NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Laurence Heller · 2012

What it is

The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) was developed by Laurence Heller, PhD. Heller is also senior faculty in Somatic Experiencing, and he co-wrote Crash Course. NARM is a here-and-now, non-pathologising and non-cathartic psychotherapy for developmental, relational and complex trauma (C-PTSD).…

Format

• NARM is not a phase-based protocol with fixed session counts. Its structure is the four pillars, which run inside each session and across the whole course of therapy.
• Clarifying the Therapeutic Contract. Goal: a shared, explicit sense of what the client wants, both from the therapy overall and from today's session. Heller says therapy starts from "a clear understanding of what it is at least that the client is wanting."

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Reflecting Psychobiological Shifts. Goal: notice and name shifts in body, emotion and self-perception as they happen, so the client can register and integrate them.
• nervous-system dysregulation (bottom-up).

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Compassion pushed too early, which can feel like invalidation of anger.
• Speeding up, flooding, or a sudden flatness. Each signals too big a piece.
• The client deflecting praise. That is often an Attunement- or Love-Sexuality-type pattern.
• The client using the style as a new fixed identity ("I'm a Trust type"). That is the opposite of the aim.
• Softening, or surprise at hearing the belief out loud. Collapse into deeper shame. Titrate, and go back to resources.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.