Episode Details

In this week’s episode, Amrit interviews Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist, author, researcher and educator based in Boston, USA. He was previously the president for the International Society for Traumatic stress Studies, former co-director of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and president of the Trauma Research Foundation in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Dr. Bessel has published over 150 peer reviewed scientific articles on trauma and how to heal from trauma. He is the author of “Post-traumatic Stress Disorder”, “Psychological Trauma”, Traumatic Stress with Alexander C. McFarlane and Lars Weisæth, and the New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score. 

In this episode, Amrit and Dr. Bessel have a profound conversation about trauma and healing. They dive deep into what causes trauma, how and why it gets stored in the body, and effective healing modalities to recover from it.

If you would like to have access to Dr. Bessel’s best seller “The Body Keeps the Score” and learn more about how to heal a body that stores trauma, please go to:  https://amz.run/4I8M   

In the first part of this chapter, Amrit and Dr. Bessel talk about what is trauma, what goes on in our brain when we hold on to things that we can't let go of, how we navigate the world with stored traumatic experiences, experiences that can prevent you from living a life and the importance of having people around you when feeling overwhelmed. 

They converse about the changes in your brain when you go through a dramatic experience, different parts of the body related to traumatic experiences, the role of helplessness when trying to get out of a traumatic experience we can’t get out of and the role of our nervous system when processing trauma.

They cave into a dialogue around the link between our rational mind and the trauma we experience and where the trauma is stored. 

In regards to this modern society in which people have in their heads what their bodies should look like; they talk about whether this is potentially creating more of a disconnection rather than a connection to their bodies.

Furthermore, in the second half of the episode, they dive deep into healing with a short parable of the raft and how once helpful things can become a burden instead. 

They talk about how to begin with healing, how every culture has their own indigenous ways of dealing with trauma, the importance of some modalities of healing having someone around, modalities for healing with no one around, different healing therapies, western culture’s therapies, and promising neurofeedback and psychedelic therapy with it’s different perspectives.

In this chapter you will discover what trauma is, how it makes you feel, how it is formed and created, how it changes your brain, why people experiencing trauma keep behaving and reacting as if they were stuck in that experience, why you get stuck in a state of hyper alertness and why your body, mind and entire system gets frozen or stuck in “fight or flight” mode.

You will understand why people try to shut the feeling down and end up shutting down their ability to feel turning to drugs, alcohol, pharmaceuticals and compulsive behaviour. 

You also will have access to different modalities and therapies for healing trauma, promising research around psychotropics and psychedelic therapy and neurofeedback.

You will learn the importance of taking care of your body, feeling safe and being surrounded by your loved ones.

You will master the most effective healing modalities to recover from trauma!

“Take care of your body”

“Develop a loving relationship to take care of your body”

About Dr. Bessel van der Kolk: