The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk – Book Summary
The Body Keeps the Score: A Comprehensive Exploration of Trauma and Healing The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and
Bessel van der Kolk
Bessel van der Kolk: Healing Trauma Through Body, Brain, and Connection
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., is a Dutch-American psychiatrist, researcher, and teacher whose work has redefined the understanding and treatment of psychological trauma. Over four decades, his clinical research has explored how traumatic stress reshapes brain circuits, physiology, and relationships—and how experiential therapies can restore safety and regulation.
Founder of the Trauma Research Foundation and longtime professor of psychiatry, van der Kolk helped popularize modalities such as EMDR, yoga, theater, neurofeedback, and body-based therapies as evidence-informed complements to talk therapy. His international bestseller The Body Keeps the Score crystallized research on memory, attachment, and neuroplasticity into practical pathways for recovery.
His teaching emphasizes that trauma is not just a story from the past but a pattern held in the nervous system—best addressed through therapies that foster embodied awareness, secure connection, and the capacity to feel and integrate experience.