The Body Keeps the Score – Summarized for Busy People: Brain, Mind, and Body In the Healing of Trauma: Based on the Book by Bessel van der Kolk MD

If PTSD is dissociating, then treatment should be through associating or integrating the elements of trauma into the current narrative of one’s life in order for the brain to differentiate then and now.

Securely attached children learn agency where their actions could affect the people around them. They understand the difference between situations where they are in control and where they would need help. When children grow up abused and neglected, on the other hand, they would understand that pleading and crying would not register with the caregiver. It would then cause them to give up when challenges arise

The children from the Children’s Clinic were asked to describe the photos and traumatized kids created gruesome tales even when looking at pleasant family images. Children who weren’t traumatized, on the other hand, thought of the positive aspect of bad situations. Abused children thought of triggers

Alternative techniques like breathing exercises, martial arts, group singing, and dancing rely on interpersonal rhythm and communication. This would also help people with trauma shift their perception of danger and increase their ability to create and manage meaningful relationships

People with PTSD have erratic flashbacks which cause them to feel weary and depressed. Their reactions would be irrational, intense, and uncontrollable. What they need to do is to have control over their internal sensations and emotions.

They also saw how Broca’s area, the part of the brain responsible for speech, is not activated during flashbacks. This explains why traumatized people find it difficult to tell others what happened to them. Without the ability to describe their horrible events, nightmares and flashbacks get to them.

The brain-disease framework overlooked the humanistic dimensions by leaving out the natural ways of treating PTSD. However, it’s important to remember that (1) restoring relationships also restore well-being, (2) communicating experiences and finding common ground empowers us to change ourselves and others, (3) we are able to regulate our own bodies, including the functions of the brain and body, and (4) changing social conditions can create safe environments.

People who were traumatized have the tendency to look for the experience that had traumatized them in the first place. Studies show how fearful and painful activities later become thrilling experience

Psychological problems, according to neuroscience research, stems from the conflict between the emotional and rational brains.

esisting trauma can be done only while it is anchored in the present.