NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)

What is NARM therapy?

The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is a cutting-edge therapeutic approach designed by Dr. Laurence Heller. This form of therapy is designed to work with clients on their attachment, relational and developmental trauma. Within NARM, we will be exploring the support of our connections, and your identity as a person, we will work in the present moment, and we will regulate your nervous system.

The NARM practitioner utilizes interactions between cognitive (top down) issues and the body (bottom up) to work on complex trauma narratives, otherwise referred to as survival styles that we as people learned in our upbringing that has helped us navigate our environments. By bringing our trauma to the present moment, and addressing it within the here and now, NARM trained mental health professionals are able to work with your complex trauma in a way that links your environment growing up and the trauma endured throughout as a link between where you want to be in life and your current psychological issues. According to NARM, we all have an unconscious need to connect. We need this because we have to stay connected to our caregivers when we are small in order to survive our environments. As we go through our trauma, we learn to unconsciously disconnect from our own “life force.” This leads us down a path of growing further and further away from who we authentically want to be in our lives. Through NARM, we will be able to explore what it means to be your authentic self, and what is means to be happy and connected back to yourself.