Healing from Trauma | Bessel van der Kolk, MD

The Doctor's Art

Though often invisible in our society, studies have shown that more than seven out of ten people experience trauma at some point in their lives, whether it's physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or a life-threatening accident or illness. In this episode, we speak with Bessel van der Kolk, MD, a psychiatrist and pioneering researcher on post-traumatic stress. His 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, spent 27 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. He is the past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss why Dr. van der Kolk began studying trauma, the role of non-pharmaceutical methods in treating post-traumatic stress, how health care providers can overcome the psychological and emotional burden of encountering stressful situations in their practice, and how we can get back in touch with the irreducible human dimensions of love, belonging, and meaning through creativity, fellowship, self-expression, and imagination.

In this episode, you will hear about:

• Why Dr. van der Kolk finds trauma a fascinating area of study - 2:16
• How Dr. van der Kolk views the emotional burden he carries from helping patients - 3:47
• A discussion of empathy and sympathy, and how they impact physicians dealing with patient suffering on a daily basis - 7:53
• Self-compassion: what does it look like and how do you cultivate it? - 14:10
• A discussion of trauma how it manifests physically and mentally - 19:22
• The difference between the “top-down” and “bottom-up” paradigms of coping with trauma and stress - 29:31
• How the complexities of trauma have been oversimplified repeatedly throughout history - 32:06
• Advice on cultivating a compassionate and sympathetic mindset for new physicians - 41:36
• How medical practitioners can safely process the trauma of medical training - 47:38

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

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