Post by Admin on Dec 13, 2016 16:04:51 GMT -5
The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
2014
Founder and Director of Trauma Center, Brookline, Massachussetts
Director of National Complex Trauma Treatment Network
Review:
Dr Van Der Kolk writes from a depth of experience, starting with his first days as a psychiatrist working with military veterans over 30 years ago. While much of his book deals with trauma in early childhood, so much of it is very helpful in understanding PTSD as experienced by combat veterans, as well as anyone with PTSD suffered in adulthood.
He opens with some fascinating sections discussing what modern neuroscience tells us about changes to the brain-body due to trauma. His bias is away from using chemicals (medications) and towards using a wide variety of tools to help make real changes in the brains of PTSD sufferers.
For me, the meat of the book begins in chapter 13, "Healing From Trauma: Owning Your Self" (p205) with the following topics/sub-headings:
New Focus for Recovery
Limbic System Therapy
Befriending the Emotional Brain (hyperarousal,mindfulness, relationships)
Communal Rhythms and Synchrony
Integrating Traumatic Memories
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT)
Desensitization
In the rest of the book he breaks down approaches he uses in treating PTSD involving language, yoga, learning self-regulation and more. Also he explores the many modalities they use at his Trauma centers, including neurofeedback training, Alpha-Theta Training, PsychoDrama(Theater),EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and drugs (LSD).
But most of all, the title of this book, The Body Keeps the Score says the most to me. Of all the things I've read on PTSD, stress management and similar themes, Dr Van Der Kolk's book gives me a better sense of what happens due to PTSD, and most important, that there are multiple ways to deal with it. I imagine that if you yourself suffer from PTSD that this would be important to read. While some of the language is technical, a bit clinical and scientific but the book is full of stories and anecdotes. His styloe is personable and I could even sense what a caring therapist he is just from the way he writes.
I highly recommend it as it offers a fresh perspective and take as to what happens to one in PTSD as well as multiple and integrative ways to heal.
Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
2014
Founder and Director of Trauma Center, Brookline, Massachussetts
Director of National Complex Trauma Treatment Network
Review:
Dr Van Der Kolk writes from a depth of experience, starting with his first days as a psychiatrist working with military veterans over 30 years ago. While much of his book deals with trauma in early childhood, so much of it is very helpful in understanding PTSD as experienced by combat veterans, as well as anyone with PTSD suffered in adulthood.
He opens with some fascinating sections discussing what modern neuroscience tells us about changes to the brain-body due to trauma. His bias is away from using chemicals (medications) and towards using a wide variety of tools to help make real changes in the brains of PTSD sufferers.
For me, the meat of the book begins in chapter 13, "Healing From Trauma: Owning Your Self" (p205) with the following topics/sub-headings:
New Focus for Recovery
Limbic System Therapy
Befriending the Emotional Brain (hyperarousal,mindfulness, relationships)
Communal Rhythms and Synchrony
Integrating Traumatic Memories
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT)
Desensitization
In the rest of the book he breaks down approaches he uses in treating PTSD involving language, yoga, learning self-regulation and more. Also he explores the many modalities they use at his Trauma centers, including neurofeedback training, Alpha-Theta Training, PsychoDrama(Theater),EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and drugs (LSD).
But most of all, the title of this book, The Body Keeps the Score says the most to me. Of all the things I've read on PTSD, stress management and similar themes, Dr Van Der Kolk's book gives me a better sense of what happens due to PTSD, and most important, that there are multiple ways to deal with it. I imagine that if you yourself suffer from PTSD that this would be important to read. While some of the language is technical, a bit clinical and scientific but the book is full of stories and anecdotes. His styloe is personable and I could even sense what a caring therapist he is just from the way he writes.
I highly recommend it as it offers a fresh perspective and take as to what happens to one in PTSD as well as multiple and integrative ways to heal.