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The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is an innovative psychotherapeutic approach working with developmental trauma. It is a powerful approach addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their long-term consequences as revealed in the ACEs Study.

Developed by Laurence Heller PhD over the course of his 45-year clinical career, it was first introduced in his book “Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image and the Capacity for Relationship”.

The workshop will provide an overview of the theoretical and clinical approach of NARM. NARM addresses relational and attachment trauma by working with early, unconscious patterns of disconnection that deeply affect our identity, emotions, physiology, behavior and relationships. Integrating a psychodynamic, humanistic and body-centered approach, NARM offers a comprehensive theoretical and clinical model for integrating top-down psychotherapy and bottom-up somatic approaches. Working in the present moment, and within a context of interpersonal neurobiology, NARM offers a new approach that is resource-oriented, non-regressive, non-cathartic, and ultimately non-pathologizing.

Topics covered

• Overview of NARM’s theoretical and clinical approach to developmental trauma
• The reciprocal relationship of nervous system dysregulation and distortion of identity
• Working relationally oriented in present time, dual awareness and the importance of somatic mindfulness
• The emergence and function of the five basic adaptive strategies
• The five adaptive survival styles
  • Their corresponding identity distortions
  • Their significance from a perspective of developmental psychology
  • How they affect adult life
• The “4 Pillars”: the clinical model
• The NARM distress and healing cycle and integrating a bottom-up (body-based) and top-down (cognitive or identity-based) therapeutic approach
• Demonstration session (s) of the approach
• Overview: The NARM Training

Target Group

Therapists working with psychological and trauma related issues interested in experiencing and gaining a deeper understanding of NARM’s conceptual and clinical approach.

Accreditation