The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
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‘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, author of Trauma and Recovery
The effects of trauma can be devastating for sufferers, their families and future generations. Here one of the world’s experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for treatment, moving away from standard talking and drug therapies and towards an alternative approach that heals mind, brain and body.
‘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
‘An astonishing and important book. The trauma Bible. I cannot recommend it enough for anyone struggling with…well…anything’ Tara Westover
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Additional information
| Publisher | Penguin, 1st edition (24 Sept. 2015) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 560 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0141978619 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0141978611 |
| Dimensions | 19.7 x 12.9 x 2.77 cm |
by The Lion’s Share
What fascinates me about trauma is what it does to you. It helps you survive whatever has tried to hurt you. It’s a survival instinct.
When you experience trauma your brain protects you, it literally creates a new personality on top of the one you were born with and transforms you. It increases your senses, it makes you more intelligent, but it changes your brain chemistry and that’s the big problem. If your chemistry changes then you’re not going to benefit in normal everyday situations because your flight, fight and freeze part of your brain is now on over drive, your hypothalamus is now stuck in hyper drive and your prefrontal cortex becomes neglected and undeveloped and in a contradicting to making you more intelligent now makes you less able to learn by constantly injecting stress hormones into your blood stream.
A lot is crammed into this book, over 30 years of research into trauma and I agree with the author, trauma is so important and so relevant in our society. Most people experience some form of trauma throughout their lives, but it seems the younger and more undeveloped you are the more profound the effect is later on in life. It literally passes down from generation to generation and we still don’t discuss or treat trauma as a norm. If everyone was more knowledgeable about trauma and how it affects us then I think our medical advice and how we treat people would be far different from what it is today.
I find it easy to notice when someone has experienced trauma. It affects their persona, but there are visual and acoustic clues as well. It helps to know if someone has trauma because you have to adapt to their reasoning and thinking which can often be off kilter.
This book is brilliant for psychologists and people who want to learn more about themselves and trauma. It has a diverse knowledge or different applications which are proven to work. Obviously CBT is the most common, but two more I find very interesting and fascinating for trauma treatment is EMDR and Yoga. Both I think are brilliant and I was aware of before the book, but this book shows just what impact it has on masses.
I genuinely feel like when it comes to psychology and nutritional sciences, the USA is years ahead of everyone else especially the UK. I really hope a lot of this work makes it over here sooner rather than later.
Knowing more about trauma means we can help heal our society, prevent abuse and even enrich ourselves.
by Kristenn
An excellent book that makes you stop and reflect on your own life experiences, a d be more understanding of those around you.
by Valerie Gillespie
This is truly the most amazing book I have ever read how it defines what’s yours and what isn’t.
How years upon years of trauma can do to your body over and over like living in different rooms in your head in your body.
A book of self discovery self discovery on so many levels.
The person that recommended this book had only met me on phone call.
Boy oh boy if your looking to yonder to find out the true meaning of your path then this book is definitely for your hands to read one that you will pick up and continue to read till end.
Thank you so much for writing this amazing book that I will share with so many. I am forever grateful for taking courage to buy it and not leave it on shelf but to pick it up daily to self discovery of how our mind body spirit holds onto things. Blessed beyond words ????????
by Noman Bostan
This is a great book, great quality and it came very quickly!
by Kirti
So many ‘aha’ moments. I experienced so much healing and self therapy just through reading this book.
by melinda
Wonderful book must buy
by Max M
This is the greatest book I have ever read.
It is a lifetime of knowledge (and it is clear that it had taken a very long time to write) from a practising clinician who, as far as I can tell, is THE most well-informed person on the subject, all in one book.
It can be applied to you. Therapy like this would cost thousands, and that is even if you have the good fortune to find a therapist who knows anything about it.
It is perfectly written and laid out, starting with explanations about the problem and ending with explanations of how to recover.
At first it was hard to read because I was only just coming to terms with having childhood trauma, and was still feeling very upset about it. However the great thing about a book is that you can take as long as you like to finish it. As I read more I understood more and more and began to feel more and more free, understood, and positive. There is SO MUCH information in here, and it is all extremely useful and interesting. I often read one sentence several times because it made such an impact on me, and after some pages (most of them!) I would think for ten minutes until I read more.
This is the most helpful book I have read on the subject, and I have read a lot. It has taken me a long time to read, but recovery takes a long time. I think that if you have not been traumatised and are just reading it for interest that you would read it quickly, as it is such a great book. I feel like it has transformed me.
by Samantha Weston
Highly recommend