Bessel van der Kolk

Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD, has taught yearly at Esalen for more than 20 years. He is medical director of the Trauma Center in Boston, professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, and author of the New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma.

Upcoming Programs by Bessel van der Kolk

Working in Three-Dimensional Space: Psychodrama for What Was Missing

Also With Licia Sky

January 19 - 23, 2026

In this experiential workshop, pioneering trauma researcher and author of The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk and somatic educator and co-founder of the Trauma Research Foundation Licia Sky apply psychodrama and theater techniques to create virtual experiences of safety, belonging, and protection. While trauma treatment tends to focus on “What happened to […]

Trauma, Memory and the Restoration of One’s Self

Also With Licia Sky

February 22 - 27, 2026

This workshop explores ways of representing and befriending our inner experience. Therapies that work all start from a basic sense of calm and safety. The calmer we are, the more we can allow ourselves to know what we know, and to feel what we feel. Trauma changes the way the brain processes information and the […]