Show notes | PDF & Infographic | Unlock the secrets of trauma's invisible grip on your life with The Body Keeps the Score. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk's groundbreaking work reveals how our bodies become living records of our experiences, offering a revolutionary path to healing and reclaiming your life.

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StoryShots Summary and Review of The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van der Kolk

About Bessel Van der Kolk

Bessell Van der Kolk, MD, is a qualified psychiatrist. He specializes in the field of post-traumatic stress, which led him to write over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles, the majority of them about post-traumatic stress. Van der Kolk, originally from the Netherlands, has also served as president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He is currently a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. 

Introduction

The Body Keeps the Score is an innovative book by psychiatrist and trauma expert Van der Kolk. We all understand the effect that psychological trauma can have on individuals. Trauma can impact the way people perceive themselves and the world around them. Psychological trauma can have a lasting impact on the individual’s loved ones as well. In this book, Van der Kolk covers the intricacies of how trauma produces these effects by considering the neuroscience involved. Van der Kolk also presents ways neuroscience allows us to produce new, effective treatments for psychological trauma survivors. Examples of these approaches include eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, yoga, and limbic system therapy. Van der Kolk guides us through these modern therapies by recalling his career and the patients he has seen. So this book also serves as a history of the mental health field of the last 30 years. 

After learning these storyshots, you will better understand how our brains react to and deal with psychological trauma. What Van der Kolk recommends is helping survivors of psychological trauma to recover.

StoryShot #1: Antidepressants Ruined Mental Health Support 

Van der Kolk describes how he and other researchers/therapists were so excited when antidepressants were first introduced. He now believes that our overuse of these medications has led us to treat mental illness as a disease. Unfortunately, this approach means that the following things have been removed from mental health support:

1. The belief that we can heal each other in the same way we can destroy each other
2. Language that is critical to providing us with the power to change circumstances
3. Controlling our physiology by using breathing, moving, and touching techniques, rather than by resorting to medication
4. An inclination to change social conditions so that people feel safer and are then able to thrive

StoryShot #2: The Development of Our Understanding of Trauma

StoryShot #3: Trauma Influences Relationships

StoryShot #4: Therapy Can Treat Trauma

StoryShot #5: Brain Scanning Suggests You Should Take Action

StoryShot #6: How Therapists Should Approach Treating Trauma

StoryShot #7: Early Trauma Changes Neuroanatomy

StoryShot #8: Traumatic Memories Are Disorganized

NOTE: First published on 29/5/2021.

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