Cover of The Body Keeps the Score

Book · 2014 · Psychology

The Body Keeps the Score

Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

by Bessel van der Kolk · Recommended by 21 people on 13 podcasts

Why people recommend it

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk is a comprehensive exploration of how psychological trauma physically alters the brain and body, offering pathways to recovery through modern therapeutic practices. The book is widely celebrated by podcast guests as an essential text for understanding trauma. On The Diary Of A CEO, Joe Navarro recommended the volume while discussing the physical toll of toxic relationships, a sentiment echoed by Dr. Mark Hyman, who noted how human biography translates into biology. On The Joe Rogan Experience, Gabor Maté and Yannis Pappas both referenced the psychiatrist's work to explain how PTSD and unresolved trauma manifest physically within the body. Dr. Maté also recommended the text on The Diary Of A CEO as an accessible guide for anyone seeking to understand trauma and healing. Ryan Holiday brought up the book on The Daily Stoic to discuss how individuals endure and process life-altering events, while Rachel Zofness highlighted the volume on The Ezra Klein Show as a transformative read that fundamentally changed her relationship with pain and healing. Across these episodes, speakers emphasize the book's profound value in bridging the gap between mental health, somatic experiences, and long-term recovery.

Who recommended it

Steven Bartlett — 9 mentions
Discussed
“the body keeps the score this was a a pretty radical approach to thinking through trauma and it became a meme which is an interesting thing to see”
Discussed
“I haven't read the book, but I loved the title of the book, The Body Holds the Score, and I watched a summary of that book, and one of the things it talks about in the book is the role of yoga as one of the things that really helps people with certain mental health predicaments.”
Discussed
“yo there's this book called The Body holds the score but the title is just the thing that I I I've I've actually gained the most from it just says that when there's things going on in our psychology and our mind the body will show it”
Discussed
“I read um read some books I think one of them was called the body holds the score which talks about mhm the role that acting can play as sort of a therapy”
Discussed
“I read this book called The Body holds the score then if you ever heard of it and one of the most fascinating things about it is it talks about how acting and moving the body in like yoga have been proven to be the best forms of um antidepressant like without you know taking ssris or anything they've been”
Discussed
“I read this book called The Body Holds the Score and I was actually speaking to one of my best friends yesterday who was a extreme workaholic”
Discussed
“on the surface i was kind of shrugging off and playing it cool but my body as the famous book goes held the score”
Brad Barrett — 5 mentions
Discussed
“and we're talking about about the body keeps the score and I have a longer quote here but I think it's a good one he said”
Discussed
“and I think about a famous book that came out a couple years back the body keeps the score”
Discussed
“And I think about a famous book that came out a couple of years back: The Body Keeps the Score.”
Discussed
“I suspect there's a book called the body keeps the score which is yes similar I don't know if that that's in your book as well”
Discussed
“I'm glad you referenced some of those books; one such book is called 'The Body Keeps the Score.'”
Ryan Holiday — 3 mentions
Discussed
“The body keeps the score. Yeah. Which is like the densest, most [ __ ] up book you could ever read. It's about like generational trauma, but you call it The Body Keeps the Score, and you're like, That's a secret. I need to know that.”
Recommended
“Have you read the book 'The Body Keeps the Score'?”
Recommended
“have you read the book The Body keep score well I think you would like it but it's the idea that these things happen to us we endure these things”
Chris Williamson — 3 mentions
Discussed
“I think Bessel vul's really great book the title I think probably did a lot of disservice and Confused a lot of people who never read it and made assumptions about what was in the book”
Discussed
“yeah when it comes to the body keeping the score what do you mean how does the body actually register this”
Discussed
“you mentioned that you tried every modality that you put in the body keeps the score which is the one that you have found to be either most impactful”
Gabor Mate — 3 mentions
Recommended
“i mean uh i don't know if you know the name bessel van der kolk he's a psychiatrist this is in the perennial bestseller in the new york times called the body keeps the score which is about trauma”
Discussed
“i don't know if you know the name bessel van der kolk he's a psychiatrist this is in the perennial bestseller in the new york times called the body keeps the score which is about trauma”
Recommended
“Read Bessel van der Kolk's book on trauma called The Body Keeps the Score.”
Russell Kennedy — 2 mentions
Discussed
“So the short version is you had a trauma that's too much for you to bear as a child. It got pushed into your unconscious mind and because the body is a representation of the unconscious mind, the body keeps the score and that trauma gets stored in your body”
Discussed
“and as Bessel Vandercook talks about on the body keeps the score the the mind is is represented by the body so if there's a representation of your body in your unconscious mind we can use that sensation in your body”
Scott Barry Kaufman — 2 mentions
Critiqued
“The body keeps the score is like the number one. It's been on the New York Times bestseller list. It's created a whole cold falling and has so much popularity.”
Critiqued
“Um this notion that trauma is stored in the body I don't think is scientifically accurate. You know, the body keeps the score is like the number one. It's been on the New York Times bestseller list.”
Connor Beaton — 2 mentions
Discussed
“there's actually more information being sent from your body up into your brain than from your brain down into your body which is the work of Bess Bessel vanderock from the body keeps the score”
Discussed
“you know a lot of the research shows you know the book body keeps the score”
Shaan Puri — 1 mention
Discussed
“I've read The Body Keeps the Score and I like intuitively know that like trauma is a physical thing, but like to put it on a really practical level, you ever get like a slack or an email from a co-orker that says, 'Can we talk?'”
Andrew Huberman — 1 mention
Discussed
“I think it that whole verbiage comes from this notion and the quite pioneering although I would say somewhat outof-date book the body keeps the score I think is it was an important book best title of any book you could imagine in the psychology space because it's so catchy am and I want to give proper respect to um”
Jessica Baum — 1 mention
Discussed
“think the body keeps the score. That if you don't want to call it your inner child, we still need to start to look at how memory systems work in your body and how that your memory system is constantly speaking to you.”
Joe Navarro — 1 mention
Recommended
“you know, there's a great book called the the the body keeps the score. The body will definitely keeps the score.”
Steve Levitt — 1 mention
Discussed
“I'm sure you're familiar with the book the body keeps the score by Bessel vender i'm probably misinterpreting his argument for certain I'm radically simplifying it”
Yannis Pappas — 1 mention
Recommended
“there's a book called um the body keeps the score by I think his name is Bessel”
Joe Rogan — 1 mention
Discussed
“There's a book called The Body Keeps the Score by— I think his name is Bessel!”
Neal Brennan — 1 mention
Discussed
“it's like this guy peter levine wrote a book called the body keeps the score which is like the body stores trauma and then if you do traumatic release it'll like shake it out”
Dr. Mark Hyman — 1 mention
Recommended
“and there's a book called the body keeps score and and Carolyn mace was a sort of a Mystic said you your biography becomes your biology”
David Perell — 1 mention
Discussed
“You wrote an amazing one about the body keeps the score. That is so good.”
Rachel Zofness — 1 mention
Recommended
“the other book is the body keeps the score Bessel vanderkle”
Kelly Rowland — 1 mention
Discussed
“there's this book that i still have to read called the the body keeps the score i believe yes”
Bridget Phetasy — 1 mention
Recommended
“you know I hate I hate that the word triggered has been destroyed like it's been destroyed because it does when you have had trauma and there's a brilliant book the body keeps the score and he talks about how it lives in your body basically”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 8
Discussed
“But I find that there's a limit to where talking therapy can go, and that is trauma that's stored in the body, which you're not even consciously aware of. Have you heard of that book, 'The Body Keeps the Score'? Yeah, it was written in the '70s, but it's back on the bestseller list, which gives me hope that more”
Discussed
“The book 'The Body Keeps the Score' reminds us that no matter what's happening intellectually, all the work I’ve done in therapy for 23 years has to land in the body.”
Discussed
“And back to Bessel van der Kolk, when I read this word in his book "The Body Keeps the Score," Alexia.”
Discussed
“My friend and colleague, and teacher, Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist who wrote the book 'The Body Keeps the Score,' said to me once, 'Gabor, you don’t have to drag your hurts around with you all the time,' which means you don’t have to allow—not to forget about the hurts, but not to let that control your consciousness.”
Discussed
“There’s a catchy book title, but with all due respect to, I think, the important work of Vander, that oversimplification led folks to believe their back pain was trauma and not all trauma is somaticized.”
Discussed
“Many may have heard of the book 'The Body Keeps the Score,' which suggests that trauma can be stored in the body; however, it is important to clarify that traumas aren't actually stored in the body itself. What is stored are the activations of neural circuits that include both the brain and body, which center around a brain structure called”
Discussed
“One really wonderful book is The Body Keeps Score about trauma, right?”
Discussed
“Um, but yeah, I started reading a book, it's a famous one called 'The Body Keeps the Score', and it's basically the premise is about how trauma is stored in our bodies.”

Also mentioned in the same episodes

Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
Own book
“it is interesting indeed that it's so obvious and I actually have gotten you know my bookstore sold five million copies I've hardly had any blowback of people say that I'm getting it wrong”