The Body Keeps the Score. But the Mind and Heart Do Too.

Key Points:

• Since its 2014 release, Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score has become a seminal work on trauma, emphasizing how trauma imprints on the nervous system and causes lasting physiological effects, challenging previous cultural and spiritual minimizations of trauma.
• A recent study in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience critiques Van der Kolk’s body-centric model, proposing instead that trauma involves active cognitive processes where the brain’s erroneous threat predictions drive bodily stress responses, highlighting a more integrated mind-body relationship.
• The study supports the effectiveness of both mind-based and body-based interventions for trauma, suggesting these approaches are interconnected rather than mutually exclusive, contrasting with Van der Kolk’s more reductionist framing.
• From a Christian perspective, trauma affects the body, mind, and heart in an interconnected way, and holistic care should address all these dimensions without reverting to purely spiritual explanations or neglecting bodily responses.
• Practical implications include recognizing the agency of trauma survivors through their mind and faith, encouraging the church to support integrated care, and grounding healing in spiritual truths alongside body and mind interventions.