Book Suggestion: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

 (image borrowed from amazon.com)

My favorite book on trauma is The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing from Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. . I have learned a lot about myself and others by reading the pages. I have also felt wonderful validation and confirmation to my need to heal. He discusses many different types of healing techniques which I have never heard of. This book helped push me forward to seek out these resources, and if not found, create them. Some "other" types of therapy include:

-EMDR
-Yoga for Trauma Survivors
-PBSB Psychomotor therapy
-Alpha training
-Theater

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book. Please read it.

- "...if you lack a deep memory of feeling loved and safe, the receptors in the brain that respond to human kindness may simply fail to develop...If that is the case, how can people learn to calm themselves down and feel grounded in their bodies?"(p142)

-  "...the imprints of traumatic memories are organized not as coherent logical narratives but in fragmented sensor and emotional traces; images, sounds and physical sensations." (p176)

- "If the problem with PTSD is disassociation the goal of treatment would be association; integrating the cut-off elements of the trauma into the aging narrative of life, so that the brain can recognize that 'that was the, this is now.' " (p180)

- "If their history is not known then they are likely to be labeled as crazy or punished as criminals rather than helped to integrate the past." (p182)

- "If you have been hurt, you need to acknowledge and name what has happened to you." (p232)

- "After a while most people with PTSD don't spend a great deal of time or effort dealing with the past, their problem is simply making it through the day. Even traumatized patients who are making real contributions ....expend a lot more energy on everyday tasks of living than do ordinary mortals."

- Healing from trauma includes:

1. Finding a way to become calm and focused.
2. Learning to maintain that calm in response to images, thoughts, sounds or physical sensations that remind you of the past.
3. Finding a way to be fully alive in the present and engaged with the people around you.
4. Not having to keep secrets from yourself, including secrets about the ways that you have managed to survive. (p204)

Have you read the book? What are your thoughts? What books help you?