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

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Penguin Publishing Group, Sep 8, 2015 - Medical - 445 pages
#1 New York Times bestseller

“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 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.
 

Contents

FACING TRAUMA
1
LESSONS FROM VIETNAM VETERANS
7
REVOLUTIONS IN UNDERSTANDING MIND AND BRAIN
22
THE NEUROSCIENCE
39
THE ANATOMY OF SURVIVAL
51
BODYBRAIN CONNECTIONS
74
LOSING YOUR BODY LOSING YOUR SELF
89
THE HIDDEN EPIDEMIC
151
YOGA
265
SELFLEADERSHIP
279
CREATING STRUCTURES
298
REWIRING
311
CHOICES TO BE MADE
349
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
359
RESOURCES
365
NOTES
373

THE UNBEARABLE HEAVINESS OF REMEMBERING 186 888
186
OWNING YOUR SELF
205
MIRACLE AND TYRANNY
232
EMDR
250
125
421
INDEX
425
Copyright

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About the author (2015)

Bessel van der Kolk M.D. has been active as a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of posttraumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. He was co-principal investigator of the DSM IV Field Trials for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. His current research is on how trauma affects memory processes and brain imaging studies of PTSD. He has written or co-written several books including Psychological Trauma, Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society, and The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.