How To Heal Your Past, Improve Your Mental Wellbeing & Unlock Your Full Potential with Dr Bessel van der Kolk #483
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Professor of Psychiatry and author of 'The Body Keeps the Score,' discusses trauma's physical imprint and healing methods. He highlights body-oriented therapies like yoga, the crucial role of human connection, and the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy for various mental health issues.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
Optimism Despite Extensive Trauma Work
Defining Trauma and Its Societal Prevalence
Common Signs and Manifestations of Trauma
Physiological Impact of Trauma on Body and Brain
The Enduring Message of 'The Body Keeps the Score'
Moving Beyond Victimhood to Agency
The Crucial Role of Human Connection in Healing
Body-Oriented Therapies for Trauma Recovery
The Potential of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Research on MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD
FDA's Ruling on MDMA and its Implications
Cultural Approaches to Trauma and Healing
Community, Movement, and Social Connection for Well-being
Advice for Parents on Raising Resilient Children
Finding Effective Therapy and Self-Help Strategies
5 Key Concepts
Trauma
Trauma is defined as an experience that overwhelms an individual's capacity to cope, especially when no one intervenes to help. This leads to the central nervous system continuously experiencing the world through the lens of that overwhelming event, making the ongoing internal reaction the defining characteristic.
The Body Keeps the Score (Concept)
This concept explains that horrendous life events, particularly those involving disrupted attachments, profoundly shape an individual's biology. Trauma expresses itself through the body in various ways, affecting muscle tension, hormonal pathways, and elementary bodily functions, rather than just being a mental memory.
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself and form new neural connections over time. While the adult brain typically becomes quite stable, certain experiences or substances, like psychedelics, can create a temporary window where the brain is highly open to new patterning, allowing ingrained neuronal circuits to change.
Mirror Neuron System
This is a brain system that allows individuals to pick up on the energy, emotions, and wisdom of others. It plays a role in empathy and learning, and can enable a person to adopt new perspectives on reality by internalizing the state of another, particularly a wise or compassionate individual.
Attunement
Attunement is the quality of being present and responsive to another person, especially in relationships like parent-child dynamics. It involves deeply hearing and listening to others, and is considered crucial for a healthy, non-traumatic childhood and for fostering human connection throughout life.
10 Questions Answered
Trauma is defined as an experience that overwhelms one's capacity to cope, leading to the central nervous system continuously reacting to the world through that overwhelming event. In the US, domestic violence, a common source of trauma, affects approximately one in three couples.
Common signs include excessive anger with a partner or children, needing to hide when overwhelmed, repeatedly hating bosses at different jobs, irritability, being out of tune with others, frequently blowing up, or making no space for other people, often leading to interpersonal conflicts.
Trauma changes the 'housekeeping' of the body, affecting deep brain parts related to appetite, motivation, arousal, and sleep, leading to elementary bodily functions being disrupted. It results in a body that struggles to take care of itself, often manifesting as unbearable sensory experiences.
The book resonated because it conveys a message of hope, explaining that horrendous life events shape biology but also that people can take agency by understanding themselves, developing language for their experiences, and engaging in body-oriented therapies to alter their relationship with their body.
While cognitive understanding can be helpful, merely knowing and remembering everything doesn't always make trauma symptoms disappear. Body-oriented experiences, such as martial arts, yoga, or dance, are often crucial for developing a sense of agency and changing the physical expression of trauma.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy, particularly with substances like MDMA, has shown dramatic changes in PTSD scores and holds potential for chronic depression, OCD, and addiction. These treatments can 'reboot' the brain, opening up new possibilities for healing by changing ingrained neuronal patterns and self-perception.
While research shows dramatic benefits, the experience can be very painful as individuals access difficult material. It requires careful preparation and the presence of trained therapists to provide comfort and guidance, as being left alone with the drug can lead to scary experiences.
Every culture has developed its own methods for dealing with trauma, often without explicit verbal processing. Examples include Tai Chi, Qigong, and acupuncture in China, yoga in India, and singing and marching in Germany, which help manage trauma through body work and synchronous social activities.
Parents should believe in their children, encourage them to explore the world and take risks, and ensure they feel safe in their affection, knowing they can always come home. This deep sense of safety allows children to venture out and develop resilience.
Look for personal recommendations, as word-of-mouth is often more reliable than credentials. Seek a therapist proficient in a variety of methods, ideally including body-oriented approaches like EMDR or IFS. Additionally, engage in activities that foster synchronous relationships with others, like singing, dancing, or group sports.
17 Actionable Insights
1. Recognize Trauma’s Internal Lens
Understand that trauma overwhelms your coping capacity, causing your central nervous system to perceive the world through the lens of that overwhelming experience, leading to constant fear or overreactions to trivial challenges.
2. Identify Common Trauma Signs
Look for signs like uncontrolled anger with partners or children, needing to hide when overwhelmed, repeatedly disliking bosses, irritability, or making no space for others, as these often indicate unresolved trauma and create interpersonal conflict.
3. Connect Past Trauma to Present Behavior
Gain understanding of how past traumatic experiences affect your current life and behaviors, as this self-awareness is crucial for making informed decisions and changing your present, rather than just recounting the trauma itself.
4. Avoid Victimhood Mentality
While acknowledging past hardships, use the understanding of your upbringing to learn and move forward, taking agency, rather than claiming victimhood as an alibi for dysfunctional behavior.
5. Cultivate Hope and Agency
Foster a sense of hope and personal agency, recognizing that people can change dramatically for the better, and avoid language that suggests conditions are hopeless, as this is disempowering and potentially harmful.
6. Seek Deep Human Connection
Prioritize relationships with people (doctors, therapists, friends, family) who genuinely know you, see you, and take a deep interest in your well-being, as feeling seen reduces shame and fosters self-acceptance.
7. Provide Safe, Non-Judgmental Space
Offer others a safe, non-judgmental environment to speak, talk, and be heard, as this fundamental human connection can be profoundly healing and help individuals gain agency.
8. Engage in Synchronous Group Activities
Participate in activities that foster synchronous relationships with others, such as singing, dancing, playing sports, making music, or cooking together, as these social connections are highly beneficial for well-being.
9. Heal Trauma Through the Body
Recognize that trauma is expressed through the body (musculature, hormonal pathways), requiring experiences that deeply and viscerally contradict the helplessness, rage, or collapse that resulted from trauma.
10. Explore Body-Oriented Therapies
Engage in therapies like yoga, martial arts (e.g., karate, tango), neurofeedback, or theater to alter your relationship with your body, gain a sense of agency, and embody different roles, as these can be more effective than talk therapy alone for certain aspects of trauma.
11. Relearn the Pleasure of Touch
If you struggle with human touch due to past trauma, gradually and safely open up to the pleasure and safety of being touched, as this is crucial for mental and emotional healing and allows your mind to get better.
12. Consider Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Explore psychedelic-assisted therapy (e.g., MDMA, psilocybin) under the strict guidance of trained healthcare professionals, as research shows it can dramatically reduce PTSD symptoms by opening the mind to new possibilities and re-patterning the brain.
13. Ensure Therapeutic Support During Psychedelics
If undergoing psychedelic therapy, ensure a trained therapist is present throughout the experience to provide comfort, guidance, and help process difficult emotions, transforming potentially scary experiences into healing ones by integrating comfort during distress.
14. Raise Resilient Kids with Affection & Risk
Believe in your children, encourage them to explore the world and take risks, and ensure they feel safe in your affection, knowing they can always return home for care and support.
15. Be Present with Your Children
Strive to be fully present with your children, hearing and listening to them, as this attunement is one of the most important gifts you can give them for their well-being and development.
16. Seek Diverse, Experienced Therapists
When looking for a therapist, prioritize personal recommendations and seek someone trained in at least three different modalities (e.g., somatics, EMDR, IFS), rather than a practitioner of a single, rigid method.
17. Ask Therapists About Their Own Healing
Inquire whether a prospective therapist has found their own methods helpful to themselves; if they claim not to need help, leave immediately, as good therapists understand life’s difficulties and their own need for growth.
7 Key Quotes
It's something that overwhelms your capacity to cope, and nobody else takes over for you at a particular point. And then you get stuck, and so your whole central nervous system continues to experience the ongoing world through the lens of that particular overwhelming experience.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
If the body is storing trauma in its musculature, in its hormonal pathways, then it is the body that needs experiences that deeply and viscerally contradict the helplessness, rage, or collapse that result from trauma.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
I can tell you, the greatest prison you will ever create is the prison you create inside your own mind.
Edith Eger (quoted by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee)
I think it's because of acid I became a great scientist, because on acid I got to understand that the reality that I live in in my own head is such a small segment of an overall reality.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
If you're not known to other people, you're not known to yourself.
John Bowlby (quoted by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk)
Every part of you used to fulfill a function.
Dick Schwartz (quoted by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk)
Hope is such an important thing.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
1 Protocols
Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (MDMA) Protocol
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk- Undergo extensive preparation time to form a strong alliance with the therapist(s).
- Participate in a full-day session with the psychedelic substance, with therapist(s) present to provide support.
- Engage in debriefing and processing the experience, finding language to articulate insights and feelings.
- Have a follow-up session one month after the initial psychedelic session.
- Have a third session one month after the second, as per the research protocol (some individuals may feel complete after fewer sessions, or require more).