Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D.
Dr. Bessel A. van der Kolk has been active as a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of posttraumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. His work integrates developmental, biological, psychodynamic, and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment. His book Psychological Trauma was the first integrative text on the subject, depicting the far ranging impact of trauma on the entire person and the range of therapeutic issues which need to be addressed for recovery.
Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma, exploring such issues as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development in traumatized children and adults, and the psychobiology of trauma. He was coprincipal investigator of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition Field Trials for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is currently conducting research on trauma and memory processes and brain imaging studies of PTSD.
Dr. van der Kolk is past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, and Clinical director of the Trauma Center at HRI Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts. He has taught at universities and hospitals across the United States and around the world, including Europe, Africa, Russia, Australia, Israel, and China. His latest book, Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society, coedited with Alexander McFarlane and Lars Weisaeth, explores what we have learned in the past 20 years about the role of trauma in psychiatric illness. |
|
|
