Over the course of several months during the most acute period of the pandemic, I listened to Bessel Van Der Kolk’s pivotal work, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma on audiobook. This Fall at the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan, I’ll be leading a book discussion on it. Truly, I’d place this one in the top five books I’ve ever read.
The Body Keeps the Score is remarkably insightful and impactful in addressing how traumatic experiences are carried in the body. In addition to explaining the physiology of post-traumatic symptoms in detail, he uplifts a number of somatic approaches to healing trauma in our bodies and relationships.
Today, I’d like to uplift a quote that really spoke to me. Bessel Van Der Kolk says,
“Study after study shows that having a good support network constitutes the single most powerful protection against becoming traumatized. Safety and terror are incompatible. When we are terrified, nothing calms us down like a reassuring voice or the firm embrace of someone we trust.”
After hearing him talk about so many other protective factors, studies, and forms of therapy, I thought it was really significant for him to say that support networks and forms of community are the single most powerful protection against becoming traumatized.
When we reach out to someone…
When we share how we’re really doing…
When we introduce people to each other…
When we learn about community organizations…
When we suggest community resources…
We are participating in the protection of the body, mind, and spirit. We are building networks that protect ourselves and our neighbors from becoming traumatized, not only in the present, but also, possibly down the line in ways we can’t anticipate.
–Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 