By Bessel van der Kolk The Body Keeps the Score Mind Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma Paperback – 24 Sept 2015

This book makes sense of data that we've accumulated over several decades, about violent offenders and gang-affiliated young people (both groups are usually highly traumatised). Van der Kolk's book is spot on at every turn. I wish more people with policy-making and public finance responsibility would read it.

The founders of the effect of stress on health are Holmes and Rahe. So surely someone writing this book would have knowledge of that, but NO. So whilst it is a interesting book and worth a read it is severely devalued by poor research and lack of knowledge on the part of the author.

Only read if your mental health is good at the time. Expect some emotional triggers.

PTSD, trauma and anxiety are very difficult issues to treat. This book does an excellent job at explaining why many techniques used to treat them are outdated and may not work in that long term, along with new ideas and areas of research, often backed up by the authors experience.The book gives hope that If you have tried counseling and other forms of talk therapy and found they have not helped, there are other techniques to try, techniques that are rapidly gaining mainstream attention.I have not found a cure in this book, but I am closer and have found techniques that help give me more control over my mind and body than CBT and psychoanalysis.