On today’s episode of Being Well, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, the author of The Body Keeps the Score, joins Rick and Forrest to explore how trauma keeps us stuck, and how we can use imagination, self-expression, and creativity to break away from those old patterns. Along the way they talk about using somatic and non-cognitive interventions, internalized abuse, the value of a developmental perspective, using psychedelics for complex trauma, some of the problems with modern psychiatry, and how we can cultivate an equitable, flexible, and compassionate approach to treatment.

About Our Guest: Bessel van der Kolk is a professor of Psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and president of the Trauma Research Foundation in Brookline, Massachusetts. He’s also the bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score, which is one of the most influential modern books in the field. 

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

1:15: Imagination and aspirational thinking in healing trauma

4:55: Creativity and cultural context

6:10: Where a sense of agency begins

8:40: Why people internalize abuse

16:30: The many practices for redefining past traumas  

22:10: The state of psychedelic research and the importance of patient care

29:15: The need for new approaches to diagnosis and treatment

34:00: Issues with the DSM-5 and the need to integrate interpersonal processes

38:50: What counts as trauma? Collective trauma?

42:25: The need for cooperative strategies confronting trauma in pro-social movements

45:15: What helps people resource themselves to create change?

51:45: Recap

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