Not down with the pseudoscience. ( )

An excellent read. I subtracted a star solely due to the profanity used in a couple of the quotes throughout. Otherwise, it would have been a 5-star book. ( )

I cannot express the importance of listening to our bodies when we experience any type of trauma or stress! Van der Kolk hit the nail on the head with this intense, and extremely informative self help journey (as I saw it) to help us overcome whatever trauma we are dealing with! ( )

Treatment improvements for PTSD in a long sequence that seems to span forty years or so. The best message was the superiority of therapy over drug treatments. ( )

This book is now six years old (published 2014 for those reading this later than 2020), but it's going to remain relevant to basic trauma treatment as long as we remain human.

I've been making my way through it since early November (I always read nonfiction slowly), and can finally report that it is well worth your time. In fact, I'd go so far as to say everyone probably should read at least parts of it. We all have trauma or know & love people who carry trauma. For me, it's given me not only ways to understand behaviors in me and those around me, but also it's given me ways to be kinder. I'm grateful for that.

It's also left me hopeful. If we can fight down the asshats who've been put in charge to serve the rich greedy and power-hungry few, there is real progress to be made for each other, with each other.

I read this to familiarize myself with PTSD and trauma because one of my characters suffers. So, writers? Do your readers a favor and use this as research. You'll learn a LOT. ( )