Book Review: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

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I read The Body Keeps the Score in 2020, in the middle of my health journey — overcoming a lot of challenges in my health and my life, and newly done with alcohol for good. It was exactly the book for that season: it made me think hard about the connection between the body and the mind, at the precise moment my own body was demanding I pay attention.

The spoiler-free setup: van der Kolk, a psychiatrist who has spent his career on trauma, argues that trauma doesn’t just live in memory — it lives in the body, reshaping the nervous system itself. Which is why, the book argues, talk alone often isn’t enough, and body-based practices (yoga included) belong in the healing toolkit.

What I Loved About The Body Keeps the Score

I thought it was really good — and more than that, useful. The body-mind connection stopped being an abstraction for me around this book: it sent me leaning back into my yoga teacher training with new eyes, and it opened a door to a much deeper interest in how the body holds what the mind can’t process. If you’ve ever felt your body keeping receipts your brain refuses to file, this book explains the accounting.

What I Didn’t Love (the Asterisk)

Two things. First, the honest asterisk: the author has taken some flack in recent years, and I don’t know enough about what’s true and what isn’t to litigate it here — I can only review the book, whose contents genuinely helped me. Do your own reading on the rest. Second, with distance it sits at four stars for me rather than five: it’s a book I’m glad I read once, thoroughly, rather than one I return to.

Final Thoughts on The Body Keeps the Score

My final score: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? 👍 Yes — with the asterisk above, and self-compassion while reading.

Take it slow, and maybe keep something light on the nightstand next to it. The full shelf — light things included — is at book reviews.

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