Summary: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma - Bessel van der Kolk M.D. In The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explores the much publicized—but not so well understood—concepts of trauma and associated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Drawing from his multi-decade, firsthand experience working with patients of trauma, Dr. van der Kolk deeply analyzes the visible and inner agony that trauma victims of war, domestic and social violence, and incest and other sexual molestation face and sometimes live with throughout their entire lives. The book relates the success stories of dozens of patients across both genders ranging from children to adults, and soldiers to civilians, who have courageously embraced and turned around the pain of trauma in the course of their lives. In handling stress, the book discusses how the patient loses their control of the body and mind as a coping strategy, illustrates how this scenario constantly endangers their development, and explains how they can regain control of their body, mind, and brain through talking and attunement with people they trust. In using science to understand and treat trauma, van der Kolk starts by looking deep into the brain to show how trauma is registered and kept—specifically the role of the amygdala and frontal cortexes in responding to trauma. From his analyses, the heart rate variability and its role in trauma management lays an important platform for the use of yoga, music, art and dancing in healing trauma. Other crucial tools for trauma management include the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) used for letting go of the past, and communal rhythms used to reintegrate with society and feel secure in facing the life ahead. This book is about management of trauma for people of all ages. In the US, one in five people were sexually molested as children, twenty-five percent have body marks sustained from assaults in the home, thirty-five percent of couples have experienced physical violence, one in four people has had close relatives who were alcoholic, and one in eight people saw their mother physically assaulted while growing up. Yet, people know so little about how their bodies work, particularly the effect that physical, emotional, and sexual violence have on their your overall well-being. People tend to be oblivious to the fact that the brain, mind, and love are interconnected. Recently, the emergence of trauma, neglect, and abuse as three main areas of study in psychiatry has led to the collection of a tremendous amount of information regarding the way people react to and manage stress. Broadly speaking, the emergent methods of trauma therapy lie in three categories: bottom-up (letting the body harden through constant exposure to conditions that suppress effects of the trauma), medication (using medicine to shut down trauma-related reactions and emotions), and top-down (accepting the sad memories and reliving the trauma until the body gets the strength to move on). It is the opinion of the author that the best method to handle trauma is a combination of the three approaches—only fine-tuned to an individual's needs. Here is a Preview of What You Will Get: ⁃ A Detailed Introduction ⁃ A Comprehensive Chapter by Chapter Summary ⁃ Etc Get a copy of this summary and learn about the book.
