The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma

If you struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, or find yourself constantly ruminating and self-sabotaging, this is the most important book you will read. For anyone who has navigated emotional neglect, a chaotic childhood, or trauma—and perhaps uses addiction to cope—this book offers a completely new perspective. The Body Keeps the Score connects your biology with your biography. It explains how your past experiences physically rewire your brain and nervous system, making sense of the confusing emotions and reactions that can keep you stuck. It validates that these struggles aren't character flaws; they are physiological responses. What truly surprised me was Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s empathy. It is rare to find a scientific text that feels so deeply human. You can tell he genuinely cares about his patients and understands the pain of trauma survivors. It bridges the gap between hard science and human compassion in a way that just clicks. I am incredibly grateful for this work. It provides clarity, hope, and a roadmap for understanding yourself. A masterpiece for anyone looking to heal. As for the physical book, the print is slightly on the smaller side and the paper quality is okay but I was too captured by the words to care about the physical quality and you shouldn't care either.

This book is a true gem. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk takes the complex topic of trauma and makes it easy to understand without losing depth or compassion. It’s beautifully written, insightful and full of hope. Van der Kolk weaves neuroscience, psychology and personal stories into a narrative that sheds light on how body, mind and soul get imprinted by trauma. It also shows how important trauma healing and trauma awareness are for us as society. Whether you're a health practitioner, yoga teacher, coach or just someone searching for truth and healing, this is a must-read – a modern classic.

Good read

This is extremely good book. Vary simple and detail descriptions of trauma . Any person can understand the language. You don’t need to have knowledge of medical science to understand this book..any people with any kind of trauma mist read it..you will have answers of all your trauma related quarries after reading the book.

A book that will break your heart and sew it back at the same time. If you've been through physical and/or sexual abuse in your life, this is a must read. You'll find answers that your soul has probably been searching for decades. It comes across as beautiful and heart-wrenching in the same heartbeat.

Great quality product. The book is fresh, well-printed, and feels premium in hand. No damage or marks. Worth buying.

This book has been life changing. It was not only a recommended by my sister who is suffering from fibromyalgia, meanwhile I am dealing with depression and anxiety, but also recommended by my psychologist. It has not only provided useful insights and drama, but also the authors personal journey researching on trauma and the people who were studied in the process .

In The Body Keeps the Score, the author Bessel van der Kolk is giving 'a loud cry' to apprise us about the impending threat from the hidden epidemic in the most developed world. The epidemic is NOT biological, but social: the early childhood adverse experiences in the family impairing the wiring of the brain (Chapter 10). Even more alarming was, the author notes quite early in the book (Chapter 1), the textbooks hiding the father-daughter incest and subsequent traumatic life of victims. Dr. Van der Kolk seems as much helpless in this scenario as anyone may feel. But as an authority on trauma, Kolk professes to look back, not to be eluded by psychofarmacologia, and consolidate the 'talking cure' of ages. He underlines again and again the need to help the victim of the trauma to recover from the past the troubling residue in the mind, brain and body. This residue remains elusive from the victim as well as therapist. Repression, he writes, is not an outdated hypothesis; we can explore it through the new technology. For example, the MRI images, Kolk vividly tells the reader, clearly show that the trauma shuts down information flow towards the left brain. It remains limited to the right brain. But, it is the left brain that analyses the information with reasoning. In other words, the self has no access to the traumatic material, for there is dissociation. The association, Kolk writes, comes through the 'talking cure.' The author, throughout the book, apprises the reader with the most important experiments from laboratories that help psychiatrists to modify strategies to recover the trauma from victim's mind, brain and body, so that the agency of the patient get hold on it. One may find reference, for example, to experiments: on dogs who would show signs of trauma after inescapable shocks; on the developmental disabilities in monkey infants due to faulty rearing; and, on the role of interoception in different species. In humans interoception takes leap, as it builds the structure of our feelings. I repeat, in order to apprise oneself with 'the loud cry' of the author about the trauma, it is imperative to take a journey through the book. Could we learn from our monkey cousins where the loud cry (p. 95) of a member triggers rallying response from the entire group to meet the challenge. The secure base hypothesis of John Bowlby is invaluable, Kolk underlines, to avoid these transactions. The last part of the book introduces the reader to a range of healing methods, from medication to talking cure, yoga, EDMR, theatre, and neurofeedback. The only hassle for a curious reader may be the small font of the book, but then it is a feast to enjoy such a vast knowledge at an affordable price.

Best book

Very nice product, truly recommend it!

Super

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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.