How trauma stays in the body and how to remove it with Bessel van der Kolk | Full Interview

Big Think October 3, 2025
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Big Think exists to make you smarter, faster. Through conversations with the world’s brightest thinkers, we bring you the ideas shaping the future of science, philosophy, culture, and the human mind. Our library of thousands of videos distills complex insight into clear, actionable wisdom for how to think, work, and live in a changing world. Meet legendary teachers like philosopher Daniel Dennett, physicist Brian Cox, classicist Mary Beard, psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, political scientist Ian Bremmer, anthropologist Helen Fisher, and hundreds more — all sharing the ideas that define our time and the questions that will shape our future.

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"One of the largest mitigating factors against getting traumatized is who is there for you at that particular time." Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, How the body keeps the score on trauma | Bessel van der Kolk for Big Think+ ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTefkqYQz8g Trauma doesn’t vanish when danger does. According to psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, the body acts as an archive, holding fear, pain, and survival instincts long after the moment passes. Van der Kolk explains why conventional treatments for trauma fall short, and the promising new pathways to healing that science is revealing. 0:00 Chapter 1: Trauma, explained 1:21 PTSD in veterans 2:09 Connecting with others after trauma 4:28 The prevalence of trauma 5:35 What is trauma? 8:19 The greatest protector of trauma 9:37 Trauma in the brain 11:46 Automatic responses 14:56 The brain and our experiences 16:52 Re-experiencing trauma 19:58 Brain development and trauma 27:29 Chapter 2: Shaping childhood trauma 28:27 Reenacting trauma in relationships 31:41 Understanding each other’s trauma 34:59 Long term effects of child abuse 36:34 Chapter 3: How to treat trauma 36:57 “A post-alcoholic culture” 37:27 Zoloft, Prozac, and other PTSD drugs 39:15 The Adverse Childhood Experiences study 40:48 Drug addiction 43:02 Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) 45:48 Unconventional trauma treatments 46:30 The brain-body connection Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/trauma-brain-body-connection/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Bessel van der Kolk: Bessel van der Kolk MD spends his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences and has translated emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults.

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