What is NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model)?
NARM is a powerful somatic (body-based) approach to working with complex trauma (CPTSD), developmental trauma, and attachment wounds.
Many of my clients grew up in an environment where their needs were not prioritized. Their caregivers weren’t able to give them what they needed, or there weren’t adequate social supports available, or there was some other kind of failure. For whatever reason, the necessary emotional attunement was missing- so they learned to adapt in order to survive, disconnecting from their needs in different ways.
With the NARM approach, we understand that these survival strategies were necessary as children. And while these patterns continue to live on in our bodies, in our relationships, in our day to day lives, insight alone isn't enough to shift them.
In NARM, we don’t need to go back and relive the past, because we’re working with how these patterns show up right now in your life: people-pleasing, challenges with intimacy, overworking, constant self-criticism. By bringing them into conscious awareness and anchoring these shifts in the body, we can make real change.
If you've spent years trying to understand why certain patterns keep repeating — in your relationships, your sense of self, your body — even after doing "all the work," NARM may be a great fit for you.
What to expect with NARM
Every NARM session begins with the question, “What is it you’d most like for yourself right now?” Together, we explore what gets in the way of that goal.
In this compassionate approach, we look at:
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How shame, self-doubt, and self-criticism were actually helpful adaptations at one time (and why you don’t need them anymore)
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How you learned to abandon your own needs — and prioritize others
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The ways you had to adjust to caregivers or an environment that could not provide you with what you needed to thrive
This is not about blaming our parents, but about being able to choose new patterns that are aligned with the life you want to live.
Sound interesting? I’d love to talk about how NARM might help you.
