Will I love The Body Keeps the Score?

This book reveals how the body stores emotional and traumatic memories long after the mind tries to forget them.

Van der Kolk explains why symptoms like anxiety, emotional numbness, anger, or disconnection can surface years later.

Many men who “push through” or never talk about their trauma find clarity in this book’s explanation of how stress affects the brain and nervous system. It helps readers understand themselves physically and emotionally, while giving hope that healing is possible through therapy, mindfulness, and self-awareness.

This is one of the definitive books on the mental and physical impacts of trauma. Anyone who is dealing with trauma in their lives or feeling trapped or damaged by traumatic experiences will gain incredible insights as to what trauma is doing to them and how to mitigate its effects.

This book is a bit more technical and scientific than some of the others I’m recommending, but it is essential knowledge that can set the stage for deep healing.

As someone who struggles with depression and anxiety resulting from physical and emotional abuse experienced in my youth, I was enthralled by Dr. van der Kolk’s explanations of how the mind and body react, process, and integrate trauma. I was also impressed by the humanity he demonstrated when referring to his past cases as well as his approaches to treatment. The Body Keeps the Score opened my eyes to new possibilities for helping me along my journey to peace and healing.

Was recommended this book by my neuropsychatrist after I was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) following a brain infection earlier this year. It was a very tough read in terms of triggers regarding sexual assault, but such an important topic to learn about for healing.

It confirmed my own perspectives about self-healing grief and trauma as in my own book. 

This book, by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD (Viking, September 2014), a bestseller, is probably the most renowned book on childhood trauma. His book changed my life and the way I look at healing from childhood trauma. \

Bessel has received praise from laypeople and professionals for this highly readable book. In it, Kolk emphasizes how the brain understands trauma and how, through different strategies, the brain can rewire itself to filter out thoughts and feelings associated with trauma.

Neuro-feedback, mindfulness, yoga, and play are included in the book to give the reader different methods for how to change the… show more.

I was fascinated by the depth of the impacts of trauma and could almost feel how it lives in my cells as I learned that trauma is literally stored in my body. This book almost scared me because it clearly shows how much I am unconsciously informed by the various circumstances and experiences of my history.

It also helped me understand that it is not inescapable and can be healed and overcome. It made me curious about how I might unconsciously reinforce trauma through repeated stories that keep me trapped in behaviors. In doing so, it helped me build on… show more.

By understanding, we can find ways to change. I read this book with my brother while he was pursuing his MSW. While very academic, this slightly dated book begins to helpfully unpack why we feel things all over our bodies and how we can better retrain our central nervous systems to make our days better by looking at trauma. 

Van der Kolk argues that trauma is one of the West’s most urgent public health issues. The trauma caused by childhood neglect, sexual or domestic abuse, and war wreaks havoc on our bodies.

Over time, traumatic stress is associated with lasting functional and chemical changes in the brain. But healing is still possible.

I found this book inspiring because it takes a different perspective on treating trauma, which is the basis of so many mental health problems. The author draws on his decades of experience treating people who are haunted by their stressful experiences. I love his clear explanation that when people are deeply traumatized by war, disaster, or abuse, their reality is distinctly different from those around them, and it’s like they live on another planet.

He uses stories and case studies to explain his view that the most powerful way to treat psychological trauma is not through the mind but through… show more.