Van der Kolk was born in the Netherlands in July 1943.[3]The Hague was occupied by the Nazis at the time and his father was sent to a workcamp. He was the middle child of five. His mother taught her children to play musical instruments. Bessel played piano and cello and was taught six languages.[4]
After his training, van der Kolk worked as a director of Boston State Hospital. He became a staff psychiatrist at the Boston Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic. Van der Kolk developed an interest in studying traumatic stress in 1978 while working with Vietnam war veterans suffering from PTSD[3] and serving on the Harvard Medical School faculty. He was a member of the PTSD committee of the 1980 and 1994 editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders[3] and conducted the first studies on the use of fluoxetine and sertraline in the treatment of PTSD.
In 1982, van der Kolk started the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts while he was working as a junior faculty member at Harvard Medical School.[3] Since then, he has conducted numerous training programs and clinical trials.[6] Van der Kolk has performed extensive studies on the nature of traumatic memory[7] and took a leading role in the first studies on the psychopharmacological treatments of PTSD.[8] He conducted some of the earliest studies on the biological substrates of PTSD[9] and on stress-induced analgesia.[10] Involved in the first neuroimaging studies of PTSD[11] and dissociative identity disorder,[12] van der Kolk received the first grants from the National Institutes of Health to study EMDR[13] and yoga.[14]
In 1999, van der Kolk initiated the creation of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. By 2019, it had grown to a network of 150 sites specializing in treating traumatized children and their families around the US.[15] In that context he and his colleagues studied more than 20,000 traumatized children and adolescents to formulate Developmental Trauma Disorder, a new trauma disorder not yet been accepted within the DSM. He has systematically studied innovative treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults, such as trauma-sensitive yoga, theater, embodied therapies, neurofeedback, and psychedelic therapies.[16]
In January 2018, the Trauma Center's parent organization, the Justice Resource Institute, fired van der Kolk from the center over allegations that he had mistreated employees.[17] Van der Kolk said he was not aware of any specific allegations and denied that he had mistreated employees.[17] Van der Kolk filed a lawsuit against the Justice Resource Institute and its leadership for several counts of action, including breach of contract, misrepresentation, and defamation.[18]
Van der Kolk was named in Time's 2024 list of influential people in health.[19]
Writings and views
Van der Kolk has a particular interest in developmental psychopathology and the study of how trauma has a differential effect, depending on developmental stage and the security of the attachment system.[20]
Van der Kolk's book, The Body Keeps the Score, was published in 2014. It focuses on the central role of the attachment system and social environment to protect against developing trauma related disorders and explores a large variety of interventions to recover from the impact of traumatic experiences. Van der Kolk coined the term "Developmental Trauma Disorder" for the complex range of psychological and biological reactions to trauma over the course of human development, also known as complex post traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).[21]
The book was well received. As of February 2025, The Body Keeps the Score had spent more than 328 weeks on The New York Times best seller list,[22][23] and 212 weeks (over 4 years) in the United States on Amazon’s bestseller list.[24] It has been translated into 43 languages.[25] However, some scientists have criticized the book for promoting pseudoscientific claims.[26][27]
As of 2024, van der Kolk was married, living in rural Massachusetts and still seeing patients.[30]
Works
Van der Kolk, B. A., ed. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Psychological and Biological Sequelae. Washington DC: American Psychiatric, 1984.
Van der Kolk, B. A., Psychological Trauma. Washington DC: American Psychiatric, 1987.
Van der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, Alexander C., Weisæth, L. (eds). Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body and Society. New York: Guilford, 1996.
↑ van der Kolk, BA; van der Hart, O (1989). "Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in Psychological Trauma". Am J Psychiatry. 146: 1330–1342.
↑ van der Kolk, BA; Dreyfuss, D; Berkowitz, R; Saxe, G; Shera, D; Michaels, M (1994). "Fluoxetine in Post Traumatic Stress". J Clin Psychiatry: 517–522.
↑ van der Kolk, BA; Greenberg, M; Boyd, H; Krystal, J (1985). "Inescapable shock, neurotransmitters, and addiction to trauma: toward a psychobiology of post traumatic stress". Biol Psychiatry. 20 (3): 314–325. doi:10.1016/0006-3223(85)90061-7. PMID2858226. S2CID34436511.
↑ van der Kolk, BA; Greenberg, MS; Orr, S; Pittman, RK (1989). "Pain Perception and endogenous opioids in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder". Psychopharm Bull. 25: 117–121.
↑ Rauch, S; van der Kolk, BA; Fisler, R; Alpert, N; Orr, S; Savage, C; Jenike, M; Pitman, R (1996). "A symptom provocation study using Positron Emission Tomography and Script Driven Imagery". Arch Gen Psychiatry. 53 (5): 380–387. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1996.01830050014003. PMID8624181.
↑ Saxe, GN; Vasile, RG; Hill, TC; Bloomingdale, K; van der Kolk, BA (1992). "Temporal lobe changes in Multiple Personality Disorders demonstrated by rCBF and SPECT imaging". J Ment Nerv Dis. 180 (10): 662–663. doi:10.1097/00005053-199210000-00009. PMID1402846.
1 2 Kowalczyk, Liz (2018-03-07). "Allegations of employee mistreatment roil renowned Brookline trauma center - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2023-09-30. Retrieved 24 January 2025. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a best-selling author on trauma whose research has attracted a worldwide following, has been fired from his job over allegations that he bullied and denigrated employees at his renowned Trauma Center... Van der Kolk was removed as medical director of the Brookline center in January, according to several accounts, although his photo and job description remained prominently on its website until early this week, when the Globe requested information... Van der Kolk, in a phone interview, denied that he had mistreated employees and said he was not aware of any specific allegations.
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