Boston Globe News Story Excerpt:
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a best-selling author on trauma whose research has attracted a world-wide following, has been fired from his job over allegations that he bullied and denigrated employees at his renowned Trauma Center.
Van der Kolk was removed as medical director of the Brookline center in January, according to several accounts, although his photo and job description remained prominently on its website until early this week, when the Globe requested information. His firing capped a tumultuous three months at the center that van der Kolk founded 35 years ago.
Executive director Joseph Spinazzola, like van der Kolk a longtime advocate for abuse victims, was removed in November over his alleged mistreatment of female employees, executives said. Staff then received a flurry of conflicting emails from executives about the reasons for the upheaval, according to copies of the emails provided to the Globe. Full article.
Bessel van der Kolk published letter to his colleagues at The Trauma Center, published on his website:
Dear Trauma Center colleagues,
As you can imagine, I am devastated reading the allegations in the Boston Globe that I have been bullying and denigrating my colleagues at the Trauma Center.
I am also aware that such accusations cannot be entirely pulled out thin air, and that some of you may have felt hurt by me, even though none of you have ever confronted me with such misbehavior. If I have inadvertently denigrated or bullied any of you,I would like to know about it, apologize and make amends.
As you know., I am a strong believer in doing your own personal work, and in my book, the Body keeps the Score, I describe some of that journey for myself,.
If you do not feel that Andy Pond’s insinuations represent reality, I hope you will be vocal and public about how you feel about character assassination, and speak your truth.
Thank you, and I hope to see you all under better circumstances.
Devastatedly yours,
Bessel
My Take
I know many are shocked by the headline because so many of us are grateful for the work done by with Bessel Van der Kolk, have been helped by his writing, and respect his research. If that’s you, and you are feeling devasted I am so sorry. It’s awful when someone we love and revere, personally, professionally or creatively, has deep flaws that cause others pain. It’s especially shocking from humans we assume “know better” who are said to be experts in trauma, trauma treatment, and recovery. For many, Bessel van der Kolk is the last person we expect could be capable of bad behavior or abuse of power.
I know I’m still reeling from the news about Sherman Alexie which makes my heart ache.
I know I’m still reeling from the news about Sherman Alexie which makes my heart ache.
But this particular headline about Bessel van der Kolk doesn’t give me that same feeling or make my heart ache. In some ways, it feels a form of validation of my own past experiences – a confirmation based on observations, interactions and hunches.
I’m not shocked except in the way one can be shocked when something that has gone on for a long time, unchecked, tolerated or even celebrated is suddenly exposed and addressed – seemingly “all of a sudden” even though it’s usually not the case. It can be jarring even if it’s also been building and in the works for years or decades although I can’t speak to that.
It’s not clear from the news story or the letter from Bessel to his staff (and the public) if this departure is the result of an inciting incident or not or is related to other power struggles, past issues, and financial disputes. I know, as a survivor in Massachusetts that there are many who have said, half shrugging and resigned, “That’s just the way it is…” and “That’s just the way he is….” about the bullying and denigrating style and tone evident at conferences and events and in any attempts to have survivors collaborating with rather than only be patients who pay for services or in research studies.
Speaking up or even saying anything at all has been near impossible because his power has been significant on the national level and not only locally and because he has been (and still is) revered, respected, intimidating to and/ or beloved my so many with influence and power.
I doubt anyone can question that or has trouble believing that there are people who have been bullied by him. And it’s them I am thinking about. Especially in light of his letter where he says: “I am also aware that such accusations cannot be entirely pulled out thin air, and that some of you may have felt hurt by me, even though none of you have ever confronted me with such misbehavior. If I have inadvertently denigrated or bullied any of you,I would like to know about it, apologize and make amends.”
I don’t know if his desire to apologize or make amends seems sincere but if it is he must start by checking his own bullying behaviors and not requiring confrontation first. That, to me, seems obvious for any boss but should not have to be asked for at a place of work when that place is THE TRAUMA CENTER. This is a brilliant brain and researcher we are talking about with expertise in traumatic stress.
It’s never easy to speak up to someone with more power and influence and that’s not less true if one has been denigrated or bullied, that makes it even harder. What survivors know that I can’t believe Bessel van der Kolk does not is that speaking up is rarely safe for survivors and can often make life and situations and power struggles worse. As survivors, we know because we’ve often been traumatized and injured by those we love, need and are literally dependent upon as children. I’m sure there are survivors on his staff who must have found his tone and style difficult if not re-traumatizing. And he himself may be a survivor as well, and that might have something to do with all of this, as he hints, implies and also which is still a bit murky and disguised. I’m not a therapist or his friend or colleague so I have no personal insights but I do know that I’m a survivor who has interactions, in public spaces that have been profound and unpleasant.
I can’t claim to be shocked or saddened by this story because my own survivor experiences that have been less than positive. I wrote about both in the past, after attending the trauma conference in 2014. That same year I gave The Body Keeps Score a one-star review because it didn’t include survivor voices and experiences in first-person but only as patients spoken for. That was shocking and disquieting to me as was the fact that no self-identified survivor even reviewed the book. I shared my feelings and said how it felt to me, when I read his book, that survivors were not acknowledged as full human beings. I equated it with a white person writing a book about the black experience or a man writing a 25 retrospective on women.
That is just one opinion. Mine. I didn’t claim or suggest that all survivors felt the same. Many revere his work and found that book life-changing. And I have often quoted from it, still, refer to it and believe it provides an excellent history of the phases and history of trauma treatment. My own feelings about it were and are complex and I still stand by my criticism.
When I gave the Body Keeps Score a one-star review it was because of the complete lack of survivor perspectives present in the book. Survivors were characterized almost exclusively as patients and spoken for and about in ways that were unsettling to read. That still troubles me but I didn’t write that review to be mean because I felt it was symptomatic of how and why trauma treatments fail survivors. They are done to us or on us at times and have even been harmful and re-traumatizing and there are little ways even today for survivors to advocate without anger or frustration being characterized as “issues.” See the reviews of my review for proof of that.
I was disappointed and took issue with that while acknowledging the author’s writing, research, and contributions to the field. I stand in that still. I gave feedback as a trauma survivor and customer of that book. That’s not the point.
The point is that trauma-informed systems change can’t work if not informed by trauma survivors. That seems obvious but it’s not the case. We need major change and to change the assumptions many systems operate with and under.
Survivors are not only subjects or patients to diagnose, medicate, charge and treat but who can be ignored outside of clinical settings. Treatments can be life-saving and necessary but what we say when there’s a co-pay, and a power differential, is not the same as what we say and how we share when together as peers and co-collaborators. There need to be forums where survivor advocates and therapists are speaking on panels together as equals.
Instead, we have an us and them model even though survivors are often professionals and therapists, of course, are also survivors. However, at conferences, it is often white men with big titles and Ph.D.’s talking about trauma treatment even though it’s women, children, people of color and the LGBT community disproportionality impacted by PTSD, developmental trauma, and adversity as both children and adults. And those impacts exist outside of a clinical hour.
The impact of post-traumatic stress is felt 24/7 and exists where we live, love, work, and parent. But often the non-clinical hour issues (daycare, discrimination, violence, injustice and most social issues are treated as other things to be discussed at other conferences as though they don’t matter, because maybe that don’t matter or aren’t recognized by those who are leaders of the medical / treatment model. Often, those leaders frame the whole experience of survivors based on their limited view of patients seeking symptom relief which is a skewed perspective if it exists in isolation.
This is why, I believe, so many treatments for trauma survivors have failed so miserably. By the way, many of the treatments once considered ideal and “evidence-based” have injured and traumatized and endangered survivors. Survivors have yet to get a rebate, recall or refund for services rendered that were terrible. And that is also why so many of us are not sad that there may be new leadership at the Trauma Center and that new models will include marginalized communities and approaches more, not only for what it does for patients but because more diversity and perspectives are needed at the leadership level.
I don’t understand why and how the stories, solutions, and perspectives of survivors so rarely make it into conversations, collaborations, or treatment protocols.
Has anyone said, “I’m sorry” to the leaders, bodyworkers and the survivors who were saying for decades, “That doesn’t work and this seems to work better” who were treated like idiots, considered whacky and unprofessional despite having success few others did?
Has anyone realized that there is not a lot in The Body Keeps Score that Belleruth Naparstek hadn’t written about over a decade earlier in Invisible Heroe: How Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal? In 2011, in an article entitled, Note to Colleagues: Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress Is Incurable, she wrote: “You can recover from posttraumatic stress. Certainly, you can significantly reduce – not just manage – its symptoms. But – and here’s the thing – not with traditional treatment. The problem is, a lot of my colleagues don’t know this yet. So they go about it in traditional ways and pronounce the condition incurable, based on the results they get.”
She was often a lone voice and not beloved or welcomed by some using traditional approaches to trauma treatment. In her book and articles, she suggested other approaches that now show she was ahead of her time.
Survivors suffered and some were lost and are still being lost while her work, and the work of many other women, most especially, were not shared, explored, celebrated or legitimized. And given that EMDR, neurofeedback, yoga have later been added to the menu of treatment services many now talk about, shouldn’t these powerhouse women and approaches be recognized appropriately?
These women were not accepting the traditional treatment model and were listening to survivors and lives have been saved and improved as a result and I am hoping some of these women will now head Boston’s Trauma Center. I am a survivor who was diagnosed in the late 1980’s and who parented with post-traumatic stress and anxiety and who have found little that recognizes never mind supports the issues women have with all issues related to childhood adversity, pregnancy, adoption, birth, breastfeeding, managing medications, sleep deprivation and the post-partum period. I have to believe that more women clinicians, researchers, and leaders, partnering with parents and survivors, will not avoid or ignore this important area. How we feel and function in our bodies and our lives is central, not secondary or irrelevant..
This is always true but most especially as relates to sex, intimacy, procreation, reproduction, parenting, health and well-being These are not all psych issues and can’t be treated as such.
This is always true but most especially as relates to sex, intimacy, procreation, reproduction, parenting, health and well-being These are not all psych issues and can’t be treated as such.
This has been known for some time as people such as Naparstek were not stingy with insight but shared the following with colleagues:
“Naparstek wrote, “let me point to the consistent threads running through these approaches:
1. They first and foremost find ways to re-regulate the nervous system.
2. They destigmatize and normalize the experience by explaining PTS as the somatic and neurophysiologic condition it is.
3. They offer simple, self-administer-able tools that empower the end-user and confer a sense of mastery and control.
4. The interventions are cast as training in skill sets, not the healing of pathology.
So, hopefully those of my colleagues who aren’t up to speed will soon be learning some new skills. “
It’s still sound advice. I have no idea if Naparstek had her feelings hurt or not but it’s clear her goal was in easing the suffering of survivors. Her insights also came from humility and honesty, not hubris. In Invisible Heroes Naparstek writes about being a therapist and observing that her talk-therapy approaches and methods sometimes made survivors feel worse. Unlike many, she did not assume her patients were non-compliant or damaged but looked within to assess her approaches, methods, and effectiveness and to explore new approaches (i.e. guided imagery, body/breath work, etc. etc.). She was aware that some people aren’t willing, wanting or able to go to therapy and need accessible tools to regulate the body and wanted to make that more available to all survivors, especially to veterans returning from combat.
That’s the kind of self-aware leadership survivors require to build trust, heal and feel safe. It’s often lacking in many organizations, treatment models, and approaches and go to a trauma conference if it’s hard to believe this can still be the case. I did in 2014 and was so shocked by what I experienced I changed career direction immediately.
The conference theme was “PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA: Neuroscience, Attachment, and Therapeutic Interventions,” and the Theme: Theme: What We Have Discovered Over The Past Quarter Century About Traumatic Stress and Its Treatment. It was a 25th-anniversary conference and I’d been diagnosed with PTSD a quarter century earlier and knew a lot about PTSD and treatments. I was local and couldn’t wait to hear what others said, felt, lived as I’d seen and experienced many trends and treatments in therapy for trauma but never had the chance to network with others survivors in a conference setting.
But there was not one survivor speaking about living with and through trauma and treatment. There wasn’t a vendor, a panel, a book in the bookstore. I had assumed at trauma conferences, those who live with traumatic stress 24/7 might have something to share or say that holds value or even interest to treatment providers. Where was the equivalent of a therapist Yelp or customer service feedback survey if not at conferences?
It does not exist. The conference experience was disquieting, uncomfortable, and deeply offensive. Fictional composites were made based on varied patients and even, I joke not, given fake names, namely the names of presenters children. Pictures from clients were shown as were video from sessions. But not a one person speaking in first place for him or herself about trauma or recovery or what survivors want, need and feel.
I remember whispering to one woman next to me in the audience at the trauma conference, “Do they really think no survivors are here?” When Bessel called for audience input, in writing, I submitted a comment. It wasn’t shared nor were any others (though there was a short time for Q&A at one point I was too chicken and shocked to speak up). I did an art piece after entitled “Let the rats speak,” because it felt like survivors were spoken of exactly the same way as the rats, mice, and monkeys discussed (at length) were.
And this didn’t seem alarming to others who were used to conferences. But I was not. It was my very first one.
I remember going because it was about 25 years of trauma treatment and I’d been diagnosed with PTSD exactly 25 years earlier. From a survivor and writer perspective, I felt I knew a lot about the phases and stages of treatment and recovery. I couldn’t wait to hear from others. There were no others like me allowed or invited.
I remember going because it was about 25 years of trauma treatment and I’d been diagnosed with PTSD exactly 25 years earlier. From a survivor and writer perspective, I felt I knew a lot about the phases and stages of treatment and recovery. I couldn’t wait to hear from others. There were no others like me allowed or invited.
There was no talk of bias, race, gender or any social context or issue. There was no consideration of the survivors who never seek traditional treatment and who sometimes do better as a result, which even intellectually should seem a little interesting to researchers. There was no reckoning with the way the field has harmed or hurt the most vulnerable and marginalized, or say, talk at all about how much agony people have weaning off ineffective but addiction medications that they have sometimes prescribed (or even info. about how to wean safely or where to get support during what can be a grueling and life-threatening process. I’ve tried it five times, without success, because as a single mother,
“Mama can’t be crazy,” but I worry what these drugs are doing to my brain and body.
Anyhow… it’s not just about my rage. Most of us don’t care if survivors aren’t at conferences as long as our voices, views, lives, and perspectives are considered in ways that acknowledge the fullness, richness, complexity and awesomeness of us, how scrappy, strong, resilient and wonderful it is that we survive so well despite it all and even when we’ve had too little support. We can accept our absence at conferences if we believed we were viewed and regarded as fundamentally whole. But at the conference I went to in 2014, it was clear that who wasn’t present, speaking or being listened to and what wasn’t being discussed is NOT unrelated to how often and how much the current system still fails so many of us.
Survivors are not only patients. We are parents, professionals, introverts. We are partners, people of color, activists, and artist. We are people dealing with social inequities or carpool or volunteer responsibilities and we are often doing so without enough money, time and support. There are so many things that impact us, not only the trauma we lived through but also resources and respectful treatment and those also impact our ability to cope, function, heal and contribute.
Our culture and context matters, personal and political, in and outside the office setting but it’s often disregarded.
My motto has become “It’s not trauma-informed if it’s not informed by trauma survivors” because while this seems extremely obvious. It’s not. It’s often missing entirely even from a trauma-informed treatment of trauma because of the arrogance of people who believe they know, get it, and can speak for our experiences from hearing some of what we say for a few minutes of our lives.
Big names in trauma treatment have often been dismissive of trauma survivors who have suggestions, ideas, complaints or even solutions.
I’ve dared to speak up a few times and at midlife it’s not because I need someone to like or hear me in my personal life and healing (which by the way took a long-ass time to get to). I speak up because survivors are still dying and the lack of survivor voices and perspectives is really freakin relevant. We do not have “lived experiences” but just experiences we’ve lived which make us experts. We know what we struggle with, feel, don’t feel and how treatments do or don’t even touch whole aspects of our experiences. One would think that might be interesting to some interested in trauma and who treat it for a living.
Not always and not often enough.
That’s why I’m actually hopeful that this departure signals something big and necessary. I know there’s grief and shock and pain for some. I also hope there are space and time to celebrate the often under-recognized work of sherpa warriors who have and do speak with others. I think of Belleruth Naparstek, in particular, who has been doing ahead-of-her time work for decades and often not respected or regarded despite being effective. There are so many others who address and acknowledge social justice issues, life for parenting survivors, who admit the limits of the medical model and stay open to new approaches and perspectives.
I think of Vital Village where the focus is on community capacity building and residents supporting residents, not service providers fixing people. There are those who have saved lives like mine by being unconventional and who I am forever indebted to every one of those people. I hope work like that gets funding, recognition, and respect. It hasn’t always.
Today, I hope they are supported, lifted and held up. May we retire ways that have not supported staff or survivors and that have sometimes even hurt and re-traumatized people.
We are all complicated and sometimes flawed, deeply flawed, people. But safety, prevention of trauma, and regard for people, especially those we have power over, must be a baseline. That’s true in any workplace and especially in places that center around the treatment of traumatized people or claim to know anything about being trauma-informed.
I wish for healing and justice for everyone involved, including Bessel Van der Kolk (and Sherman Alexie) who must be reeling in their personal lives.
Maybe survivor academics like Alissa Ackerman, who teach and practice restorative justice, and speak out and listen, will help us?
Maybe survivor academics like Alissa Ackerman, who teach and practice restorative justice, and speak out and listen, will help us?
However, I’m strangely hopeful not only for the staff at the Trauma Center but for the wider trauma community. Maybe this signals a shift in the medical model of mental health which hasn’t changed fast enough even in progressive Massachusetts. May we all learn more this weekend when Oprah will be talking with Dr. Bruce Perry this weekend. May we all see how healing and powerful it can be when a survivor is the one asking the questions and leading a conversation about trauma and recovery.
You Matter Mantras
- Trauma sucks. You don't.
- Write to express not to impress.
- It's not trauma informed if it's not informed by trauma survivors.
- Breathing isn't optional.
You Are Invited Too & To:
- Heal Write Now on Facebook
- Parenting with ACEs at the ACEsConectionNetwork
- The #FacesOfPTSD campaign.
- When I'm not post-traumatically pissed or stressed I try to Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest.
Thought leaders in our profession can be as guilty of hubris and ego inflation as Hollywood luminaries and autocratic politicians. Having original and useful therapy ideas does not guarantee flawless personal character. None of us ever replace all our demons with angels. Individuation starts at birth and persists until death. It’s often a Sisyphus-level nightmare that the pathology people use as fuel for their stigma machinery. Nobody but this man knows the truth of what caused his apparently maladaptive behavior. He was brilliant in one way, harmful in another, just like every one of us to greater or lesser degrees. Name a 19th, 20th or 21st (TBD) century hero who hasn’t acted out, and I’ll send you $10.00.
I can’t disagree with this: “He was brilliant in one way, harmful in another, just like every one of us to greater or lesser degrees” AND it’s disappointing.
Great article.
To me part of what we are seeing here is the reality that a person can be an outstanding teacher or trainer without necessarily having the ability to personally accomplish something perfectly themselves. In physical Sports we see that great coaches of gymnasts aren’t necessarily as physically capable as their students.
This doesn’t invalidate their abilities to teach, or the qualities of their teaching. Out of everyone in the trauma field today, I have found Bessel’s work and teaching by far to be one of the most helpful resources in my work with traumatized clients, and in my own trauma healing.
We all have shadows and it’s very easy for media to hype those Shadows. I feel really sad that from Bessels’ response it appears that nobody spoke to him directly about their concerns before this story broke. This seems inappropriate to me and smells like some kind of politically motivated action.
In the professional working environments that I know, when there’s a problem, protocol standards require that a person be informed thoroughly about the problem and be offered several opportunities to remedy the problem before being fired is even considered!
Dear Trauma Learning:
You may be correct but from what I’ve read I’m not as clear that no one spoke to him as much as that he didn’t hear what was maybe said. But also, a bossy with that much power should not need to be confronted about bullying or denigrating. Some things are subjective but if that’s several staff members saying that, and if it’s been investigated, which has also been said, that’s not the same as not really knowing. It sounds like things did go through channels but if there were underlying and other motives, that I have no idea. But that’s not my first assumption.
Which does not mean I don’t completely agree that he’s a brilliant researcher and has made contributions to the field. We all have a shadow side and that includes those of us in this work (personally, professionally/both).
Thank you for commenting.
Cissy
Thank you so much!! kisses
Thank you for this article. I own Naparstek’s book. ‘Invisible Heroes”. I bought and listened to her guided imagery. It was very healing. Years of traditional therapy made me more traumatized. I quit and searched for alternatives to do on my own that worked for me. I am now healed to a degree I didn’t think possible. I still have more healing to do and more alternative methods to explore. Your article gave me hope to keep trying. Thank you so much. I also did singing for over 2 years. I sang along in a room alone to songs on YouTube etc. I sang songs that allowed me to express my feelings with lyrics or melodies that communicated how I felt but couldn’t find the words. Because I did this alone, I felt completely free of fear of criticism. I even recorded my singing and it helped calm me. Reading about self compassion, narcissism (had many narcissistic abusers), alcoholic families, abuse by siblings and step families, abandonment, attachment issues, and learning new skills helped enormously. I am grateful to the therapists who wrote (mainly women ) caring, nurturing, supportive books to help me heal. The best were by therapists who “listened” to their clients. They acknowledged the learning from their own clients and how they had teach themselves a new way of treatment because what they had been taught didn’t work. I hope soon to explore yoga and other body work. With my abuse history that will be very difficult but with patience and self compassion maybe I can find bodywork. That can help me heal. Now I am exploring writing my story and painting.
It is so sad that the conference you went to didn’t have survivors speaking. I realized years ago no one was listening. Many have egos and pride and have been brain washed in their education to not listen. I hope trauma therapy can advance and move forward from this.
Again, thank you. Extremely affirming and validating points you made.
Dear Survivor: Thank you for this comment. It sounds like you have been scrappy and fierce and creative on your path. YAHOO!! I love this: ” I sang songs that allowed me to express my feelings with lyrics or melodies that communicated how I felt but couldn’t find the words. Because I did this alone, I felt completely free of fear of criticism.” That’s awesome. There are so many genius things/ways people find. It blows my mind. For me, writing gave me that sense of freedom (and I have a shredder for what I just need to let rip and not share). Thank you, again, for commenting! Cissy