Community resiliency model

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Trauma Resource Institute (TRI) Community Resiliency Model (CRM®) with six wellness skills, as described by Elaine Miller-Karas (2nd ed. book, 2023; Psychology Today post, April 2024), TRI-copyrighted teaching handouts (2017 and 2020) and the CEBC programme profile (content reviewed May 2024). Where handouts differ, the difference is named inline. The book itself is not drawn on here [uncertain: chapter-level detail not verified].

What it is. CRM is a skills-based stabilisation and wellness programme, not a psychotherapy. TRI and CEBC say plainly that it is not mental health counselling and does not replace it. Elaine Miller-Karas developed it at TRI (Claremont, California), drawing on earlier work with Geneie Everett and Laurie Leitch. It is a primary-prevention model: TRI trains community members ("CRM Guides") and certified "CRM Teachers" to teach six body-based skills to adults, children, front-line and crisis workers, and trauma-affected or marginalised communities, so that the skills spread through social networks. Its clinical sibling is the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), by Miller-Karas and Michael Sapp. TRM uses the same six skills and adds three trauma-reprocessing skills that only licensed practitioners use. [source: CEBC CRM; CEBC TRM; TRI CRM info page; Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout]

How change happens (the model's own account). Trauma and chronic stress (including systemic stressors such as racism, poverty and historical trauma) can push the autonomic nervous system out of its "Resilient Zone" (also called the "OK Zone") into a High Zone (hyperarousal) or a Low Zone (hypoarousal), and people can get stuck there. Many such reactions are biological, not signs of weakness. The model's phrase is that they cannot be "talked away" but can be "sensed away". Deliberately noticing body sensations (interoception), and especially pleasant or neutral ones, resets the nervous system toward balance and, with daily practice, widens the zone. Understanding reactions as biology also reduces shame and builds hope. [source: TRI CRM info page; Duva & Collins TRI slides 2020; Grabbe et al. 2021]

For a psychotherapist, CRM is used in three ways:

as a stabilisation and self-regulation toolkit taught to clients, individually or in groups;
as self-care for the clinician and the team (secondary traumatic stress);
as a programme you deliver to a community or organisation under the CRM name, which requires TRI certification (Section 2).

The trauma-reprocessing work belongs to TRM and is outside CRM's scope.

2. Framework

CRM has no treatment phases or session protocol in the psychotherapy sense. Its structure is a teaching sequence delivered in workshops, followed by daily self-practice and peer sharing. [source: CEBC CRM]

Delivery formats documented

Workshops lasting from 1 hour to 2 days, in person or online. No standard session count is set. There is no homework, but daily practice is recommended, including during the workday. [source: CEBC CRM]
A single 3-hour interactive class taught by certified CRM Teachers, used with nurses and front-line workers. It includes resourcing in pairs and eating a snack while using the five senses. [source: Grabbe et al. 2021]
A brief (about 1 hour) virtual session with hospital workers during COVID-19. [source: CEBC CRM; Duva & Collins slides 2020]
A 1-day workshop, with objectives: the CRM Guide role, stress-response basics, the Resilient Zone, the six skills, solo and partner practice, and an individual resiliency plan. [source: Johns Hopkins CRM training page]
A 5-week programme for women in addiction treatment is reported in TRI slides. Its session-by-session content was not found [uncertain].
The free iChill app, narrated by Miller-Karas, supports practice between sessions. It is available in English, Spanish and Ukrainian (CEBC); one webinar page also lists Arabic and Hebrew. [source: CEBC CRM; Grabbe et al. 2021; CIRH webinar page]

Teaching sequence

The sequence below is reconstructed from TRI handouts and slides. Exact ordering may vary by trainer [uncertain].

Stage	Goal	Content
A. Orientation and psychoeducation	Normalise reactions as biology; give a shared language	Resilient, High and Low Zones; common stress reactions (physical, emotional, behavioural, relational, thinking, spiritual); autonomic nervous system; three parts of the brain (thinking, emotional, survival); stress spectrum and PACEs; event and systemic triggers
B. Core skills	Learn to read and steady one's own nervous system	1 Tracking, 2 Resourcing, 3 Grounding
C. Self-management skills	Tools for being bumped out of the zone, in the moment	4 Gesturing, 5 Help Now!, 6 Shift and Stay
D. Integration	Daily use and spreading the skills	Individual resiliency plan; partner practice; app; organisational routines; teaching family and friends

CEBC's TRM profile confirms that Tracking, Resourcing and Grounding are taught first, and that Gesturing, Help Now! and Shift and Stay then reinforce self-management. [source: CEBC TRM]

Criteria for moving on. The sources set no formal criteria. [synthesis] A practical rule is to move from Tracking to the other skills once the client can name at least one pleasant or neutral sensation and stay with it briefly. TRI slides suggest at least 15 seconds when resourcing. Use Help Now! at any point when the client is clearly in the High or Low Zone. Leave the more inward-focused skills until the client can notice sensations without being flooded.

Roles and certification

CRM Guide. Someone who has learned the skills, uses them and shares them informally in their community. Guides are explicitly not CRM Teachers. [source: Johns Hopkins page; CEBC CRM]
CRM Teacher. Only TRI can certify CRM Teachers. The pathway is:
- A 5-day (40-hour) live training with student teaching under trained observers.
- Provisional certification for 6 months.
- Follow-up group consultations: monthly for the first three months, then quarterly. CEBC also mentions attending two of three monthly sessions; the exact requirement is unclear [uncertain].
- A take-home self-evaluation within 60 days, an outline of one planned workshop, evaluations from one delivered workshop, and a local referral list of mental health practitioners and clinics.
- Full certification brings 2 years of Learning Portal access. Using TRI materials requires an annual use fee, which is included in the training fee for the first two years.
- Workshop participants have no fidelity requirements.
- [source: CEBC CRM]
TRM practitioner. Must be a licensed mental health professional. Training is TRM Level 1 and Level 2 (3 days / 23 hours each), plus certification. This is required before using the reprocessing skills (titration, pendulation, completion of survival responses). [source: CEBC TRM]
[uncertain] The sources do not say whether a therapist may teach the six skills inside individual therapy without certification. Delivering "CRM workshops" and using TRI materials clearly falls under TRI certification. Check with TRI before using the name or materials.

3. Guiding principles

[source for this section unless tagged otherwise: Duva & Collins TRI slides 2020; TRI CRM info page; Grabbe APNA slides 2020; Miller-Karas 2024]

Biology, not pathology. Frame symptoms as a nervous system pushed out of its zone, not as weakness. In practice, say "that's your survival brain doing its job" before any skill, to cut shame.
Sensed away, not talked away. Work with present-moment body sensation rather than narrative. In practice, steer from story to "what do you notice inside right now?"
Focus on well-being. Deliberately direct attention to pleasant or neutral sensations to counter the default pull toward the negative. In practice, notice distress but do not dwell on it; always end on a neutral or pleasant sensation.
Widen the Resilient Zone. The goal is a wider zone over time, not the absence of distress. In practice, track progress as faster return to the zone and a wider range of feelings tolerated.
Choice and invitation. Learning and using the skills is a choice. In practice, offer ("I know something that might help — would you like to try?") and accept a no.
Stay one step behind. Do not interpret sensations or assume their meaning, and do not direct. In practice, ask open questions, reflect the client's own words and leave silence for sensations to develop.
Non-judgemental curiosity. Every sensation is information. In practice, "pleasant, unpleasant or neutral?" is a sorting question, not an evaluation.
Self first ("resiliency mask first"). Practitioners regulate themselves before helping others. In practice, do a brief grounding check on yourself before and during sessions. [source: Grabbe APNA slides 2020]
Daily practice and integration. Skills work through repetition in ordinary life and in organisational routines. In practice, attach each skill to an existing daily cue. [source: CEBC CRM]
Common language and peer-to-peer spread. Skills are simple enough for all ages, cultures and literacy levels, and are meant to be passed on. In practice, use plain terms (High, Low and OK Zone) and invite clients to teach one skill to someone close. [source: TRI CRM info page; Grabbe APNA slides 2020]
Cultural lens. Communities are encouraged to apply their own cultural lens. In practice, let the client choose resources and gestures with cultural meaning, and do not impose yours. [source: TRI CRM info page]
Strengths: "What else is true?" The iChill app uses this question to lean into strengths alongside distress. In practice, use it when a client is fused with a distress narrative. [source: TRI CRM info page]
Stabilisation, not reprocessing; know when to refer. CRM is not counselling. CRM Teachers must keep a referral list. In practice, if trauma material surfaces, stabilise with the skills and then route to therapy. Reprocessing belongs to TRM or another trauma treatment. [source: CEBC CRM; CEBC TRM]
Systemic awareness. Triggers include racism, poverty, homophobia, incarceration, immigration stress and historical trauma, not only discrete events. In practice, name systemic stressors as legitimate causes of being out of the zone. [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout]

4. Intervention inventory

The inventory has three parts: two psychoeducation components, the six CRM skills, and the supporting exercises and tools that TRI materials describe. Steps are paraphrased from TRI handouts and slides. Example therapist language is illustrative unless it is quoted and cited. Ordinary trauma-informed precautions apply throughout: always offer an eyes-open option and let the client stop at any time [synthesis].

4.1 Psychoeducation: the Resilient Zone (High, Low and OK Zones)

Purpose and when to use
- Gives the client a map and a shared language.
- Reframes symptoms as nervous-system states.
- Used first, and revisited whenever the client describes being "overwhelmed" or "shut down".
- [source: Grabbe APNA slides 2020; Duva & Collins slides 2020; TRI CRM info page]
Steps
1. Draw a band (the Resilient or OK Zone) across a page. Explain that within it a person can feel the full range of emotions (sad, angry, worried, excited, tired) without losing the ability to cope or think clearly.
2. Draw a High Zone above it: anxiety, panic, rage, racing heart, hypervigilance, insomnia.
3. Draw a Low Zone below it: numbness, exhaustion, depression, isolation, disconnection.
4. Explain that stress or trauma can "bump" someone out of the zone, and that people can get "stuck" high, low, or swinging between the two.
5. Contrast a narrow zone, which small stressors push people out of, with a wide one, and state the goal: widening the zone.
6. Ask the client to place themselves on the map for this week and right now. Ask what bumps them out and what brings them back.
Example language (illustrative)
- "This band is where you can feel upset and still feel like yourself. Where would you put yourself today?"
- "Being stuck up here or down here isn't a character flaw. It's your nervous system trying to protect you."
Watch for
- Shame dropping as the client relabels symptoms.
- The client starting to use the zone terms spontaneously, which is a good sign.
- Systemic stressors (racism, poverty, immigration stress) emerging as triggers. Validate them as such. [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout]
- [uncertain] TRI's 2017 handout files some agitation symptoms (such as anxiety, edginess and outbursts) under its Low Zone heading. Other TRI slides put these in the High Zone. Follow the slides' convention.

4.2 Psychoeducation: the biology of stress and trauma

Purpose and when to use
- Explains why reactions happen and why body-based skills help.
- Use it in the first session, or when the client blames themselves for freezing, numbing or over-reacting.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; Duva & Collins slides 2020]
Steps
1. Introduce the three parts of the brain in plain words:
  - the thinking brain (cortex: language and reasoning);
  - the emotional brain (limbic area: emotion, attachment, risk assessment);
  - the survival brain (instinctive fight, flight or freeze, and automatic functions such as breathing, heart rate and digestion).
2. Explain the two branches of the autonomic nervous system: the sympathetic system readies the body for action, and the parasympathetic system for rest.
3. Explain that when the survival brain takes over, reasoning goes offline. That is why sensing works better than talking in those moments.
4. List common reactions across domains (physical, emotional, behavioural, relational, thinking, spiritual). Ask which ones the client recognises.
5. Optionally, introduce the stress spectrum (positive, tolerable, toxic) and adverse and protective childhood experiences. Also name resiliency responses that can follow hardship, such as courage, gratitude and new meaning. [source: CEBC CRM; Duva & Collins slides 2020]
6. TRI handouts recommend Dan Siegel's hand model of the brain as an aid. [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout]
Example language (illustrative) "When your survival brain sounds the alarm, your thinking brain can't simply argue it down. So we'll work with the body to turn the alarm down first."
Watch for
- Keep it brief and interactive.
- Signs of overload (glazing over, fidgeting) mean you should switch to a skill.

4.3 Skill 1: Tracking

Purpose and when to use
- Noticing body sensations in the present moment.
- This is the foundational skill and is paired with every other skill.
- Use it in every session, and as the read-out after any other skill.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; Grabbe et al. 2021; Duva & Collins slides 2020]
Steps
1. Invite attention inward. The TRI handout's core prompt is "Notice what's happening on the inside".
2. Ask the client to sort each sensation they notice as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
3. Guide attention to the pleasant or neutral sensations and invite the client to stay with them.
4. Offer a sensation vocabulary to clients who struggle for words. TRI slides group sensations by vibration, size and position, temperature, pain, muscles, breathing, heart, taste, density and weight. Example words: tingling, shaking, warm, cool, heavy, light, tight, loose, calm, jittery.
5. A recommended entry point is to track while recalling something calming. Miller-Karas suggests asking about a comforting sound, image or smell. [source: Miller-Karas 2024]
6. Track the senses outward as well: what is seen, heard and touched. This helps when inner focus is hard. [source: Grabbe et al. 2021]
7. [synthesis] Also track the client from the outside: changes in breathing, posture, skin colour, facial tension, sighs or yawns. Name them tentatively ("I noticed a breath just then") so the client can check inside.
Example language
- "What do you notice on the inside?" and "Are the sensations pleasant, unpleasant or neutral?" are TRI's own curiosity questions. [source: Duva & Collins slides 2020]
- Illustrative: "Take your time. Is there anything you notice in your hands or your breathing as you think of that?"
Watch for
- Signs it is working: breathing slowing or deepening, shoulders dropping, warmth, a sigh or yawn, the client reporting "calmer" or "lighter".
- Never interpret what a sensation "means". Stay one step behind.
- If the client only finds unpleasant sensations, move to the less-distressed place (see 4.8) or to Help Now! (4.7).

4.4 Skill 2: Resourcing (including identifying resources)

Purpose and when to use
- Calls up a person, place, memory, activity, animal, belief, personal quality or imagined figure that brings joy, calm, peace or strength, and tracks the body's response.
- Use it to build a felt sense of well-being, and as a portable anchor for later distress.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; Grabbe et al. 2021; Duva & Collins slides 2020]
Types of resource
- External: people, places, pets, spiritual figures, activities, positive memories.
- Internal: personal qualities such as humour or kindness, and body resources such as strong legs or the body's capacity to heal.
- Imagined: superheroes, story characters, an ideal caring figure.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout]
Steps (the TRI resource-identification sequence, paraphrased)
1. List three resources (in writing or aloud).
2. Choose one.
3. Describe three or more details of it, especially sensory ones: sight, sound, touch, smell, taste.
4. Read the details back, or have the client say them.
5. While doing so, track what happens inside and sort it as pleasant, neutral or unpleasant.
6. Stay with the pleasant or neutral sensations, for at least about 15 seconds per the 2020 TRI slides.
7. Optionally, share the resource with a friend. TRI classes also have participants resource in pairs, one asking and one describing.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; Duva & Collins slides 2020; Grabbe et al. 2021]
With children Make a "book of resources" with drawings of favourite people, pets, games and characters. [source: Grabbe APNA slides 2020]
Example language
- Miller-Karas's prompt is "When you have been through difficult times, what or who has helped you?" [source: Miller-Karas 2024]
- Illustrative: "Tell me more about the place. What would you hear there? What's the temperature like?" Then: "As you describe it, what do you notice inside?"
Watch for
- A resource can slide into grief or a difficult memory. TRI slides flag this explicitly. If it happens, gently shift to a different resource or to grounding.
- [synthesis] People can be ambivalent resources. Prefer pets, places or personal qualities when relationships are complicated.

4.5 Skill 3: Grounding

Purpose and when to use
- Attending to the body's contact with a supporting surface in the present moment, to feel support and safety here and now.
- Use it at the start of sessions, during distress, and as an anchor while working.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; Grabbe et al. 2021; NCDHHS handout]
Steps
1. Let the client choose a position:
  - sitting (chair, sofa or floor);
  - standing with the back against a wall;
  - lying down;
  - walking while noticing each footfall;
  - floating in water;
  - or contact through one part of the body, such as hands on a table or feet on the floor.
2. Invite the client to notice the points of contact and how the surface supports them. Include temperature, texture and moisture.
3. Track: is the sensation pleasant, unpleasant or neutral?
4. If unpleasant sensations appear, move attention to a neutral or more comfortable area.
5. Spend time with the pleasant or neutral sensations.
- [source: Duva & Collins slides 2020; Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; Miller-Karas 2024]
Example language (illustrative)
- "Notice where your body meets the chair. What's it like to let the chair hold some of your weight?"
- "You can try standing with your back to the wall instead if that feels better."
Watch for
- Sitting still with eyes closed can feel unsafe for some trauma survivors. Offer the eyes-open, standing or walking options. [synthesis]
- Signs it is working: the client feels heavier or more settled, breathing slows, and they report "here" or "solid".

4.6 Skill 4: Gesturing (and spontaneous movements)

Purpose and when to use
- Uses natural, spontaneous comforting movements intentionally to move back into the Resilient Zone.
- Use it as a quick, discreet tool once the client can track. It is especially useful for clients who connect more easily through movement than through stillness.
- [source: Grabbe et al. 2021; Duva & Collins slides 2020; Miller-Karas 2024]
Gesture categories (TRI 2020 slides)
- Protective: for example, a hand raised to set a boundary.
- Joyful: for example, arms raised in celebration.
- Self-calming or self-soothing: for example, a hand on the heart, or holding one's own arms.
- The specific examples are illustrative [synthesis]; the categories are from the slides.
Steps
1. Notice gestures the client already makes spontaneously while speaking, especially when describing a resource or a moment of strength. [synthesis: TRI sources name "spontaneous" gestures but give no observation procedure]
2. Invite the client to repeat the gesture slowly and deliberately.
3. Track the sensations that come with it.
4. If no gesture appears spontaneously, invite one. Miller-Karas's prompt is "Can you make a movement of joy or strength?" [source: Miller-Karas 2024]
5. Help the client identify one personal self-soothing gesture to use deliberately when bumped out of the zone.
6. Gestures must be soothing, never self-harming. [source: Miller-Karas 2024]
- [uncertain] One TRI-based handout (NCDHHS) lists pushing the hands or back slowly against a wall or door as gesturing. The 2017 TRI handout lists the same actions under Help Now!. Either way, it is a usable action.
Example language (illustrative) "I noticed your hand moved to your chest when you talked about your grandmother. Would you like to do that again, slowly, and notice what happens inside?"
Watch for
- Gesture meanings are cultural. Let the client choose and name their own. [synthesis]
- Signs it is working: softening, a sigh, and the client reporting the gesture as "mine".

4.7 Skill 5: Help Now! (also "Reset Now!")

Purpose and when to use
- Quick sensory and motor strategies that reset a nervous system stuck in the High or Low Zone. Grabbe et al. call it "emotional CPR".
- Use it when the client is too dysregulated for inward-focused skills: panic, rage, shutdown or dissociation.
- Miller-Karas's 2024 post uses the name "Reset Now!" alongside Help Now!.
- [source: Grabbe et al. 2021; Miller-Karas 2024; CEBC CRM]
The ten TRI strategies (2017 handout, paraphrased)
1. Drink water, juice or tea.
2. Look around the room or outside and notice what catches your attention.
3. Name six colours you can see.
4. Open your eyes if they tend to close.
5. Count backward. The 2017 handout says from 10 (or 100 for adults); later handouts and Miller-Karas 2024 say from 20. Optionally do this while walking.
6. Touch nearby furniture or a natural surface and notice whether it is hard, soft or rough.
7. Notice the temperature of the room.
8. Notice sounds inside and outside the room.
9. Walk, noticing the movement of the arms and legs and the feet meeting the ground.
10. Press the hands or back against a wall or door and notice the muscles working in the arms or legs.
- [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout; NCDHHS handout; Miller-Karas 2024]
Steps in session
1. Recognise that the client is out of the zone.
2. Offer help and ask permission. TRI slides model the offer "I know something that might help you feel better" and then asking whether the person wants to try.
3. Offer two or three strategies and let the client choose. They are offered as options, not a sequence.
4. Do the strategy with the client, out loud. For example, name colours together.
5. Once the client has settled somewhat, track: "What do you notice now?"
6. Move to Shift and Stay or Grounding when ready.
- [source: Duva & Collins slides 2020; NCDHHS handout]
Matching strategies to the zone The sources do not map specific strategies to the High or Low Zone. [synthesis] For the Low Zone (numb, foggy, eyes closing), favour opening the eyes, looking around, walking and pushing against a wall. For the High Zone, favour counting backward while walking, naming colours, cool water and noticing the temperature of surfaces.
Example language (illustrative) "Let's pause the story. Can you look around and find six colours in this room? Tell me them out loud."
Watch for
- Signs it is working: eye contact returning, voice steadying, breathing slowing, orientation to the room.
- If none of this happens within a few minutes, treat it as a crisis and assess risk (see Section 5).

4.8 Skill 6: Shift and Stay

Purpose and when to use
- The integrating skill. Notice distress, shift attention to a less distressing body place or to another skill, then stay with the neutral or pleasant sensations until the distress eases.
- Use it whenever the client notices they are out of the zone. It becomes the client's general self-regulation routine.
- [source: CEBC CRM; Grabbe et al. 2021; Miller-Karas 2024]
Steps (Miller-Karas 2024 sequence, paraphrased)
1. Notice the distress in the body (the High or Low Zone).
2. Look for a place inside that is calmer or less distressing. Her prompt is "Can you sense a place on the inside that is less distressing or calmer?"
3. If no such place is found, bring in a skill from the menu: a resource, a grounding sensation, a self-soothing gesture, or a Help Now! strategy.
4. Stay with the pleasant or neutral sensations that follow, giving them time.
5. [synthesis] Close by tracking what has changed, and compare it with where the client started on the zone map.
Example language (illustrative) "You're noticing tightness in your chest. Is there anywhere in your body that feels a bit less tight, maybe your hands or your feet? ... Let's stay there for a few breaths."
Watch for
- Attention may bounce back to the distress. That is expected; repeat the shift gently.
- Signs of progress: the client can shift independently, and the time needed to return to the zone shortens.

4.9 Five-senses mindful eating exercise (class activity)

Purpose and when to use An in-class experiential exercise that practises tracking through the five senses while eating a snack. It suits groups and clients who find inner tracking hard. [source: Grabbe et al. 2021; only named there, no protocol]
Steps (illustrative) [synthesis]
1. Give each person a small item of food and offer an alternative item for anyone who prefers it.
2. Guide attention in turn to sight, smell, touch, sound and taste.
3. After each sense, track the body: pleasant, neutral or unpleasant.
Example language (illustrative) "Before you taste it, notice its smell. And as you notice that, what happens inside?"
Watch for
- Food can be loaded for clients with eating difficulties. Offer a non-food sensory object instead, for example a stone or fabric. [synthesis]

4.10 Partner practice and "CRM Guide" sharing

Purpose and when to use
- Participants practise asking each other the tracking and resourcing questions and offering Help Now! to someone upset.
- This builds the peer-to-peer spread that CRM is designed for.
- Use it in groups, couples, family sessions and staff teams.
- [source: Johns Hopkins page; Grabbe et al. 2021; Duva & Collins slides 2020]
Steps
1. Pair participants.
2. One person asks for a resource and three details. The other describes it.
3. The asker tracks out loud with open questions only, staying one step behind, with no interpretation or advice.
4. Swap roles.
5. Debrief what helped.
6. In families, have each member teach one skill to another. [synthesis]
Example language Use the TRI curiosity questions as in 4.3. Illustrative guide coaching: "Ask, don't tell. Let your partner find their own words."
Watch for
- Partners interpreting ("you must feel safe because..."). Redirect them to open questions.
- A partner's story triggering the listener.

4.11 Individual resiliency plan

Purpose and when to use
- A personal plan listing the client's chosen skills for daily practice and for moments of being bumped out of the zone. It is a workshop objective in the Johns Hopkins CRM training.
- Use it at the end of skills teaching.
- [source: Johns Hopkins page; contents not specified]
Steps (illustrative) [synthesis] Record:
1. the client's personal signs of the High and Low Zones;
2. two resources, each with three sensory details;
3. a preferred grounding position;
4. a self-soothing gesture;
5. two favourite Help Now! strategies;
6. daily practice cues (for example, after brushing teeth or before entering work);
7. who they will share a skill with;
8. crisis contacts and their therapist's number.
Watch for Keep the plan short enough to fit on one card or phone note.

4.12 iChill app between sessions

Purpose and when to use A free app, narrated by Miller-Karas, covering the CRM concepts and skills. Use it for daily practice and for clients who prefer audio guidance. It is available in several languages (see Section 2). [source: CEBC CRM; Grabbe et al. 2021; NCDHHS handout]
Steps [synthesis]
1. Install the app with the client in session.
2. Choose one track to practise daily.
3. Review at the next session what the client noticed.
Watch for App use substituting for help when the client is in crisis. Make sure crisis contacts are in the plan.

4.13 Boundary note: TRM reprocessing skills are not part of CRM

TRM adds titration, pendulation and completion of survival responses for in-session trauma reprocessing. They were adapted from Peter Levine's and other somatic pioneers' work. TRM also describes transient "release" sensations (such as tingling, heat or shaking) during reprocessing. These are used only by licensed clinicians with TRM training and are not described here because they fall outside CRM. [source: CEBC TRM] If a client spontaneously trembles or shakes during CRM practice, do not deepen it. Track it calmly, then shift to grounding or Help Now! and stabilise. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The TRI sources used here give only a few cautions. They are tagged [source] below; everything else is [synthesis].

Pleasant or neutral sensations trigger unpleasant ones. TRI slides note that for some people even pleasant or neutral sensations set off unpleasant or painful ones. [source: Duva & Collins slides 2020]
- [synthesis] Start with the senses pointed outward (Help Now! items 2, 3, 7 and 8) rather than inner sensation.
- Keep the inward focus on small, peripheral areas such as the hands or feet, and on "neutral" rather than "pleasant".
- Keep the duration short (a few seconds).
- Keep the eyes open.
A resource turns into grief or a traumatic memory. This is flagged by TRI. [source: Duva & Collins slides 2020]
- [synthesis] Do not explore the memory.
- Acknowledge it briefly, then move to grounding or Help Now!.
- Choose a lower-stakes resource next time: a pet, a place, a personal quality or an imagined figure.
- Note the material for later trauma-focused work.
"I can't feel anything" / numbness / Low Zone. [synthesis]
- Treat this as information about the Low Zone, not as failure.
- Use activating Help Now! strategies: open the eyes, look around, stand and push against a wall, walk while counting.
- Track the sense of contact and pressure, which is easier to feel than subtle inner states.
- Accept "neutral" as success.
Overwhelm, panic or dissociation in session. [synthesis]
- Stop any inward focus.
- Use Help Now! with the client, naming colours and sounds aloud, and orient them to the date and place.
- Lower your own voice and pace ("resiliency mask first" applies to you too).
- Once the client is settled, debrief in zone terms and adjust the plan.
- Repeated dissociation means referral for trauma-specialised assessment.
Suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
- The TRI handout lists suicidal and homicidal thoughts among the High-Zone "thinking" reactions. [source: Grabbe/TRI 2017 handout]
- [synthesis] Skills are never a substitute for standard risk assessment and safety planning:
  - ask directly about ideation, intent, plan and access;
  - build a safety plan, including lethal-means counselling (safe storage and removal);
  - escalate to crisis services as indicated.
- CRM skills can be listed in the safety plan as early coping steps.
"Too simple" / scepticism. [synthesis]
- Give the biology rationale (4.2).
- Run a 2-minute experiment and ask the client to track before and after.
- Let the client's own observation persuade them; do not argue.
Non-practice between sessions. CEBC notes CRM has no homework but recommends daily practice. [source: CEBC CRM]
- [synthesis] Attach one skill to an existing daily habit.
- Use the iChill app.
- Start each session by asking when the client last used a skill and what they noticed.
- Shrink the task to a single minute.
Rupture: the client feels directed, interpreted or "fixed".
- TRI's guidance is not to interpret or assume meaning, not to direct, to stay one step behind, and to allow time. [source: Duva & Collins slides 2020]
- [synthesis] Name what happened ("I think I jumped ahead of you") and return choice to the client.
- Use only open questions for the rest of the session.
Body focus feels unsafe (sexual trauma, chronic pain, medical trauma, body image). [synthesis]
- Use external grounding (feet only, hands on a cold surface).
- Use movement-based options and keep the eyes open.
- Let the client choose positions. Avoid lying-down grounding unless they choose it.
- Never use touch.
Cultural mismatch. TRI encourages communities to apply their own cultural lens. [source: TRI CRM info page]
- [synthesis] Invite resources and gestures from the client's faith, family and community.
- Use interpreters or translated materials.
- Avoid framing that sounds like a foreign import. Where possible, partner with community CRM Guides.
Food- or drink-based items with clients with eating disorders. [synthesis] Substitute non-food sensory options for "drink water" and the snack exercise when these are loaded.
Spontaneous trembling, shaking or strong emotion. [synthesis] Do not amplify it. CRM is stabilisation, not reprocessing (see 4.13). Track the sensation briefly and return to grounding. If such reactions recur, refer for trauma-focused therapy, such as TRM or another evidence-based trauma treatment, with a practitioner trained in it.
Group or workshop: one participant is overwhelmed. [synthesis]
- Have a co-facilitator who can step out with them and do Help Now!.
- Announce at the start that participants can stop or step out at any time.
- Keep the referral list to hand. TRI requires certified Teachers to carry one. [source: CEBC CRM]
Staff and organisational use (secondary traumatic stress). CEBC's rated evidence concerns staff. [source: CEBC CRM]
- [synthesis] Keep it voluntary.
- Do not use CRM as a substitute for fixing workload or unsafe conditions.
- Build it into existing routines (huddles, handovers) rather than adding it as extra work.
Clinician's own dysregulation. [synthesis] Track yourself during sessions, use a discreet grounding or gesture, and use the skills after difficult sessions.
Using the CRM name or materials without certification. [synthesis] Describe your work as "using skills from the Community Resiliency Model". Only call it a CRM workshop if you are a TRI-certified Teacher. Contact TRI about the materials-use fee.

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