Join us on Monday 16th September at the University of Greenwich, London, for an exclusive evening with Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, the world-renowned author of the New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. This intimate event is specially organised for Psychedelic Society members, offering a rare opportunity to connect with one of the foremost experts in trauma healing.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has dedicated his professional life to understanding how both children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences. By translating the latest discoveries in neuroscience and attachment research, he has developed and studied a range of effective treatments for traumatic stress and developmental trauma across all ages.

Trauma is a pervasive reality. Veterans and their families grapple with the lingering effects of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up in households with alcoholism; and one in three couples has experienced physical violence. As one of the world’s leading experts on trauma, Dr. van der Kolk has spent over three decades working closely with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he leverages recent scientific breakthroughs to reveal how trauma profoundly reshapes both the body and brain, impairing sufferers' ability to experience pleasure, maintain engagement, exercise self-control, and build trust. He delves into innovative treatments—ranging from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that unlock new avenues for recovery by harnessing the brain’s inherent neuroplasticity.

Drawing on his own research as well as that of other top specialists, The Body Keeps the Score highlights the extraordinary influence of relationships, both in inflicting pain and in facilitating healing, and offers renewed hope for reclaiming a fulfilling life.

When & Where

Monday 16th September 2024 

18:00 Doors open 

18:30 Talk begins

20:00 Q&A and time for socialising

Location: University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS
 

SPEAKER

Bessel van der Kolk MD

​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.

In 1984, he set up one of the first clinical/research centers in the US dedicated to study and treatment of traumatic stress in civilian populations, which has trained numerous researchers and clinicians specializing in the study and treatment of traumatic stress, and which has been continually funded to research the impact of traumatic stress and effective treatment interventions. He did the first studies on the effects of SSRIs on PTSD; was a member of the first neuroimaging team to investigate how trauma changes brain processes, and did the first research linking BPD and deliberate self-injury to trauma and neglect in early childhood.

Much of his research has focused on how trauma has a different impact at different stages of development, and that disruptions in care-giving systems have additional deleterious effects that need to be addressed for effective intervention. In order to promote a deeper understanding of the impact of childhood trauma and to foster the development and execution of effective treatment interventions, he initiated the process that led to the establishment of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), a Congressionally mandated initiative that now funds approximately 150 centers specializing in developing effective treatment interventions, and implementing them in a wide array of settings, from juvenile detention centers to tribal agencies, nationwide.

He has focused on studying treatments that stabilize physiology, increase executive functioning and help traumatized individuals to feel fully alert to the present. This has included an NIMH funded study on EMDR and NCCAM funded study of yoga, and, in recent years, the study of neurofeedback to investigate whether attentional and perceptual systems (and the neural tracks responsible for them) can be altered by changing EEG patterns.

​His efforts resulted in the establishment of Trauma Center (now the Trauma Research Foundation) that consisted of a well-trained clinical team specializing in the treatment of children and adults with histories of child maltreatment, that applied treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide, a research lab that studied the effects of neurofeedback and MDMA on behavior, mood, and executive functioning, and numerous trainings nationwide to a variety of mental health professional, educators, parent groups, policy makers, and law enforcement personnel.

Bessel is the Principal Investigator for the recently completed Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) sponsored phase 3 program - evaluating the efficacy of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Moderate to Severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This multi-center study is designed to provide information on whether the drug MDMA combined with psychotherapy is safe and helpful for people with PTSD. 

Licia Sky

Co-founder of the Trauma Research Foundation.

Licia Sky is a somatic educator, artist, singer-songwriter, and bodyworker who works with traumatized individuals and trains mental health professionals to use mindful meditation in movement, theater exercises, writing, and voice as tools for attunement, healing, and connection. She is a regular instructor in trauma healing workshops at Cape Cod Institute, Kripalu, and Esalen. For the past decade, she has been teaching expanded awareness in workshops to clinicians and laypeople around the world.

www.trauamresearchfoundation.org
 

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