Bessel van der Kolk
Dutch-American psychiatrist and trauma researcher, author of The Body Keeps the Score.
At a glance
Main ideas
Development and attachment, Developmental Trauma Disorder, Body-based treatment …
See all 5Books to start with
The Body Keeps the Score, Traumatic Stress (with McFarlane and Weisæth)
See all 2Connections
Psychological trauma, Post-traumatic stress disorder and 8 others
See all 10
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Bessel van der Kolk is a Boston-based psychiatrist who has researched post-traumatic stress since the 1970s.
- His 2014 book The Body Keeps the Score became a long-running bestseller.
- He champions body-based treatments such as yoga, EMDR and neurofeedback.
- Scientists have criticized the book for pseudoscientific claims and for steering readers away from evidence-based therapies.
Why it matters
- He shaped how the public and many clinicians talk about trauma, so learners meet his ideas and the strong critiques of them.
Key facts
- Born
- 8 Jul 1943, the Netherlands1
- Known for
- The Body Keeps the Score (2014); the proposed diagnosis Developmental Trauma Disorder1
- Roles
- Professor of psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine; president, Trauma Research Foundation1
- Past roles
- President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; co-director of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network1
- Founded
- The Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts (1982)1
- Education
- MD, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago (1970); psychiatric residency, Harvard (1974)1
Main ideas
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Development and attachment1
Trauma affects people differently depending on developmental stage and how secure their attachment is.
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Developmental Trauma Disorder1
He proposed this diagnosis for children's reactions to repeated trauma; it has not been accepted into the DSM.
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Body-based treatment1
He studies trauma-sensitive yoga, theatre, neurofeedback, psychedelics and EMDR, and in 2014 rejected exposure therapy and CBT.
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The critiques2
A 2025 BJPsych Bulletin review of 122 claims in his book found its claims on trauma-induced brain damage and unique efficacy of body therapies unsupported.
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Recovered memory1
Richard McNally called his 1994 theory one "in search of a phenomenon"; he was a proponent of recovered memory therapy in the early 1990s.
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
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His bestseller on trauma's effects on mind and body and routes to healing; read alongside its critiques.
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Traumatic Stress (with McFarlane and Weisæth)1
An edited clinical volume on the effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body and society (Guilford).
Connections
Related
- Psychological traumaTopicHas researched traumatic stress since the 1970s
- Post-traumatic stress disorderTopicServed on the DSM PTSD committee for the 1980 and 1994 editions
- EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing)TopicReceived the first NIH grants to study EMDR
- Attachment theoryTopicStresses the attachment system in protecting against trauma
- Complex post-traumatic stress disorderTopicProposed developmental trauma disorder as the childhood counterpart
- Internal Family SystemsTopicEndorsed IFS in The Body Keeps the Score
- Polyvagal theoryTopicPraises its explanatory power and uses related techniques
- Trauma-informed careTopicQuoted on safety as what brain and body seek
Links
Sources
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The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.