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

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

This book has so much information. It's a lot longer and in depth than a quick personal growth read. This is a book I definitely wouldn't have gotten so much out of had I not been reading it in tandem with the information given to me by my therapist. It is so much more than a simple book on trauma and therapy techniques. It's the history of diagnoses, therapies, techniques, studies, training, patients, doctors, and experiences surrounding trauma. The author must be fucking immortal because he had first hand experience from ages ago and gave stories and examples and information for every single one he spoke of. I got a lot personally from the EMDR section and the structured Family Therapy or whatever and the beginning sections describing the brain and trauma and how it's all connected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Suicide, Sexual violence, Self harm, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism