Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD

I am looking for a consult or an appointment.I have left several messages with"Angela" who has not returned my calls. The other number does not take messages.

In a word: Disappointing.

The soul of the great man I marveled in at the podium and on podcast lives and breathes in his books but too infrequently inhabits the body that sits in his therapy chair. I thank him for his wisdom but have made greater progress with a less known therapist who truly practices what Dr V preaches.

I want to thank the person who left that review. It’s given me the courage to finally speak my piece. I was in group talk therapy with for almost 20 years. Not much seemed to be happening but us women supported each other. And Bessel urged us to keep coming despite not seeing much in the way of change and even though he was always leaving us with subs from his trauma clinic when he was off galavanting on his world tours. Then he started chastising us for sitting on our tucca’s (his word for behinds) instead of doing body work. Next thing you know he abruptly cancelled the group so he could become a yoga instructor! The nerve! If talk therapy wasn’t helpful then why accept our money for 20 years. Some of us didn’t have much (for others it was pocket change) and that really added up. Now I imagine he does yogi or tai chi with all his new patients. Shame. At least us ladies had each other.

I began treatment seeking to bathe in the oceanic depths of his expertise, and ended many years later because I found myself drowning in his shallow pool of empathy. My fault I suppose for choosing a famous person as my therapist. To his credit he helped me tread water most of the time. I just expected from his writings that he’d know how to guide me toward growth and healing, and that he’d care enough to try. Instead I found myself with a brilliant but overly busy man who was easily distracted by his cell phone and frequently rescheduling or postponing sessions because of his seemingly endless succession of international engagements.