“The greatest hope for traumatized, abused, and neglected children is to receive a good education in schools where they are seen and known, where they learn to regulate themselves, and where they can develop a sense of agency. At their best, schools can function as islands of safety in a chaotic worl…”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Mainstream trauma treatment has paid scant attention to helping terrified people to safely experience their sensations and emotions.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“The emotional brain initiates preprogrammed escape plans, like the fight-or-flight responses. These muscular and physiological reactions are automatic, set in motion without any thought or planning on our part, leaving our conscious, rational capacities to catch up later, often well after the threat…”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Trauma constantly confronts us with our fragility and with man’s inhumanity to man but also with our extraordinary resilience.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Traumatized people are afraid of conflict. They fear losing control and ending up on the losing side once again.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Chronic childhood abuse causes very different mental and biological adaptations than discrete traumatic events in adulthood.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“The most primitive part, the part that is already online when we are born, is the ancient animal brain, often called the reptilian brain.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Our rational, cognitive brain is actually the youngest part of the brain and occupies only about 30 percent of the area inside our skull.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“After trauma the world is experienced with a different nervous system. The survivor’s energy now becomes focused on suppressing inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Being traumatized means continuing to organize your life as if the trauma were still going on—unchanged and immutable—as every new encounter or event is contaminated by the past.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Trauma affects the entire human organism—body, mind, and brain. In PTSD the body continues to defend against a threat that belongs to the past.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com