Facts about The Body Keeps the Score
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Medication alone proved insufficient for trauma recovery in The Body Keeps the Score because antidepressants cannot rewire the neural pathways encoding procedural trauma memories stored outside conscious awareness.
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Dissociation, a key concept in The Body Keeps the Score, occurs when trauma survivors disconnect from their physical sensations as a protective mechanism, preventing conscious awareness of bodily pain during overwhelming experiences.
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Yoga and dance therapy are highlighted in The Body Keeps the Score as effective trauma treatments because they help reorganize the nervous system through rhythmic, embodied movement rather than verbal processing alone.
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Childhood abuse survivors studied in The Body Keeps the Score showed altered cortisol patterns, with some displaying persistently low levels rather than the typical stress hormone spike.
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Van der Kolk's book emphasizes neurofeedback and sensorimotor psychotherapy as treatments because trauma becomes encoded in the body's nervous system rather than solely in cognitive memory centers.
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Brain imaging studies featured in The Body Keeps the Score demonstrate that trauma survivors show reduced activation in Broca's area, the region responsible for translating experiences into words.
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Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk published The Body Keeps the Score in 2014, synthesizing trauma research from his 30 years directing the Trauma Center in Boston.