A review by valleysoshady
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I think everyone should read this book. It can inform how techers deal with students, how parents raise their children, how adults reconcile their habits and behviours with past experience. Using the examplesnof vetrans experiencing PTSD and adults with Complex PTSD resulting from childhood or adult trauma, the author uses case studies in symptoms and healing from  trauma and how specific types of  therapies can help.

The book uses extreme experiences to show how people are shaped by their environments and gives hope in the resilience of the brain for overcoming instinctual reactions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

The contents are carefully handled in the context of medical experience to inform understandingbof impact, but can be triggering.