is a well-known teacher, researcher and clinician in the area of post-traumatic stress. His work integrates developmental, biological, 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 in traumatized children and adults, and the psychobiology of trauma.

He was co-principal investigator of the DSM IV Field Trials for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His current research concentrates on how trauma affects memory processes, comparing direct biological treatment interventions with EMDR, and on brain imaging studies of PTSD. He is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University and Medical Director of the HRI Trauma Center in Boston.

He has taught at universities and hospitals around the U.S. and Europe, as well as Russia, Australia, Israel, Turkey and China and has published more than 100 scientific articles. He is the author of Psychological Trauma and co-editor of Traumatic Stress, the Effects of overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body and Society.