The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk
I enjoyed a wonderful hour together with members of Not Another Book Club, diving into the difficult world of trauma, healing, therapy and using our bodies to access our minds. A few themes from our discussion:
- Even when we haven’t been through major trauma, there is plenty to be learned from approaches to trauma therapy
- Many of us (perhaps even most?) suffer from the consequences of lower-level, chronic trauma, whether from family life, a relationship, an educational context, workplace or even social media. The impacts on our lives can still be severe!
- Trauma may be hiding just below the surface; a reminder to bring a little more compassion for ourselves and those around us every day
- There are a number of fascinating approaches that use the body in the process of healing and maintaining wellbeing. While these are increasingly being validated scientifically for specific use in the specialised context of trauma therapy, many are widely available outside of therapy (e.g. yoga, theatre, group singing)
- While awareness of mental health is growing, it still seems far behind where we are on physical health. Our mental state can have a huge impact on our physical wellbeing, and looking after our mental health feels like an essential life skill for today!
This all flowed from our discussion of The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk
We felt that this was a brilliant and important book, with relevance far beyond its focus on trauma. An eye-opening and engaging read on this topic, delivered with huge doses of humanity from a groundbreaking leader in his field. I owe a big thank you to Kaspars Vendelis for encouraging me to read the book, and to Pete Trainor, Vanessa Dietzel and Julia Nicholson Harig for such an inspired discussion.
Not Another Book Club is something of an anti-book-club. None of the obligation or stuffiness, just great discussions on the themes raised by some outstanding books.
For further exploration:
https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score
Video interview / podcast: https://resources.franklincovey.com/on-leadership-with-scott-miller/202-dr-bessel-van-der-kolk
Audio Podcasts: OnBeing by Krista Trippett: https://onbeing.org/programs/bessel-van-der-kolk-trauma-the-body-and-2021/;
The Ezra Klein show: