The Body Keeps the Score

I experienced every emotion and had a difficult time putting it down. I found myself highlighting and bookmarking for future reference, something I have never done outside of coursework. Everyone can benefit from the information and resources throughout—either personally or by sharing without someone they know in need.

This hits PTSD and DID right on the head. I learned so much about what my loved one is truly going through.

Required reading for those in the helping profession and anyone who wants to better understand how trauma impacts individuals and society.

I am eternally grateful for one review that noted the potential for the stories contained to be triggering, so I glanced over some stories that became too overwhelming as I am reminded of my own trauma. But even so, this book is worth the read. The description of C-PTSD contained herein was so liberating to my amalgam of mysterious and seemingly unrelated symptoms.

I no longer feel isolated and “crazy.” My symptoms are logical trauma responses! What a relief!!! And now, I begin the liberating journey of healing, and this book provides a lot of insights and social resources from music performance to theater to yoga.

It wasn't until I read "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk" that I realized some things that my generation was taught is a spike of anxiety and mental illness. NOT "true love." Smh touched many other things. Will read again.

I started reading this book to help me understand myself and my trauma better. While I am not a trauma expert, I do have some background knowledge about many topics addressed in the book. At first I noticed that the author would briefly mention complex topics in an overly simplified way with no context. I didn’t initially have an issue with this, as it is something that is often seen in psychology 101 classes where you can’t go into depth about certain things and have to simplify it for the sake of keeping things short and simple. I did, however, feel that if someone were to take the statements at face value they might come to the wrong conclusions, as is common from students who take a 101 college course about a broad (and complex) topic. Sometimes the author himself seemed to only have a 101 level understanding of topics mentioned (such as the mirror neurons bit, iykyk). But the last straw was when he got to the repressed memories part. Any neuroscience/psychology/cognitive science UNDERGRAD student who has taken a single human memory course can talk at length about how that theory is not only outdated, but also debunked and dangerous. At that point I knew this guy was a fraud. A quick google search will point you towards the many pseudoscientific theories he presents in this book. There are also many problematic retelling of stories in the book that are presented in an insensitive and disturbing manner. While I know many have benefited from reading this book, it will not help anyone who knows better.

Eye-opening read but it starts to drag towards the end.

Insightful! 10/10 recommend!

The writing style was an easy one for me to engage. However, some of the things he presents I find highly questionable. Namely the whole repressed memory bit. Great harm was done by advocates of this theory back in the 80’s and 90’s and now here it is again.

I suspect other parts of the book are more accurate and I have seen it quoted in several other books which I have greater trust in.

Bottom line: Don’t rely on it without doing further reading elsewhere.

This was the most insightful and validating work I have read on trauma. Van Der Kolk offers his expertise in simple language anyone can understand.