful and confirming. For everyone else, it will be a readable, gripping, highly educational tour of topics all of which are critical to a successful transition back from the impact of psychological trauma. That he gives prominent though not dominating emphasis to developmental trauma disorders is entirely appropriate. Our society has yet to grasp that child abuse and neglect is a more often chronic than not, and that its impact is largely ignored and poorly treated, if at all. This does not have to be. Get educated (this book will do that), then commit to being an advocate for children as well as for adults impacted by trauma. They all deserve the chance to be healed, and we can now do that. Van der Kolk shows us how.

The physical book: Jacket design is pleasant and interesting. Binding is less so: color of spine wrapping is semi-florescent, and of paper, not cloth. The book feels substantial and pleasant to hold and look at.

Organization -
* 6 pp: prefatory praise by peers and related luminaries (interesting comments from some important people in the field);
* 2 pp: Table of Contents;
* 356 pp: actual text;
* 4 pp: Appendix: Consensus proposed criteria for developmental trauma disorder
* 3 pp: Resources
* 4 pp: Further reading
* 51 pp: Notes
* 21 pp: Index

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