So you didn't mean, as you wrote in the headline, that "therapy" doesn't work at all, but the way it's conducted doesn't usually work, which I fully agree with.

Did Van der Kolk actually write that CBT doesn't work? You must have misread. Trauma informed CBT has been shown in many research studies to work very well. Whether or not there are sufficiently trained therapists to carry it out is another question.

Also, I would question any therapist who does not incorporate somatic work. I think any really good IFS therapist, trauma informed CBT worker, etc would incorporate not just somatic work but trauma informed mindfulness as well.

As for limiting your treatment modality to therapeutic massage, Feldenkrais, Acupuncture or craniosacral therapy WITHOUT any accompanying trauma informed IFS, EMDR or other psychotherapies would be a recipe for utter disaster. I hope nobody comes away from this article thinking you could use those modalities alone. As accompaniments they're very powerful, but by themselves there's simply no research that consistently shows them as suitable stand alone modalities to treat trauma.

You also didn't go into the fact that a large percentage of traumatized folks need above all, support. It doesn't necessarily have to be group therapy, but when I worked with traumatized veterans, veteran support groups were crucial for recovery.