WHAT IS NARM?

THE NEUROAFFECTIVE RELATIONAL MODEL (NARM) 

NARM is a somatically oriented process designed to heal the lasting impacts of complex trauma.  It was developed by Laurence Heller, a renowned practitioner and contributor to the field of psychotherapy.  NARM has its roots in psychodynamic, gestalt, and somatic therapies as well as attachment theory, polyvagal theory, and eastern wisdom traditions.  
 
Most of the information that follows is derived from the two NARM books and deep study and practice of the NARM clinical model.  The two NARM books are Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship (2012) by Laurence Heller and Aline LaPierre, and The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma: Using the NeuroAffective Relational Model to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resolve Complex Trauma (2022) by Brad Kammer and Laurence Heller.

TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP

NARM utilizes both bottom up (information flowing from the body into awareness and insight) and top down (using the mind and meaning making to integrate somatic information) perspectives and interventions.  Integrating these processes is essential to the NARM model and sets it apart both from the ubiquitous cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other somatic therapies.  Using only a top-down orientation, we neglect the body and the emotions. When we work only with the body, the sensory and emotional experience can be confusing and overwhelming without using our adult cognitive capacities to form a useful framework for making sense of it.  This integration is the key to the holistic and embodied shifts that are characteristic of NARM therapy.

DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA

Developmental trauma is a subset of complex trauma (C-PTSD) and can result from any dynamic from your childhood that did not support your development.  While many of us might think of trauma as some horrible thing that happened to us, the roots of developmental trauma often live in our memories as “just the way things were” even as they continue to wreak havoc on our lives. The impacts of complex/developmental trauma are clustered around three areas: self-image (or self-esteem), self-regulation, and capacity for satisfying and meaningful relationships.  These three themes can show up in as many unique ways as there are people in the world.  Just a few examples are: 

-people pleasing
-persistently putting others’ need before our own
-being highly self-critical
-anxiety of all sorts, including social anxiety
-codependency in relationships
-depression
-fear of abandonment
-underfunctioning
-overfunctioning or perfectionism
-anger issues
-resentment
-burnout
-difficulty trusting others
-hypervigilance
-environmental sensitivities
-dissociation of all degrees and flavors
-substance abuse/numbing
-disordered eating
-self-sabotage
-chronic disease and pain
-intergenerational patterns of abuse

For more Information about NARM, please visit the website at https://narmtraining.com/.