The Body Keeps the Score: Trauma, Attachment, and Neuroscience

Saturday, November 15, 2025
10:00 am to 3:30 pm

ET

Witherspoon Student Center, Raleigh North Carolina United States

 

Morning Public Lecture 10am to noon
The Impact of Trauma Across the Lifespan
(open to the general public, health and mental health professionals)

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s presentation will offer an integrative exploration of psychological trauma, drawing on his pioneering research and clinical experience. In dialogue with psychoanalytic approaches, Dr. van der Kolk will present his broad perspective on trauma’s impact on the brain, body, and relationships, highlighting both traditional and innovative treatments. The session will address the limitations of purely verbal therapies and introduce
the audience to body-based, neurobiological, and experiential modalities—including neurofeedback and psychedelic-assisted therapy. Attendees will gain insight into how trauma shapes self-regulation, attachment, and narrative, and will learn about emerging interventions that foster healing by engaging both mind and body.

Afternoon Clinical Session 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Psychotherapy for Developmental Trauma: An Open Conversation with Bessel van der Kolk, MD
(for mental health and allied health professionals)

Survivors of developmental trauma represent a large and challenging group of patients seeking psychotherapy. Experiences that adversely affect the developing mind and body come in many forms—including physical and sexual abuse, neglect, oppression, and intergenerational transmission of trauma, along with more subtle forms of relational or attachment trauma. Bessel van der Kolk argues that effective treatment for developmental trauma must include both psychological (top-down) and somatic (bottom-up) approaches. Brief vignettes will illustrate clinical presentations of developmental trauma, setting the stage for thoughtful discussion of how we may integrate psychodynamic and somatic perspectives. This presentation is designed to stimulate cross-disciplinary dialogue and expand clinicians’ therapeutic repertoire in working with trauma.

About the Speaker

Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD is a clinician, researcher and teacher in the field of post-traumatic stress. His work integrates developmental, neurobiological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment. Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma on development, such as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development, memory, and the psychobiology of trauma. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles on such diverse topics as neuroimaging, self-injury, memory, neurofeedback, developmental trauma, yoga, theater, and EMDR. 

He is founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts and President of the Trauma Research Foundation, which promotes clinical, scientific, and educational projects.  His 2014 #1 New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma, transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring – specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments, including neurofeedback, somatically-based therapies, EMDR, psychodrama, play, yoga, and other therapies.

 

Speaker(s):

Bessel van der Kolk, MD

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Examine and explain how traumatized people process information.
  • Explain how trauma affects the developing mind and brain.
  • Describe how adverse childhood experiences affect brain development, emotion regulation, and cognition.
  • Identify the difference between disrupted attachment and traumatic stress.

This program is intended for psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors, and other clinicians or interested academics who want to learn more about the impact of psychological trauma on the mind and body

Confidentiality Statement: All case material will be carefully disguised. We ask that participants agree to hold all material presented with the utmost care, following ethical and professional guidelines.

Accommodation Statement: To request an accommodation for this program, please email  Kayla Schilke, PCC Training and Education Program Manager, at least two weeks before the start date.
 

*For refund policy, please visit the Event Page here. 

van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking Penguin.

van der Kolk, B., Ford, J. D., & Spinazzola, J. (2019). Comorbidity of developmental trauma disorder (DTD) and post-traumatic stress disorder: Findings from the DTD field trial. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10(1), 1562841. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2018.1562841

Harricharan, S., McKinnon, M. C., Tursich, M., Densmore, M., Frewen, P., Théberge, J., van der Kolk, B. A., & Lanius, R. A. (2019). Overlapping frontoparietal networks in response to oculomotion and traumatic autobiographical memory retrieval: Implications for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10(1), 1586265. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1586265

van der Kolk, B. A., Wang, J. B., Yehuda, R., Bedrosian, L., Coker, A. R., Harrison, C., Mithoefer, M., Yazar-Klosinki, B. Emerson, A. & Doblin, R. (2024). Effects of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD on self-experience. PLOS ONE, 19(1), e0295926. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295926

Rogel, A., Loomis, A. M., Hamlin, E., Hodgdon, H., Spinazzola, J., & van der Kolk, B. (2020). The impact of neurofeedback training on children with developmental trauma: A randomized controlled study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(8), 918–927. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000607

Morning Public Lecture
CME credits: 2 /CE credits: 2 / NBCC: 2 clock hours / All others: Letter of Attendance

Morning and Afternoon Sessions
CME Credits: 4 / CE Credits: 4 / NBCC: 4 Clock Hours / All Others: Letters of Attendance

The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6518. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Social workers will receive a letter of attendance documenting their hours of continuing education. This certificate may not be acceptable verification in all states.

ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 4 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Disclosure Statement
The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!