Bessel van der Kolk

Bessel van der Kolk is a Dutch-born psychiatrist, researcher and teacher who has worked in the United States since the early 1970s. He earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago and became known for research and clinical work on post-traumatic stress, childhood trauma and dissociation. He founded the Trauma Center and later became president of the Trauma Research Foundation.

His nonfiction brings clinical cases into conversation with neuroscience, developmental psychology and the history of psychiatric treatment. A recurring argument is that overwhelming experience may persist beyond conscious recollection, shaping bodily reactions, attention, trust and emotional regulation. He also discusses treatments that involve the body and focused attention, including yoga, neurofeedback and EMDR.

The Body Keeps the Score, published in 2014, is his best-known book and became a number-one New York Times bestseller. Written for general readers as well as clinicians, it traces changing ideas about trauma through accounts of veterans, abused children and other patients, then considers a range of possible routes toward recovery. Van der Kolk has also published extensively in scientific journals and edited or contributed to specialist books on traumatic stress.

For a new reader, The Body Keeps the Score is the clear starting point. It gathers decades of his clinical and research interests into one accessible volume, moving from the biology of traumatic memory to the practical question of how people can regain safety and agency.