Rediscovering trauma

Van der Kolk, a psychiatrist, began his career working with Vietnam veterans at a Veterans Administration clinic in Boston. He saw that their trauma was not just a memory of the past. Many still felt and reacted as if the danger were happening now.

Over decades of research and clinical work, he came to see trauma as something that changes the brain, the mind and the body, affecting how people feel safe, connect with others and experience themselves.