The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

It is hard to pick the right adjective to describe this book.  It certainly was incredibly helpful in giving clarity and understanding to trauma and its impacts on both the body and mind.  My typical word to describe this type of book is "excellent," highlighting the importance,

helpfulness, and insightfulness of the book.  Yet "excellent" seems to imply something happier than would fit.  The book was also very heavy, as the author described story after story of trauma, how it trapped people, wrecked their lives, and how treating only the symptoms of people lead to significant pain and often compounded the wounds.  I found myself frequently grieved over the trauma that these people faced, and doubly sad at how much the people desperately needing care received something that harmed rather than helped.  I also frequently felt how much I needed to personally repent of my prior patterns of thinking about people dealing with trauma.  I assumed that trauma was like any other difficult circumstance, to be worked through by thinking carefully, articulating well, and applying the Gospel at the right points.  I don't know if I've harmed people by saying as much to them when they were dealing with trauma, but I can imagine my assumptions could have made my actions less helpful than they could have been.  This is something I will probably continue to work through in the seasons ahead.  

Dr. van der Kolk gives a picture of trauma that is significantly more sobering than my prior assumption.  He describes how trauma traps a person as an unintegrated event that is often is relived over and over unexpectedly and forcefully.  A traumatized person will actually relive experiences rather than remember it, losing that grounding of "that was then, this is now" that our bodies have with normal memories.  There's no interpretive grid, no context, no emotional distancing when it comes to a traumatic memory.  These unexpected and unwanted reliving leads to repeated fight/flight/freeze reactions deadening other life experiences, leaving the person disconnected from the normal highs and lows of family and life, leaving people looking for some way to break through and actually feel, which often leads to drugs, risky behaviors, and the like.  Because these traumatic events aren't integrated and processed, they come across as scattered and unintelligible to the listener, which leads to the various diagnoses: ADHD, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, etc, all of which end up describing symptoms (and are "treated" with medication), while the underlying cause (trauma) is left unaddressed.  

Yet at the same time, the second half of the book was hopeful (while still heavy).  The author described a number of treatments that helped bridge towards healing: EMDR, Internal Family Systems, yoga, acting, and others.  As we grow to recognize trauma and learn about its effects, we can better help people who have been traumatized.  We can sit with someone and listen patiently as they try to reintegrate their experiences, turning events into memories, waiting, watching, and loving.  We can help them reconnect with their bodies through small steps, making safe spaces, building bridges and healing the body and the mind, and frequently reaching the mind through the body.  

I'm thankful I read the book, as heavy and saddening as it was.  The lessons it teaches are important for anyone who crosses paths with trauma, in their own lives or in others.  

For a short version of some of the main points of the book, check out ACNAtoo's post Understanding Trauma, which also extends the main ideas of the book to the topic of trauma-informed investigations.