The Body Keeps the Score: The Original Paper
Oct 22, 2026The original paper
van der Kolk BA. The Body Keeps the Score: Memory and the Evolving Psychobiology of Posttraumatic Stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1994.
Read the original paper on PubMed →
Summary
Long before the bestselling book, this paper set out the idea behind it: traumatic experiences are often not stored as a story you can tell, but as sensations, emotions and body states.
That is why trauma can resurface as a reaction in the body — a racing heart, a frozen feeling — long before the mind knows why.
Key finding
Trauma resurfaces in the body, not the narrative.
Why this matters
This is the heart of my work: we don't just talk about what happened — we work with where it's held.
Research is summarised in plain language for a general audience. Hypnotherapy and energy healing are complementary approaches and are not a substitute for medical or psychiatric care.