Bessel van der Kolk

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Bessel van der Kolk
Bessel van der Kolk 2022.jpg
Van der Kolk (2022)
Born1943 (age 81–82)
The Hague, Netherlands
Alma mater University of Chicago (1970)
University of Hawaii (1965)
Known for Post-traumatic stress disorder research
Scientific career
Institutions Boston University School of Medicine
Boston State Hospital
Website www.besselvanderkolk.com

Bessel van der Kolk (born 1943) is a Dutch psychiatrist, author, researcher and educator. Since the 1970s his research has been in the area of post-traumatic stress. He is the author of four books, including The New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score. [1]

Contents

Van der Kolk formerly served as president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and is a former co-director of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. He is a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and president of the Trauma Research Foundation in Brookline, Massachusetts. [2]

Early life and education

Van der Kolk was born in the Netherlands in 1943. [3]

He studied a pre-medical curriculum with a political science major at the University of Hawaii in 1965. He gained his M.D. at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, in 1970, and completed his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, in 1974. [4]

Career

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. [5] Van der Kolk has performed extensive studies on the nature of traumatic memory [6] and took a leading role in the first studies on the psychopharmacological treatments of PTSD. [7] He conducted some of the earliest studies on the biological substrates of PTSD [8] and on stress-induced analgesia. [9] Involved in the first neuroimaging studies of PTSD [10] and dissociative identity disorder, [11] van der Kolk received the first grants from the National Institutes of Health to study EMDR [12] and yoga. [13]

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. [14] 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. [15]

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. [16] Van der Kolk said he was not aware of any specific allegations and denied that he had mistreated employees. [16] 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. [17]

Van der Kolk was named in Time's 2024 list of influential people in health. [18]

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. [19]

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). [20]

The book was well received in As of July 2023, The Body Keeps the Score had spent more than 245 weeks on The New York Times best seller list. [21] By October 2023, it had spent 153 weeks (nearly three years) in the United States on Amazon’s bestseller list. [22] It has been translated into 43 languages. [23] However, some scientists have criticized the book for promoting pseudoscientific claims. [24] [25]

Martin Kristen of The Washington Post criticized Van der Kolk for promoting "uncertain science", such as mirror neurons, the polyvagal theory, and the triune brain model. [26] Similarly, Peter Barglow, writing for the Skeptical Inquirer, criticized him for endorsing controversial treatments, including EMDR and emotional freedom technique. [27]

Personal life

As of 2024, van der Kolk was married, living in rural Massachusetts and still seeing patients. [28]

Works

Related Research Articles

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, or other threats on a person's life or well-being. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event and can include triggers such as misophonia. Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play.

Dissociation is a concept that has been developed over time and which concerns a wide array of experiences, ranging from a mild emotional detachment from the immediate surroundings, to a more severe disconnection from physical and emotional experiences. The major characteristic of all dissociative phenomena involves a detachment from reality, rather than a false perception of reality as in psychosis.

Psychological trauma is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events, such as bodily injury, sexual violence, or other threats to the life of the subject or their loved ones; indirect exposure, such as from watching television news, may be extremely distressing and can produce an involuntary and possibly overwhelming physiological stress response, but does not always produce trauma per se. Examples of distressing events include violence, rape, or a terrorist attack.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy that is a recommended treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but remains controversial within the psychological community. It was devised by Francine Shapiro in 1987 and originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories such as PTSD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Complex post-traumatic stress disorder</span> Psychological disorder

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is a stress-related mental and behavioral disorder generally occurring in response to complex traumas.

Somatic psychology or, more precisely, "somatic clinical psychotherapy" is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on somatic experience, including therapeutic and holistic approaches to the body. It seeks to explore and heal mental and physical injury and trauma through body awareness and movement. Wilhelm Reich was first to try to develop a clear psychodynamic approach that included the body.

Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences. Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse. They may also witness abuse of a sibling or parent, or have a mentally ill parent. These events can have profound psychological, physiological, and sociological impacts leading to lasting negative effects on health and well-being. These events may include antisocial behaviors, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and sleep disturbances. Additionally, children whose mothers have experienced traumatic or stressful events during pregnancy have an increased risk of mental health disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts involuntary recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent or a piece of clothing. Triggers can be subtle, individual, and difficult for others to predict. A trauma trigger may also be called a trauma stimulus, a trauma stressor or a trauma reminder.

Memory and trauma is the deleterious effects that physical or psychological trauma has on memory.

Management of post-traumatic stress disorder refers to the evidence-based therapeutic and pharmacological interventions aimed at reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and improving the quality of life for individuals affected by it. Effective approaches include trauma-focused psychotherapy as a first-line treatment, with options such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), prolonged exposure therapy, and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) demonstrating strong evidence for reducing PTSD symptoms.

Neurological reparative therapy (NRT) is a new model of treatment synthesized from a compilation of literature and research on how to better the lives of individuals who have a wide range of mental, emotional, and behavioral disturbances – particularly children and adolescents. Although the term "neurological reparative therapy" is new, the foundation of this model is not.

Childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder that can develop in women who have recently given birth. This disorder can also affect men or partners who have observed a difficult birth. Its symptoms are not distinct from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It may also be called post-traumatic stress disorder following childbirth (PTSD-FC).

Fragmentation of types and aspects of memory can be understood as a memory disorder that includes subjective and phenomenonological facets directly impacting the ability of an individual to recall memories in an integrated and holistic way. A person has difficulty in associating the context of the memories to their autobiographical (episodic) memory. While the explicit facts and details of the events may be known to the person, the facts of the events retrieve none of the affective and somatic elements of the experience. Therefore, the emotional and personal content of the memories can't be associated with the rest of the memory. Fragmentation of memory can occur for relatively recent events as well.

Psychotraumatology is the study of psychological trauma. Specifically, this discipline is involved with researching, preventing, and treating traumatic situations and people's reactions to them. It focuses on the study and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder (ASD), but encompasses any adverse reaction after experiencing traumatic events, including dissociative disorders. Since 2021, Certified Trauma Professionals who have achieved a major level of training and clinical expertise can use the abbreviation PsyT after their names as a standard of recognition in the trauma field.

Trauma-sensitive yoga is yoga as exercise, adapted from 2002 onwards for work with individuals affected by psychological trauma. Its goal is to help trauma survivors to develop a greater sense of mind-body connection, to ease their physiological experiences of trauma, to gain a greater sense of ownership over their bodies, and to augment their overall well-being. However, a 2019 systematic review found that the studies to date were not sufficiently robustly designed to provide strong evidence of yoga's effectiveness as a therapy; it called for further research.

<i>The Body Keeps the Score</i> 2014 book by Bessel van der Kolk

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma is a 2014 book by Bessel van der Kolk about the purported effects of psychological trauma. The book describes van der Kolk's research and experiences on how people are affected by traumatic stress, including its effects on the mind and body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-traumatic stress disorder after World War II</span>

WWII lasted from September 1st, 1939 until September 2nd, 1945. The death toll during WWII has been estimated to be between 35,000,000 and 60,000,000. However, the exact number is unknown. With all those fatalities, it should not be surprising that it left so many lasting effects on the survivors. There have been many terms for these lasting effects over the decades. These terms include, but are not limited to, shell shock and combat fatigue. In 1980, the diagnosis of PTSD was added to the newly published DSM 3.

Psychological trauma in adultswho are older, is the overall prevalence and occurrence of trauma symptoms within the older adult population.. This should not be confused with geriatric trauma. Although there is a 90% likelihood of an older adult experiencing a traumatic event, there is a lack of research on trauma in older adult populations. This makes research trends on the complex interaction between traumatic symptom presentation and considerations specifically related to the older adult population difficult to pinpoint. This article reviews the existing literature and briefly introduces various ways, apart from the occurrence of elder abuse, that psychological trauma impacts the older adult population.

Visual schema displacement therapy (VSDT) is a therapeutic approach developed to mitigate distressing memories and trauma. It shares some similarities with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), as both techniques seek to facilitate the reprocessing of memories by reducing emotional disturbances, in line with the adaptive information processing model.

Josef I. Ruzek is a clinical psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment, with a focus on early intervention, trauma prevention, and the application of technology to enhance treatment accessibility and effectiveness

References

  1. ↑ Revanche, Jonno (September 14, 2017). "Photography saved me. Staring down a lens, I re-ordered painful memories". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on September 15, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Meet Our Board". Trauma Research Foundation. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Williams, Zoe (September 20, 2021). "Trauma, trust and triumph: psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk on how to recover from our deepest pain". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Curriculum Vitae of Bessel van der Kolk M.D." Bessel Van Der Kolk. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Training and Education Program". Trauma Center. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 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. PMID   2858226. S2CID   34436511.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 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. PMID   8624181.
  11. ↑ 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. PMID   1402846.
  12. ↑ Levin, P; Lazrove, S; van der Kolk, BA (1999). "What psychological testing and neuroimaging tell us about the treatment of PTSD by EMDR". J Anxiety Disord. 13 (1–2): 159–172. doi: 10.1016/S0887-6185(98)00045-0 . PMID   10225506.
  13. ↑ van der Kolk, BA; Stone, L; West, J; Rhodes, A; Emerson, D; Spinazzola, J (2014). "Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized controlled trial". J Clin Psychiatry. 75 (6): 559–565.
  14. ↑ "Who We Are". nctsn.org. Retrieved June 23, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  15. ↑ Interlandi, Jeneen (May 22, 2014). "A Revolutionary Approach to Treating PTSD". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019– via NYTimes.com.
  16. 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.
  17. ↑ "Famed trauma therapist responds to allegations of bullying: 'It's an outrageous story'". 13 March 2018. Archived from the original on 2024-07-18. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  18. ↑ "TIME100 Health". TIME. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  19. ↑ van der Kolk, BA; Pelcovitz, D; Roth, S; Mandel, F; McFarlane, AC; Herman, J (1996). "Dissociation, somatization and affect dysregulation: the complexity of adaptation to trauma". Am J Psychiatry. 153 (7 Suppl): 83–93. doi:10.1176/ajp.153.7.83. PMID   8659645.
  20. ↑ Treleaven, Sarah (January 30, 2020). "What Developmental Trauma Disorder Looks Like in Kids". Today's Parent. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  21. ↑ Blum, Dani (September 19, 2022). "'One Foot in the Present, One Foot in the Past:' Understanding E.M.D.R." The New York Times. Videos by Sophie Park. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
  22. ↑ "Most Sold Nonfiction | Amazon Charts". Amazon. October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-10-30.
  23. ↑ "The Body Keeps The Score". Bessel van der Kolk, MD. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  24. ↑ McNally, Richard J (November 2005). "Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory". The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 50 (13): 817–822. doi: 10.1177/070674370505001302 . ISSN   0706-7437.
  25. ↑ Cox, Keith S.; Codd, R. Trent (2023). "Advocates of Research-Supported Treatments for PTSD are Losing in Lots of Ways: What Are We Going to Do About It?". Research on Social Work Practice. 34 (4): 347–359. doi: 10.1177/10497315231206754 . ISSN   1049-7315.
  26. ↑ Martin, Kristen (2023-08-06). "'The Body Keeps the Score' offers uncertain science in the name of self-help. It's not alone". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  27. ↑ Barglow, Peter (September–October 2024). "Trauma Here, Trauma There, Trauma, Trauma Everywhere!". Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2024-08-23. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
  28. ↑ Ross, India (28 June 2024). "Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk: 'When trauma becomes your identity, that's a dangerous thing'". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 2024-06-29. Retrieved 2024-06-29.

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