I didn't read this for so long because I thought it was going to be hard and heavy since it This book has been repeatedly recommended to me over the past year, and despite purchasing my own copy on fall book tour, I postponed reading it. I expected it to be hard and heavy—it does have "trauma" in the title, after all—but while van der Kolk certainly addresses difficult subjects, the main descriptor I'd use is fascinating. Burying our traumatic experiences comes at a great cost, because they can't truly be ignored—those experiences manifest themselves in our very bodies. Van der Kolk explores what that looks like, and what to do about it. Some of the treatment options were so unexpected (and effective) that I couldn't resist reading paragraphs out loud to my husband.
