NARM

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The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM):
A Two-Year Practitioner Training for Healing Developmental Trauma


* COMING UP (click for more details): click here to see if there are any NARM Introductions coming to your area


Connection: Our Deepest Desire & Greatest Fear

The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is an advanced clinical training for mental health and somatic practitioners who work with developmental trauma.  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 and body centered approach, NARM™ offers a comprehensive theoretical and clinical model for working with developmental trauma.

Working relationally in the present moment, NARM draws on psychodynamic models such as attachment and object relations theory, and models from somatic psychotherapy, in addressing the link between psychological issues and the body.  Grounded in mindfulness and contemplative spiritual practices, NARM supports a non-western orientation to the nature of the Self.  Learning how to work simultaneously with these diverse elements is a radical shift that has profound clinical implications for healing complex trauma.

In the NARM practitioner training you will learn:

  • The clinical skills needed to work with complex trauma.
  • How to address the complex interplay between nervous system dysregulation and identity distortions, such as toxic shame and guilt, low self-esteem, chronic self-judgment, and other psychobiological symptoms.
  • How to work moment-by-moment with early adaptive survival styles that, while once life-saving, distort clients’ current life experience.
  • When to work ‘bottom-up’, when to work ‘top-down’, and how to work with both simultaneously to meet the special challenges of developmental trauma.
  • How to support clients with a mindful and progressive process of disidentification from identity distortions.
  • A new, coherent theory for working with affect and emotions, which aims to support their psychobiological completion.

Click here for the complete NARM Practitioner Training Program curriculum

Faculty:

Brad Kammer, MFT, LPCC, SEP, NMT is a NARM faculty trainer.  Brad has studied under his mentor Dr. Laurence Heller for over 15 years and is a NARM Practitioner and Consultant. Brad is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Consultant and Instructor.  Brad began his career as a Humanitarian Aid Worker in Asia which introduced him to personal and collective trauma.  He became passionate about supporting individuals and communities in the transformation of trauma.  Brad has since focused his work on the integration of Somatic Psychology, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and wisdom from Spiritual Traditions and Traditional Cultures.  Brad lives in a small town in Northern California with his family where he is a Somatic Psychotherapist, College Professor, and International Presenter on Shock and Developmental Trauma.

Dr. Laurence Heller
is the founder of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), and co-author of Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image and the Capacity for Relationship and Crash Course: A Self-Healing Guide to Auto Accident Trauma and Recovery

While Brad will be the lead NARM trainer, during the 2-year training Dr. Heller will teach four online modules as well as offer online consultations.  Dr. Heller may also be available for NARM sessions.

2-HOUR VIDEO INTRODUCTION to NARM (click here)

Dr. Heller gives an overview of his approach to working with relational, developmental and attachment trauma, including misattunement.  He covers five adaptive survival styles, their corresponding identity distortions, how aggression becomes split off and internalized in each style to protect the attachment relationship, and how early environmental failures cause distortions of the life force and dysregulation in the nervous system.

CEU’s: Available for psychologists, psychotherapists, marriage and family therapists, social workers and personal counselors.

Admission Requirements:
The NARM professional training is designed for mental health and somatic practitioners who work with trauma.  Graduate trainees and interns are welcome to apply.  Other health care professionals or educators working with developmental trauma will be considered.  Applications are approved on a case-by-case basis, and may include a personal interview with the coordinator and/or faculty member.

Training Schedule*:

* Click on the individual cities for more information on the NARM practitioner training program!

The NARM Practitioner training is offered in one of two formats depending on training location: 1) six 3-day live modules or 2) four 4.5 day live modules.  Additionally there are 4 online modules over the two-year period [69 course hours per year; 138 course hours for the 2-year NARM Practitioner Training program]