Healing + Human Potential

The Truth About Trauma Healing: MDMA, EMDR + What ACTUALLY Works! | Bessel van der Kolk

Mar 24, 2026
Guest
Bessel van der Kolk
Bessel van der Kolk, renowned trauma psychiatrist and author of The Body Keeps the Score, offers a fresh look at healing trauma through the body. He explores why trauma feels like present danger, how EMDR, yoga, breathwork, neurofeedback and psychedelics can help, and why community, movement and practice are essential for feeling safe again.
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INSIGHT

How Trauma Changes Perception And Why Rewiring Matters

  • Trauma rewires perception so small triggers feel like present danger rather than past events.
  • EMDR, yoga, neurofeedback and psychedelics change brain networks (insula, TPJ, dlPFC) so memories can be placed in the past and no longer trigger catastrophizing responses.
ADVICE

Try EMDR And Somatic Methods Not Just Talk Therapy

  • Use body-based interventions beyond talk therapy to reprocess trauma memories and shift bodily states.
  • EMDR asks you to evoke sensory elements of the trauma while doing bilateral movements to form new neural pathways.
INSIGHT

Trauma Is A Present Reality Not Just A Past Story

  • The lasting problem of trauma is not only the past event but the ongoing present experience it creates.
  • Traumatized people live in a ‘different reality’—overwhelmed, confused, and unable to take in ordinary stimuli.
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