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Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

#336 How Trauma Impacts Your Physical Health & How To Heal From It with Bessel van der Kolk

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Alternative Health, Mental Health

4.810.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2023

⏱️ 104 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CAUTION: This conversation contains themes of an adult nature and references to sexual assault.


My guest today is someone who I’ve been wanting to speak to for a very long time. Dr Bessel van der Kolk is a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and President of the Trauma Research Foundation in Massachusetts. He’s also the author of the wildly popular book, The Body Keeps the Score, a book about trauma, published in 38 languages and read by millions of people worldwide.


The central philosophy behind Bessel’s work is that traumatic, psychological experiences in life leave a physical imprint within us, which can result in physical and mental health problems. We begin by talking about what exactly trauma is, how it differs from stress, and why it is important for all of us to have compassion and empathy for those affected. He explains the factors that lead to some people becoming traumatised by an experience while others aren’t. And we talk about the importance of family, support, and community when it comes to emotional resilience.


We discuss the variety of different medical conditions and symptoms that may have their root in trauma, from misunderstood illnesses like fibromyalgia to mental health disorders and autoimmune disease. Often, these are the conditions where western medicine really struggles to help.


Bessel has carried out years of research into trauma and studied the many modalities that can help us finally heal. Because our bodies quite literally keep the score and store the trauma, it’s often body-oriented therapies that may prove most helpful. We discuss why yoga (the union of body and mind), dancing or singing can be powerful ways to do this. Movement, he says, is the opposite of being ‘stuck’ in trauma. It’s a somatic pleasure response, an expression of life, and can put vulnerable, traumatised people back in touch with their bodies.


Bessel also shares some fascinating evidence on the power of EMDR (eye movement desensitisation reprogramming), neurofeedback, and talks about his involvement in psychedelic therapy. Such is the prevalence of trauma in society that whether we have experienced it ourselves or we know people who have, it’s vital that we all learn about it and the various ways we can heal.


This is a powerful and insightful conversation with one of the world’s leading authorities on trauma. I hope you enjoy listening.


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Show notes https://drchatterjee.com/336


DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.



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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

When you get traumatized, it's not the external event, but your reaction to that external event.

0:05.7

You cannot cope with it and then your vulnerable to react to other things as if they're catastrophes.

0:12.5

And then oftentimes they start off blaming the people around them for having caused them to be so angry or panic or something or another.

0:21.0

But after a while people start realizing, oh, it's really my reactions that make life so difficult.

0:28.8

Hey guys, how you doing? Hope you have a good week so far.

0:32.8

My name is Dr. Rongan Chatterjee and this is my podcast. Feel better. Live more.

0:41.8

My guest today is someone who I wanted to talk to for a very long time.

0:46.8

Dr. Bessel van der Koke is a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and president of the Trauma Research Foundation in Massachusetts.

0:57.8

He's also the author of the wildly popular book, The Body Keeps the Score, which is a book about trauma that has been published in 38 different languages and read by millions of people across the globe since its publication almost 10 years ago.

1:14.8

Now it continues to find new readers to this day as more people discover Bessel's incredible work on this common misunderstood and underrecognized human experience.

1:26.8

Now the central philosophy behind Bessel's work is that traumatic psychological experiences in life leave a stamp or an imprint within us which can result in physical and mental health problems.

1:41.8

We start off by discussing what exactly trauma is, how trauma is different from stress and why it's so important for all of us to have compassion and empathy for those affected.

1:54.8

Now one of the things that I find fascinating about trauma is that we can all be exposed to the same experiences but not all of us will end up feeling traumatized.

2:06.8

And in our conversation we talk about some of the key factors that may play a role here.

2:11.8

We also talk about the variety of different medical conditions and symptoms that may have their root and trauma conditions like fibromyalgia, mental health disorders, autoimmune disease to name just a few things that are different.

2:23.8

And often these are the conditions where Western medicine really struggles to help.

2:29.8

Now Bessel has carried out years of research into trauma and studied the many treatment modalities that can help us to finally heal.

2:38.8

Because our bodies quite literally keep the score and store the trauma, it's often body-orientated therapies that can prove most helpful, the goal being to help us feel safe inside our bodies.

2:52.8

Now we talk about a variety of different therapies that can help, including things like yoga, dancing, singing and theatre.

3:00.8

In fact, Bessel shares a powerful example where young offenders in Massachusetts are sometimes allowed to study Shakespeare instead of facing a custodial sentence.

3:12.8

Movement also plays an important role in the treatment of trauma because with trauma we feel stuck and the right movement can help us feel free again.

3:22.8

We also touch on a therapy called EMDR.

...

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