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Bessel van der Kolk

The author presents the book in a first-person perspective, detailing his experiences with both patients and fellow doctors. He chronicles his career working with trauma at several different institutions, including the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, the Boston State Hospital, the Boston Veterans Administration (VA) Clinic, and the Brookline Trauma Center.

Patients

Tom

A Vietnam war veteran treated by van der Kolk on his first day at the Boston VA Clinic. Tom experienced flashbacks, felt both shameful and emotionally numb, and engaged in risky behavior.

Marsha

A woman who lost her daughter in a car accident 13 years prior to joining a study at Harvard Medical School that mapped how the brain responds to the recreation of trauma via a script.

Stan and Ute Lawrence

A couple that had differing reactions to an 87-car pile-up that they were both in. Stan experienced flashbacks after the accident, while Ute experienced depersonalization. They participated in a brain scan study.

Sherry

One of van der Kolk’s patients. A survivor of childhood neglect, emotional abuse, and rape that experienced severe disconnection from her body and its sensations.

Marilyn

One of van der Kolk’s patients. An incest survivor who had repressed memories and disconnected during both the childhood trauma and any sexual situations during her adulthood.

Julian

One of van der Kolk’s patients. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest, Paul Shanley. Julian had repressed his memories of this trauma.

Nancy

One of van der Kolk’s patients. A woman who experienced anesthesia awareness during a surgery and remained awake and paralyzed for most of it. She experienced a dual existence in which she performed well at work but remained emotionally numb in her personal life.

Kathy

One of van der Kolk’s patients. A survivor of incest and prostitution who was treated with EMDR.

Annie

One of van der Kolk’s patients. A survivor of incest who was treated with yoga

Joan and Brian

Two of van der Kolk’s patients. Joan was a survivor of incest and Brian a survivor of childhood abuse. Both were treated with internal family systems therapy.

Peter

One of van der Kolk’s patients. A survivor of childhood abuse who was treated with internal family systems therapy.

Maria

A survivor of childhood abuse. She participated in one of van der Kolk’s psychomotor therapy workshop involving structures.

Mark

A survivor of emotional childhood abuse. He participated in one of van der Kolk’s psychomotor therapy workshop involving structures.

Lisa

One of Sebern Fisher’s patients. A survivor of childhood abuse who was treated with neurofeedback.

Nick van der Kolk

The author’s son. After an illness, he joined a theater class that proved to be therapeutic for him.

Scientists

Abram Kardiner

Author of The Traumatic Neuroses of War (1941) which detailed the post-traumatic responses of World War I veterans, then described as “shell shock.”

Steven Maier

Leader of a study on inescapable shock and learned helplessness in dogs along with Martin Seligman. Maier gave a presentation attended by van der Kolk in 1984.

Stephen Porges

The creator of polyvagal theory. It proposes the idea of the ventral and dorsal vagal complexes, which aid in socialization and immobilization respectively.

Ruth Lanius

A student and colleague of van der Kolk’s. She assisted with the study that Stan and Ute Lawrence participated in, as well as leading a study on the default state network, or DSN.

John Bowlby

The developer of attachment theory, which categorizes children’s attachment to their caregiver(s) as secure or insecure.

Judy Herman

A research partner of van der Kolk’s in a study on the relationship between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and childhood trauma and abuse.

Vincent Felitti

Leader of the pioneering Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, which showed the correlation between high ACE numbers and poor health and behavioral outcomes later in life.

Pierre Janet

Author of L’automatisme psychologique (1889), a seminal book about traumatic stress. He studied traumatic memory, reenactment, and dissociation.

Richard Schwartz

Developer of internal family systems therapy (IFS), which considers different parts of the psyche in treatment.

Albert Pesso

Developer of Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP) therapy, which uses physical tableaus formed of participants.

Sebern Fisher

A colleague of van der Kolk’s who introduced him to neurofeedback therapy. She had been using neurofeedback for ten years by 2007.

Paul Griffin

Founder of the Possibility Project, in which participants would write, direct, and perform their own full-length musical. He also began a program specifically for foster care children.

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