Bessel van der Kolk

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Bessel van der Kolk
Born1943 (1943)
The Hague, Netherlands
Alma mater University of Chicago (1970)
University of Hawaii (1965)
Known for Post-traumatic stress disorder research
Scientific career
InstitutionsBoston 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 The New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score .

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, [1] which he established after being fired from the Brookline Trauma Center for "creating a hostile work environment," in which he allegedly made employees feel "denigrated and uncomfortable." [2]

Van der Kolk has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles [3] and four books. [4]

Early life and education

Van der Kolk was born in the Netherlands in 1943. [5] 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. [6]

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 [5] 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., [5] and conducted the first studies on the use of fluoxetine and sertraline in the treatment of PTSD.

Career

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. [5] Since then, he has conducted numerous training programs and clinical trials. [7] Van der Kolk has performed extensive studies on the nature of traumatic memory, [8] and took a leading role in the first studies on the psychopharmacological treatments of PTSD. [9] He conducted some of the earliest studies on the biological substrates of PTSD [10] and on stress-induced analgesia. [11] Involved in the first neuroimaging studies of PTSD [12] and Dissociative Identity Disorder, [13] van der Kolk received the first grants from the National Institutes of Health to study EMDR [14] and yoga. [15]

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. [16] In that context he and his colleagues studied over 20,000 traumatized children and adolescents to formulate Developmental Trauma Disorder, which has 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. [17]

Since 1989, he has been course director of the annual Boston International Trauma Conference, which brings together leading scientists and clinicians specializing in trauma, developmental psychopathology, attachment studies, body-oriented therapies, theater and expressive arts. [18]

In 2018, van der Kolk was fired from the Trauma Center for having "violated the code of conduct by creating a hostile work environment," according to JRI president Andy Pond. Pond further reported that van der Kolk's behavior "could be characterized as bullying and making employees feel denigrated and uncomfortable." [2] The Trauma Center subsequently closed. [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. As of July 2023, The Body Keeps the Score had spent over 245 weeks on The New York Times best seller list. [21] By October 2023, it had spent 153 weeks (nearly 3 years) in the United States on Amazon’s bestseller list. [22] It has been translated into 43 languages.

The Body Keeps the Score 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). [23]

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, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, 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. Young children are less likely to show distress, but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk of suicide and intentional self-harm.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nightmare disorder</span> Medical condition

Nightmare disorder is a sleep disorder characterized by repeated intense nightmares that most often center on threats to physical safety and security. The nightmares usually occur during the REM stage of sleep, and the person who experiences the nightmares typically remembers them well upon waking. More specifically, nightmare disorder is a type of parasomnia, a subset of sleep disorders categorized by abnormal movement or behavior or verbal actions during sleep or shortly before or after. Other parasomnias include sleepwalking, sleep terrors, bedwetting, and sleep paralysis.

Psychological trauma is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events that are outside the normal range of human experiences. It must be understood by the affected person as directly threatening the affected person or their loved ones with death, severe bodily injury, or sexual violence; 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 produce trauma per se. Examples include violence, rape, or a terrorist attack.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy that is 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 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoga as therapy</span> Yoga in the use of physical and mental therapy

Yoga as therapy is the use of yoga as exercise, consisting mainly of postures called asanas, as a gentle form of exercise and relaxation applied specifically with the intention of improving health. This form of yoga is widely practised in classes, and may involve meditation, imagery, breath work (pranayama) and calming music as well as postural yoga.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is a stress-related mental disorder generally occurring in response to complex traumas, i.e., commonly prolonged or repetitive exposures to a series of traumatic events, within which individuals perceive little or no chance to escape.

Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). 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, witnessing abuse of a sibling or parent, or having a mentally ill parent. These events have profound psychological, physiological, and sociological impacts and can have negative, lasting effects on health and well-being such as unsocial behaviors, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and sleep disturbances. Similarly, 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.

The management of traumatic memories is important when treating mental health disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder. Traumatic memories can cause life problems even to individuals who do not meet the diagnostic criteria for a mental health disorder. They result from traumatic experiences, including natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis; violent events such as kidnapping, terrorist attacks, war, domestic abuse and rape. Traumatic memories are naturally stressful in nature and emotionally overwhelm people's existing coping mechanisms.

PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a psychiatric disorder characterised by intrusive thoughts and memories, dreams or flashbacks of the event; avoidance of people, places and activities that remind the individual of the event; ongoing negative beliefs about oneself or the world, mood changes and persistent feelings of anger, guilt or fear; alterations in arousal such as increased irritability, angry outbursts, being hypervigilant, or having difficulty with concentration and sleep.

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.

Fragmentation of memory is a memory disorder where an individual is unable to associate 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 effects of psychological trauma, also known as traumatic stress. The book describes van der Kolk's research and experiences on how individuals are affected by traumatic stress, and its effects on the mind and body. It is based on his 1994 Harvard Review of Psychiatry article "The body keeps the score: memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet-based treatments for trauma survivors</span>

Internet-based treatments for trauma survivors is a growing class of online treatments that allow for an individual who has experienced trauma to seek and receive treatment without needing to attend psychotherapy in person. The progressive movement to online resources and the need for more accessible mental health services has given rise to the creation of online-based interventions aimed to help those who have experienced traumatic events. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has shown to be particularly effective in the treatment of trauma-related disorders and adapting CBT to an online format has been shown to be as effective as in-person CBT in the treatment of trauma. Due to its positive outcomes, CBT-based internet treatment options for trauma survivors has been an expanding field in both research and clinical settings.

Being exposed to traumatic events such as war, violence, disasters, loss, injury or illness can cause trauma. Additionally, the most common diagnostic instruments such as the ICD-11 and the DSM-5 expand on this definition of trauma to include perceived threat to death, injury, or sexual violence to self or a loved one. Even after the situation has passed, the experience can bring up a sense of vulnerability, hopelessness, anger and fear.

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.

References

  1. ↑ "Meet Our Board". Trauma Research Foundation. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  2. 1 2 https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/03/07/allegations-employee-mistreatment-roil-renowned-trauma-center/sWW13agQDY9B9A1rt9eqnK/story.html
  3. ↑ "Information and Products by Faculty: Bessel van der Kolk". PESI Inc. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  4. ↑ Revanche, Jonno (September 14, 2017). "Photography saved me. Staring down a lens, I re-ordered painful memories". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  5. 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.
  6. ↑ "Curriculum Vitae of Bessel van der Kolk M.D." Bessel Van Der Kolk. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Training and Education Program". Trauma Center. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ "Who We Are". nctsn.org. Retrieved June 23, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  17. ↑ Interlandi, Jeneen (May 22, 2014). "A Revolutionary Approach to Treating PTSD". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 14, 2019– via NYTimes.com.
  18. ↑ "Trauma Research Foundation 'Our Mission'". Trauma Research Foundation. Retrieved June 22, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  19. ↑ "Behind The Globe". Bessel van der Kolk. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  20. ↑ 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.
  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 . Retrieved April 9, 2023.
  22. ↑ "Most Sold Nonfiction | Amazon Charts". Amazon. October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-10-30.
  23. ↑ Treleaven, Sarah (January 30, 2020). "What Developmental Trauma Disorder Looks Like in Kids". Today's Parent. Retrieved June 23, 2020.

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