Breathtaking in its scope and breadth, The Body Keeps the Score is a seminal work by one of the preeminent pioneers in trauma research and treatment. This essential book unites the evolving neuroscience of trauma research with an emergent wave of body-oriented therapies and traditional mind/body practices. These new approaches and ancient disciplines build resilience and enhance the capacity to have new empowered bodily (interoceptive) experiences that contradict the previous traumatic ones of fear, overwhelm and helplessness. They go beyond symptom relief, and connect us with our vital energy and here-and-now presence. A must read for all therapists and for those interested in a scholarly, thoughtful, tome about the powerful forces that affect us as human beings in meeting the many challenges of life including accidents, loss and abuse. Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine emeritus, UMass Medical School; author of Full Catastrophe Living.

Ruth A. Lanius, M.D., Ph.D., Harris-Woodman Chair in Psyche and Soma; Professor of Psychiatry, and director PTSD research at the University of Western Ontario; Author, The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease​ In The Body Keeps the Score we share the author's courageous journey into the parallel dissociative worlds of trauma victims and the medical and psychological disciplines that are meant to provide relief. In this compelling book we learn that as our minds desperately try to leave trauma behind, our bodies keep us trapped in the past with wordless emotions and feelings. These inner disconnections cascade into ruptures in social relationships with disastrous effects on marriages, families, and friendships. Van der Kolk offers hope by describing treatments and strategies that have successfully helped his patients reconnect their thoughts with their bodies. We leave this shared journey understanding that only through fostering self-awareness and gaining an inner sense of safety will we, as a species, fully experience the richness of life. During your commute: If you take public transportation or have a long commute, you may find it helpful to use that time to read. An astonishing amount of information on almost every aspect of trauma experience, research, interventions, and theories is brought together in this book, which . . . has a distinctly holistic feel to it. The title suggests that what will be explored is how the body retains the imprints of trauma. However, it delivers much more than this, delving into how the brain is impacted by overwhelming traumatic events, and is studded with sections on neuroscience which draw on the author’s own numerous studies as well as that of his peers. In addition, it investigates the effects of adverse childhood attachment patterns, child abuse, and chronic and long-term abuse. . . . [T]his book is a veritable goldmine of information.”

Notable Quotes about The Body Keeps the Score

What distinguishes THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE is that the author is both a scientific researcher with a long history of measuring the effect of trauma on brain function, memory, and treatment outcomes, and an active therapist who keeps learning from his patients what benefits them most. This makes for deeply personal, analytic, and highly readable (not to mention incredibly moving) approach to the topic of trauma recovery.

Let me just say there is a lot more to Dean than what meets the eye. I love the Elle gives her characters this depth you wouldn’t expect. I didn’t think there would be so much to Dean, but there absolutely was. And Allie was pretty fantastic as well. I loved how she didn’t easily give into Dean and his ways like all the other girls on campus seem to. I love me a feisty heroine! Dean met his match when he found himself wanting her. This is an absolutely fascinating and clearly written book by one of the nation’s most experienced physicians in the field of emotional trauma. The Body Keeps the Score helps us understand how life experiences play out in the function and the malfunction of our bodies, years later.” The book takes you on a trauma journey from the eyes of people who have experienced trauma or helped with it. What is helpful about the book is that each section or chapter of information can be read and understood as a stand alone piece making it a book that you can dip in and out of without having to begin at the beginning each time. The case studies illustrating a person’s experience help provide the relevant context needed for understanding each chapter in its own right. In The Body Keeps the Score we share the author’s courageous journey into the parallel dissociative worlds of trauma victims and the medical and psychological disciplines that are meant to provide relief. In this compelling book we learn that as our minds desperately try to leave trauma behind, our bodies keep us trapped in the past with wordless emotions and feelings. These inner disconnections cascade into ruptures in social relationships with disastrous effects on marriages, families, and friendships. Van der Kolk offers hope by describing treatments and strategies that have successfully helped his patients reconnect their thoughts with their bodies. We leave this shared journey understanding that only through fostering self-awareness and gaining an inner sense of safety will we, as a species, fully experience the richness of life.Stephen Cope, founder and director, Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living; author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self That physicians will appreciate the role of trauma in the disintegration of bodily systems, and learn what they can do about it.

JH is mainly writing this book review. CL, AC, and PT gave comment and suggestion in this manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version. Funding

The Score Summary

This is an absolutely fascinating and clearly written book by one of the nation’s most experienced physicians in the field of emotional trauma. Equally suitable for primary care doctors and psychotherapists wishing to broaden their range of helpfulness, or for those trapped in their memories, “The Body Keeps the Score” helps us understand how life experiences play out in the function and the malfunction of our bodies, years later.