"Trauma is stored in the body"
The body is involved in trauma - that part is well supported. Literal somatic storage, releasable through body-based therapy, is a metaphor the evidence does not back. The largest usage-evidence gap in this lexicon.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: The labels here are mandatory, per the verified record: body involvement in trauma grades strong (Pole 2007; the interoception literature); literal somatic memory storage has no mechanism in the literature; the book's own claims are contested in a peer-reviewed appraisal (Scheeringa 2025, BJPsych Bulletin) and the repressed-memory framing is contradicted (Otgaar et al. 2019). This row cites the founding 1994 paper as lineage, not endorsement - the critiques travel with it, here and in the body.
Trauma changes measurable body physiology, and that much is well supported. Trauma stored in your tissues, releasable by body work, is a metaphor rather than a mechanism.
Significant findings
"The body keeps the score" began as a 1994 research paper and became folk doctrine through a 2014 book. The defensible half is solid. After trauma, heart rate, sweat response and startle all measurably change, and how people sense their own bodies changes too.
No mechanism for literal storage in tissue appears anywhere in that literature.
That is the largest gap between usage and evidence in our whole lexicon. The claims built on the literal reading fare badly too. A peer-reviewed appraisal of the book finds its brain-damage claims unsupported, and memory science contradicts the recovered-memory framing.
The signature therapies grade poorly on their distinctive ingredient. One meta-analysis found EMDR's eye movements add nothing over exposure therapy on its own.
Worth asking
If someone says trauma is stored in your body, ask which they mean: physiology, or memory in tissue. Then ask what the treatment assumes, what trials support it for someone like you, and what should change by when.
Source
The body keeps the score: memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress — van der Kolk BA (1994)
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.3109/10673229409017088
DOI: 10.3109/10673229409017088
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
We have not finished checking this source, so there is no scoring to show yet. “We have not checked this yet” and “this is disputed” are different statements, so no scored band is shown rather than a low one.
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published August 31, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
Resolv rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: The labels here are mandatory, per the verified record: body involvement in trauma grades strong (Pole 2007; the interoception literature); literal somatic memory storage has no mechanism in the literature; the book's own claims are contested in a peer-reviewed appraisal (Scheeringa 2025, BJPsych Bulletin) and the repressed-memory framing is contradicted (Otgaar et al. 2019). This row cites the founding 1994 paper as lineage, not endorsement - the critiques travel with it, here and in the body. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
The body keeps the score: memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress — van der Kolk BA (1994). DOI: 10.3109/10673229409017088. The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.