Healing Trauma & How the Body Keeps the Score | Dr Bessel van der Kolk

#besselvanderkolk #trauma #stress

Bessel van der Kolk is a one of the world’s foremost experts on traumatic stress - his global bestseller The Body Keeps The Score showed us that the terror and isolation at the core of trauma literally reshape both brain and body, and demonstrated a new approach to recovery, moving away from standard talking and drug therapies to heal mind, brain and body.

In this exclusive conversation with psychotherapist and author of The Invisible Lion, Benjamin Fry, Bessel fuses insights from the cutting-edge of neuroscience with the weight of decades of experience as an active therapist, and discusses how both adults and children can reclaim ownership of their bodies and their lives.

In PART 1 of his How To Academy Event, Bessel discusses how the body keeps the score, how our brain's responses align with our body's, and how time and trust are key to recovering from trauma.

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This livestream was held in collaboration with MindHealth360

[AprendeInglesConStephen]

A happy, healthy childhood is like winning the lottery. You are set, even if you face adverse events later on!

[SupremeAtheist]

When you are people pleaser since childhood the narcissistic abuse affects your social balance. It took me 40 years to find out and making sense of the traumatic memories that shaped your behavior and threshold for being abused.

[glasshousefuture]

Also to be duly noted, is the Fact that PTSD can also result from a traumatic and stressful romantic partner relationship where the individual may not have been physically abused, but mentally and emotionally damaged, so that their fight or flight/adrenaline/survival mode can also appear in connection with relationships, perhaps fear of being emotionally or physically abandoned or disregarded, etc. by your partner who is supposed to have love and affection for you and show that to you in a tender gentle loving way.

[robynhope]

Do you know of anyone who had no trauma? I didn't until the other day when i asked my 96 yr old woman neibor if she had childhood trauma, or any trauma, bc she looks and behaves like someone much younger. The answer was a resounding NO. Esther has three grown children who cant do enough for their mother, who still lives independently. She appears serene, open, and curious, and mentally sharp. Son and daughters are lovely and happy. I didnt know ppl like that exist. Good for them, but my heart hurts.😢

[mayapatuel]

Most of humanity is traumatized and behaves like wounded animals not trusting others.

[colinsavage]

I think one of the hardest parts about trauma for me is that my body is not reacting to safe environments as if they're dangerous. I'm autistic; the world IS hostile to me continuously. Environments that non-autistic people deem "safe" and "non-threatening" are actually traumatic for me, and so I do actually have to continuously be ready to handle painful situations in everyday life, and control myself for the sake of others NOT shunning me for "reacting unreasonably."
I find myself often disappointed with discussions about trauma because they often talk about it as a past event, not something that is an ongoing experience for millions of people.

[krochelle]

It's still so wild to me how Dr. Van der Kolk consistently, casually, and conversationally explains and then expounds on how trauma brain works. It is comforting, surprisingly, the compassion in which he speaks about such dark issues within the mind. Thank you 🙏🏾.

[stephaniesihpol]

I suffer from CPTSD, I grew up with a mother who did not know how to be loving. She beat me with a belt from a young age. Sometimes it was her fists ( although never in the face). I’ve been kicked, dragged by my hair, screamed at with horrible words… told girls like me are a dime a dozen. The list goes on. I now have severe medical issues such as Lupus, Fibromyalgia, severe, osteoarthritis, Sjogrens, depression…the list goes on. My therapist had me get the book but honestly, I was already aware that a lot of my illnesses could have been exacerbated by trauma or maybe even caused by it.
I asked my fibromyalgia group one day how many in the group had been abused- it was almost everyone.

[steceymorgan]

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

[EdgarAllanGo]

I love that he started off “traumatic stress is not the same as psychological stress” ❤

[karinsolli]

I wish it would be more acceptable to talk about emotional neglect as a cause of this. Most people was never raped as a child, but if your parents never gave you love when you was a child, you could go down the same route.

[mcnimi]

we have to heal our inner child in order to feel safe again. EMDR did wonders for me.

[dennislurvey]

I have severe PTSD from combat. A few days after my stressor event I couldn't keep food down and that was part of my diagnosis. Trauma attacks your digestive system.

He is saying what I have thought for years, but in a more complete way and in more detail. After being asked to leave places like home depot and a cell phone store because of my anger I had to realize it's ME. So I stay to myself and have learned to just shut up. I get my human contact on social media, so thank you for that.

[lilyhempt]

Anyone else here have PTSD from childhood sexual abuse? I’ve found it extremely difficult to get help for this over the years and have been immensely grateful for Bessel’s work.

[izawaniek]

How true and brilliant that information is. It is through the body - movement, dancing, singing, holding hands, hugging that our brains get calmer and in This way we can slowly begin our healing from trauma. What a brilliant talk backed by scientific research. We need to look back to the ways people have always lived and behaved - there is so much wisdom in their simple and widely accessible ways to soothe and ease the pain. We should love people, listen to them, be present with them and give them the feeling of safety though loving acceptance and not harsh judgement. It is absolutely true that when the body feels unsafe, the mind will follow in the same path. Trauma makes us behave in many strange, unpredictable ways and leads us, victims, to isolation and harsh social judgement, while we are trying to survive the side effects of persecution and abuse we have undergone in our lives. Thank you so much for your life saving work.

[levihan]

I’m reading The Body Keeps the Score, and it’s giving me so many emotionally powerful moments where I need to stop and process how much I see myself in it.

[jennytalia]

😭Every time I hear this man speak I start crying like a baby

[karenortega]

My bf triggered me the other day.. I have ptsd from childhood abuse but he also has trauma, his though goes much deeper where he will lie and gaslight me. He said something after a pleasant day together out of the blue so mean over some tiny thing and it was so unexpected that i just started crying.. he blamed me for overreacting instead of just apologizing .. he dod try later but the relationship is all ready in the ditch. I cried for two days is was so traumatic to me.. and I remember saying to him it reminded me of my dad.. he would occasionally say really hurtful things. Even if you realize that these things are coming from a past event but the person your with isn’t there to hear and feel you then what? I was crying so hard I could barely get the words out when trying to explain to him over the phone and he just said so unemotional .. I’m not getting into this with you I have to go to a birthday party. He left without a care in the world. When your with someone who has little sensitivity your left to self soothe, there is no emotional support. Much like my childhood with sibling abuse and an unavailable mother i was left to find ways to cope in my own. It sucked to be afraid of your own brother all the time and not have a parent to go to for safety. He usually was anusive when they were working so no matter what happened if i was crying and called my mom she yelled at me for calling her at work. I know i have carried these emotions into my life. Abusive relationships etc.. i pick men who are insensitive and not supportive emotionally.

[alshaalaquavanattia]

It's amazing what shame vs love will do !
watch the video you'll get it!
How do you feel when your shamed or when you shame yourself,
This is why forgiveness and love is so important!

[auntkathy]

For years after being placed in foster care, I would freeze whenever I heard the sound of the tab of canned drink being opened. Immediately I was back in my home, the sound was a can of beer being opened, and the association with that sound was the outcome of physical and/or verbal violence. Even when I knew the can being opened was soda, my body continued to freeze for many years.