Body Keeps The Score

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141978619 ISBN 13: 9780141978611

Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint, 2015

Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society." -Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times Science bestseller Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments-from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga-that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal-and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

About the Author:

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is one of the world's foremost experts on traumatic stress. He is the founder and medical director of the Trauma Center in Boston, USA, and director of the Complex Trauma Treatment Network. A past professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, Dr. van der Kolk is the author of several scholarly books and over a hundred scientific articles.

Review:

An incredible book on trauma -- William Leith, 'Books of the Year' * Evening Standard * Van der Kolk 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 * The Body Keeps the Score is clear, fascinating, hard to put down, and filled with powerful case histories. Van der Kolk, the eminent impresario of trauma treatment, who has spent a career bringing together diverse trauma scientists and clinicians and their ideas, while making his own pivotal contributions, describes what is arguably the most important series of breakthroughs in mental health in the last thirty years. We've known that psychological trauma fragments the mind. Here we see not only how psychological trauma also breaks connections within the brain, but also between mind and body, and learn about the exciting new approaches that allow people with the severest forms of trauma to put all the parts back together again -- Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself This is masterpiece of powerful understanding and brave heartedness, one of the most intelligent and helpful works on trauma I have ever read. Dr. Van der Kolk offer a brilliant synthesis of clinical cases, neuroscience, powerful tools and caring humanity, offering a whole new level of healing for the traumas carried by so many -- Jack Kornfied, author of A Path With Heart 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., clinical professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; author of Trauma and Recovery