Lesson 1: How Trauma Changes the Brain | Bessel van der Kolk
March 18, 2026
2
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9:15Now PlayingLesson 1: How Trauma Changes the Brain | Bessel van der Kolk
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelAlbert Einstein is credited with saying, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” But what if someone’s experience includes trauma?
Unfortunately, according to psychiatrist and neuroscientist Bessel van der Kolk, traumatic experience alters a person’s brain and negatively impacts their perspective of themselves and what they “know” about the world and people around them.
In this video lesson, he explores how different types of trauma — and the support someone does or doesn’t have when they’re going through it — influence a person’s internal map of the world
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About Bessel van der Kolk:
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.
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