Bessel van der Kolk, MD, has been active as a clinician, researcher and teacher of post-traumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. His work integrates developmental, biological, psychodynamic, and interpersonal aspects of trauma and its treatment.

Bessel is founder and Medical Director of the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute. He is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, Medical Director of the Trauma Center, and Director of the National Complex Trauma Treatment Network at JRI. He has taught at universities and hospitals worldwide.

His most recent New York Times bestseller, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma describes the science behind traumatic stress, the brain, and how to heal.