Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is a clinician, researcher, and professor who is best known for his work on post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s the medical director at the Trauma Center in Boston. He’s also a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and director of the National Complex Trauma Treatment Network.
He’s the author of the wildly popular book The Body Keeps the Score. In it, he describes the link between the brain, mind, and body, and the treatment strategies that can help people heal from trauma.
Some of the things he talks about today are how things like yoga, community theater, and hypnosis have the power to heal, why traumatic memories have such an impact on the brain and the body, and why talking to your best friend could be the most powerful way to heal.