Transforming Trauma

"I'm not asking anybody to believe anything. [The] very strong orientation in NARM is to really listen to yourself, listen to your own experience, listen to the deepest experience in you and from that place, I see it over and over again, that as people get progressively more connected to the deepest elements of the small self and the big Self is that whether they use the word spirituality or not, they're describing spiritual kinds of reactions." ~Dr. Laurence Heller Join the new Online NARM Basics Training: http://www.narmtraining.com/onlinebasics Dr. Laurence Heller, the Creator of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), is joined by our host, Sarah to answer a very common question about the role spirituality plays in the healing of trauma. How can spirituality serve reconnection to oneself in the aftermath of complex and developmental trauma? What are the ways that religious and spiritual practice might support trauma healing?  What role does spirituality play in post-traumatic growth, and specifically in the NeuroAffective Relational Model for resolving Complex Trauma? Sarah begins this exploration by asking Dr. Heller how he defines spirituality. He says that it is very hard to define, and that spirituality is more than just a cognitive understanding. He says it is “an embodied understanding that there’s something more to us than what we take to be our personal identity.” While Dr. Heller did not explicitly build a spiritual approach to healing trauma, it is implicit in the model he created. Training in the NeuroAffective Relational Model does not involve any specific spiritual teaching or practice. What is supported is a process by which every individual learns how to better listen to themselves, to their own experiences, and from that place they get more connected to the deepest elements of self. This happens as a by-product of healing complex trauma. As people experience more secure connection to themselves, free from the psychobiological patterns of trauma, they develop a deeper sense of “Heartfulness”.  Sarah and Dr. Heller also discuss a spectrum of spiritual trauma, from those who’ve been abused by others exploiting spirituality for their own gain, to those who, as Sarah puts it, are “addicted to spirituality”. They talk about what is referred to as “spiritual bypass”, which is when spiritual beliefs or practices are used to disconnect, generally in the face of uncertainty, for example in minimizing emotions and pushing for forgiveness. This can happen for individuals without an embodied spiritual foundation. Before this episode concludes, Sarah and Dr. Heller reflect together on the role spirituality is playing now in the midst of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Instead of using spirituality as a way to “make meaning of the situation”, Dr. Heller sees spirituality as providing the capacity to hold the possibility of not knowing what’s going on in the world, and finding acceptance and calm in the face of collective trauma. Embodied spirituality provides more resources for people to be in the moment, even in the face of ongoing threat.  When describing spirituality, Dr. Heller uses the word abiding, meaning being able to be with the not knowing.  When we experience trauma, it exposes the cracks in our perceived identity. For people who are curious about exploring these cracks in their identity, oftentimes beautiful growth and even a stronger spiritual foundation can develop when faced with trauma. The concept of cracks in our identity reminds Sarah of Kintsugi, a Japanese artform where breaks or cracks in pottery are seen as a part of the object’s history and celebrated by filling them in with gold, and reminds Dr. Heller of Leonard Cohen’s line, “There is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in”. RESOURCES MENTIONED Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship - Dr. Laurence Heller YouTube Free Resource Give-Away We’re offering a podcast review give-away. Each week, we’re choosing one podcast reviewer to receive a NARM Clinical Protocol and NARM Personality Spectrum Worksheet. To enter, please submit a review within Apple Podcasts from your computer or mobile device and send a screenshot of your review to transformingtrauma@narmtraining.com. That’s it! Winners will be chosen weekly.  NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

Thanks to all your interest in learning more about NARM, we are launching the Online NARM Basics Training: an Online Training for Transforming Trauma. This is a brand new Level 1 training in the NeuroAffective Relational Model for professionals working with Complex Trauma.  The intention of this online training is to make it more accessible to learn NARM. We know that during this time of COVID-19, live professional trainings are not an option. But even before this global crisis, many of you told us that you had difficulties traveling to come learn NARM, getting time off work, or affording the full NARM Practitioner Training. Despite these obstacles, many of you still wanted to learn NARM. If this rings true, then this online training is for you! This professional training is designed to support those of you working with clients or populations dealing with Complex Trauma, which with COVID and its aftermath, this includes many of us. This training is for mental health professionals, as well as helping professionals such as nurses, doctors, other healthcare providers, educators, substance abuse counselors, coaches, body-workers, and more. In this online training, participants will learn more about the changing field of trauma, a deeper understanding of the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and how NARM, one of the first models specifically designed to address C-PTSD, can support professionals in the growing trauma-informed field.  This Online NARM Basics Training will be taught by NARM Creator, Dr. Laurence Heller, NARM Senior Faculty members Brad Kammer and Stefanie Klein, and a team of experienced NARM Trainers. During the four month online training, they will explore complex themes like: the difference between shock and developmental trauma; working with guilt, shame and self-sabotage; the impact of complex trauma on relationships, families and children; vicarious trauma and practitioner-burnout; post-traumatic growth; and how to apply NARM principles in a variety of settings. If you are looking for more advanced training in attachment, relational, developmental and intergenerational trauma, and are working in healthcare, education, substance abuse recovery, or allied fields, join us for this Level 1 NARM Training to become a NARM-Informed Professional. The first Online NARM Basics Training is starting on June 26, 2020 and will run one weekend a month through September.  60 continuing education units will be available for most helping professionals. There is limited space for this Level 1 NARM-Informed Professional Training, so register now to reserve your spot. We hope you will join us in learning how to Transform Trauma! For more information and to apply to the Online NARM Basics Training, please visit www.narmtraining.com/onlinebasics *** For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma Transforming Trauma is edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute

"NARM is really great at honoring that basic human need of being able to protect yourself. Being able to protect yourself doesn’t mean that you have a magic wand and you can make the world a safe place. It’s being able to do some things on your behalf that really honor your ability to be an actor in your own life." ~Caroline Clyborne Transforming Trauma host Sarah Buino is joined by Caroline Clyborne, MA, LCP, a psychotherapist in Austin, Texas who specializes in clients with chronic illness and parents who are raising children with medical challenges. Caroline is also a NARM Therapist and has seen the positive impact that addressing complex trauma, and specifically the NARM approach, has had on clients and families managing chronic illnesses and medically complex diagnoses. After having her daughter who was born with medical complexities, Caroline observed the impact that medical trauma has on many children, as well as the impacts on parents and families.  Caroline and Sarah discuss how disability, going in and out of the medical system, and other non-medical stressors influence the attachment relationship between parents of a child with disabilities and their children. These relational challenges often activate unresolved attachment and developmental trauma for already stressed and overwhelmed parents.  What’s often lost in the parents’ overwhelm is the sense that even when a parent doesn’t have the ability to change or predict their child’s medical complexities, they still have their ability to be a parent to their child. In the NARM approach, this is referred to as agency. Caroline talks about finding “relative safety”, even when there is still an ongoing sense of danger surrounding them. Even when a parent can’t keep their child completely safe, Caroline explains that they can orient themselves to the safety measures they are taking -- this space of relative safety allows parents to experience the agency necessary to sustain themselves and their children. Sarah draws parallels between the work Caroline does with this population of parents to all child-parent relationships in situations when the issue can’t be solved by the parent, such as during the current COVID-19 pandemic.  Caroline shares that when she was going through a very overwhelming time in her life as a parent, she would have loved to experience the feeling of agency that she found as she began engaging with NARM. She has since become a NARM Therapist which has enriched her capacities as a trauma-informed therapist. She finds the NARM approach to have strengthened her medical advocacy in adults with chronic illness and in parents raising medically complex and neurodivergent children. CONNECT WITH CAROLINE Invincible Summer Therapy Free Resource Give-Away We’re offering a podcast review give-away. Each week, we’re choosing one podcast reviewer to receive a NARM Clinical Protocol and NARM Personality Spectrum Worksheet. To enter, please submit a review within Apple Podcasts from your computer or mobile device and send a screenshot of your review to transformingtrauma@narmtraining.com. That’s it! Winners will be chosen weekly.  NARM Community Gatherings We are grateful to have come together with so many of you for the recent NARM Online Community Gatherings, and we are looking forward to our next free community gathering on May 14, 2020. These events focus on how we can stay emotionally healthy during this time of isolation and are great opportunities to engage with NARM material and the NARM Community. We've made the replay videos from all of these events available on our website so that you can access them even after the events have occurred. We hope these are useful resources for you during this time. Please go to http://www.narmtraining.com/events to sign up for the replay videos. NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

The global COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for us all. How are therapists supporting their clients in crisis? And what about the therapists themselves? How can we stay emotionally healthy during this time?  NARM faculty members Brad Kammer, Stefanie Klein and Marcia Black join Transforming Trauma host Sarah Buino to discuss grief and loss, relief and discomfort, agency and surrender, connection and disconnection, and opportunities for post-traumatic growth and transformation.   Sarah asks Brad, Stefanie, and Marcia: What recurring themes have shown up for their clients? How have social distancing measures altered the client-therapist dynamic? What challenges are they noticing for themselves on a professional and personal level? Which self-care strategies have had the most impact on their wellbeing? How can NARM help during a time like this? The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) focuses on how therapists relate to and hold space for their clients. Brad, Stefanie and Marcia share a common bond, which is that they are passionate about their life’s work. They reflect on their role as therapists, teachers, supervisors and mentors, and leaders in the NARM community, in which they find great meaning and joy. While we are all facing a global trauma, they find hope in sharing with the world the NeuroAffective Relational Model, which is designed to support post-traumatic growth and transformation.  Free Resource Give-Away We’re offering a podcast review give-away. Each week, we’re choosing one podcast reviewer to receive a NARM Clinical Protocol and NARM Personality Spectrum Worksheet. To enter, please submit a review within Apple Podcasts from your computer or mobile device and send a screenshot of your review to transformingtrauma@narmtraining.com. That’s it! Winners will be chosen weekly.  NARM Community Gatherings We are grateful to have come together with so many of you for the recent NARM Online Community Gatherings, and we are looking forward to our next free community gathering on May 14, 2020. These events focus on how we can stay emotionally healthy during this time of isolation and are great opportunities to engage with NARM material and the NARM Community. We've made the replay videos from all of these events available on our website so that you can access them even after the events have occurred. We hope these are useful resources for you during this time. Please go to http://www.narmtraining.com/events to sign up for the replay videos. NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

“The one thing I love about NARM is that it's empowering. It helps you realize that there’s so much power in you. It returns your agency. The power of agency is that you let go of the helplessness.” -Wangui Wanjiru Host Sarah Buino and her guest Wangui Wanjiru, a Kenyan clinical psychologist and the first NARM Therapist on the African continent, seek to humanize the culturally-specific challenges of complex trauma care in Africa. Wangui describes the cultural orientation that’s very present in Kenyan culture, a strong focus on the group over the individual.  She says people don’t personalize themselves or each other outside of sweeping social categories. And when people do acknowledge their individuality, they are labeled as “selfish”.  While painting the picture of how more communal based cultures work against the individual’s connection with themself, Wangui describes the bind that comes with the desire to remain in connection with your culture. Sarah and Wangui talk about what they’ve learned in their NARM Training-- that when someone is more connected with themselves, they actually have more capacity to be connected with others, their community, and their culture. Paradoxically, reconnecting with the self, which pushes against the Kenyan social construct of “the group over the individual”, will actually allow for more connection with the Kenyan culture as a whole.  Wangui brings up an important question: What are we gaining from losing touch with ourselves? And then Sarah and Wangui go even further in their discussion, reflecting on the impacts of racial oppression and cultural trauma, to ask: Who is benefiting from people losing touch with their individuality? Sarah prompts Wangui to share what it has been like to bring NARM to Africa and applying the NARM approach to her work with her clients.  They discuss whether healing trauma is possible as cultures are still currently living through trauma: How can one transform trauma amidst ongoing trauma and oppression?  “The beauty of reclaiming your self is that when issues come, or even though you’re still living within the trauma, these issues don’t come to an empty soul, or they don’t come to a dead soul.  They’re coming to a soul that can resist and choose what gets in and what does not get in. And that’s the empowering part of it. Yes, people might be continuing to go through trauma, but as long as the software within themselves is different, you’re giving them the virus protection. It’s not about getting people out of trauma, it’s not about let’s do this treatment after the trauma is done, it’s letting empower people as they’re going through trauma so they will carry less of it.”   NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

“First of all, I think all trauma is complex… Secondly, it's a question of what we define as trauma. For me, the essence of trauma is the disconnection from the self.” ~Dr. Gabor Maté Our host Sarah Buino facilitates an extraordinary conversation between trauma visionaries Dr. Laurence Heller and Dr. Gabor Maté centered on complex trauma, its effects on human development, and their views on the future of trauma-informed care.  At the core of both Dr. Heller’s and Dr. Maté’s thinking on trauma is the understanding that trauma is not what happens to someone, it is what happens within someone.  Both Dr. Heller and Dr. Maté address the profound effects of disconnection and misattunement that lead to complex trauma. The clinical models they have developed over the course of their careers - the NeuroAffective Relational Model (Heller) and Compassionate Inquiry (Maté) - both focus on how using aspects of the self, like compassion and agency, can support the healing of complex trauma. Sarah, Dr. Heller, and Dr. Maté address the gap in the mental health and healthcare fields with understanding C-PTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This means that many therapists are working with clients without fully comprehending the complex psychobiological patterns that leads to such suffering for their clients. As Dr. Maté puts it, “If I could pass a law...if you don't understand trauma, you’re not allowed to practice psychotherapy. You can coach people. You can be a friend to people. You can lend an empathetic ear to people. That's all therapeutic. But, if you don't understand trauma, there is no basis for you doing deep therapy with people.” Both Dr. Heller and Dr. Maté share the intention of bringing their important work into the trauma-informed field, and to anyone suffering from unresolved trauma, so that we can address the unrelenting personal and social impacts of unresolved trauma. At the end of this lively discussion. Dr. Heller and Dr. Maté begin making plans for future collaboration. “The word trauma itself is being thrown around a lot. I just want to emphasize that [early trauma leads to an] adaptation, a way that we distort our sense of self and the sense of other in adapting to developmental trauma that creates the difficulties that we experienced as human beings.” ~Dr. Laurence Heller   RESOURCES MENTIONED Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship - Dr. Laurence Heller When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-disease Connection - Dr. Gabor Maté Aaron T Beck, MD CONTACTS Dr. Gabor Maté Dr. Laurence Heller, PhD   NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

“It Is a very basic, ancient understanding that emotions come and they go. And if we don't push them away, we don't fight them and we don't attach to them in a strong way, they tend to move through much more quickly.” - Laurence Heller, PhD In this special episode, our host Sarah is joined by Dr. Laurence Heller, creator of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) and Brad Kammer, NARM Training Director and Senior Faculty. As we face the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the trio reflects on how to come together in community to support each other in times of crisis. Faced with the need for physical distancing and isolation, it can be difficult to connect to the resources that we rely on to manage the stressors in our lives. Additionally, the fear and anxieties triggered by the unknown - our uncertain future - can create additional challenges for us all.  Dr. Heller and Brad Kammer share constructive advice for managing the powerful emotions triggered by the COVID-19 crisis. Feelings of fear, helplessness, uncertainty, and grief, valid during any crisis, are often overwhelming. What if, instead of avoiding them, we followed Dr. Heller’s suggestion and allowed ourselves to fully experience these emotions? What if we gave ourselves the same compassion we show others and created space for self-reflection and self-compassion? “Emotions are not designed to be permanent,” says Dr. Heller. “They only tend to stay permanent and fixed if we run away from them.”  Recognizing that we’re all in this together, the NARM Training Institute was created to support individuals, families and communities in facing the impacts of complex trauma, and provide effective strategies for navigating the fear, isolation and uncertainty during this challenging time for our world.   “The way that we show up in ourselves is really going to be the best model for them [children]] about how to navigate this really scary time.” - Brad Kammer   RESOURCE MENTIONED: Netflix Watch Party   NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com   *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios. *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

“I believe everyone has [complex trauma]. And we may know it logically, and tell ourselves ‘Oh, it’s okay,’ and all that. For me my journey has been to really deepen my own compassion for myself and recognize my own complex trauma.” Claude Cayemitte, MSW, RCSWI Claude Cayemitte, a clinical social worker and NARM Therapist, joins our host Sarah Buino to examine how complex trauma impacts individuals from marginalized communities and how unrecognized cultural trauma can lead to misattunement in the therapeutic relationship. Using his NARM training as a foundation, and his own background as a Haitian-American male therapist, Claude addresses blind spots, such as privilege, biases and fear, that impact connection between therapists and their clients, particularly from non-dominant cultures. These blind spots can prevent much-needed introspection within and outside of the therapeutic setting, and can lead to further distrust and disconnection between individuals and communities. When talking about his own experience as a therapist who is also a person of color, Claude identifies the difference between what it feels like when people are acting-out from their own unconscious biases - even well-intended ones - versus when they show up with cultural humility. Cultural humility is not something that can be faked, it emerges from self-reflection that requires exploring one’s unconscious biases. When someone shows up with curiosity and openness, and is continually doing the work of self-reflection, they build the ability to tolerate the complexity of being connected to others even in difference and disagreement. Claude sees this as an important distinction to understand, especially for therapists working cross-culturally, or anyone working with social justice issues.  As a recipient of the Minority Fellowship Award from the Council of Social Work Education for his work with at-risk teens, Claude has witnessed first-hand what happens when therapists bring their whole selves, and a willingness to examine their own biases and fears, into their therapeutic practice: long-standing cultural trauma - social injustices and disconnection between individuals and communities - can begin to shift and heal. RESOURCES MENTIONED Family First Adolescent Services White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism Conversations With A Wounded Healer   CONTACT CLAUDE Claude Cayemitte Primary Therapist Family First Adolescent Services LinkedIn   NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com   *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

“Complex trauma shows up in so many different ways that are covert and overt. And, the more we can recognize it, the more we're able to approach it in a way that moves towards healing and not isolation.” ~Gina Essex, MA, LPC-S Our host Sarah is joined by Gina Essex, a psychotherapist, NARM Therapist and Senior Training Assistant, who began working with the NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM®) in 2013. Gina has a passion for making this trauma healing work accessible to everyone, as she says: “It’s so important for everyone to know that the effects of trauma can be healed over time.” Over the past few years Gina has been focused on introducing NARM to first responders in her community. Gina works with firefighters, paramedics, law enforcement, and military— populations that tend to present unique challenges for traditional therapists. “These people run toward danger. They run toward life threat. They’re trained to go against their normal human instinct: to get away from danger.” Gina describes how she thinks of running toward danger as the flip side of what these first responders are dealing with internally. She suggests that in order to run toward danger, they have to run away from themselves.  In addition to the tolerance for high-risk experiences required in these professions, there’s an element of fraternity that frames any evidence of vulnerability as a potential liability. The constant desensitization to high-risk experiences can prevent these deeply-caring professionals from accessing and expressing their real feelings. “There are stigmas within these communities, ‘Don’t show your emotion. Don’t cry. You'll look weak, or you'll be weak and people don't want to work with you, or you won't have our back, or you'll be shunned if you’re weak.’” As for her own journey, Gina says that NARM training has opened her up to areas where she had, in the past, focused too much attention on the doing. She’s learning to trust the process more, including her clients’ capacity to be their own healers.  “It’s a very sacred space and not to be overlooked.” Hear how the work Gina does with the first responders address these stigmas head-on, and how she has witnessed the power of NARM in her private practice to transform people shackled to complex trauma into fully engaged participants of life.  CONTACT GINA (616) 930-0214 View Gina's Listing Here   NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com   *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

“NARM really helped me through all of these protective strategies I had that were getting in the way of me showing up the way I authentically wanted to show up. So, I found something that has been personally transformative. And, whenever I do that, I want to tell everyone about it! I’ve seen my friends and peers go through NARM and really transform how they’re showing up in the world. It’s just really life-changing.” ~Bianka Hardin, PsyD Our host Sarah is joined by Psychologist, Professor and NARM Therapist Dr. Bianka Hardin, to discuss the NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM®) and its role in professional development for helping professionals, including its central focus on the therapist’s own personal development, as a tool for impacting personal healing and social change.  Bianka was already an accomplished trauma therapist and professor working in Chicago, had completed many previous therapy trainings, and had been a leader in the trauma-informed movement for years when she was introduced to NARM.  She recalls the moment in her NARM training when she went all in -- using her own life as case study.  Although originally drawn to NARM’s “bottom-up” and “top-down” methodology, and its blending of somatic mindfulness with mindful awareness, it was the experiential practice that helped her feel the power of this work and that differentiated NARM from other approaches she had studied.  Bianka credits NARM for promoting an environment where a person’s protective strategies are honored, not forcibly eradicated.  Sarah and Bianka share the relief at finding a healing modality that provides less pressure for both the therapist and client, and a vehicle for embodying a sense of adult agency, a feeling of truly “growing up”. NARM prepares therapists to bring this impactful work to their clients by giving them a learning experience  to learn from the inside-out. Bianka wouldn’t have it any other way: “You can’t have joy if you’re not able to tolerate the experience of your own pain.”  Bianka and Sarah reflect on the gift they’re able to give to their clients in supporting their capacity to discover what they most want for themselves in their lives and to be able to more deeply connect to themselves and others. Bianka credits NARM with her growth as a therapist, teacher, mother, wife, friend and an individual. She is thrilled to be an ambassador for this cutting-edge model, in a field of complex trauma still in its infancy, and she’s honored and optimistic about sharing it with the world.   CONTACT BIANKA Bianka Hardin - Centered Therapy Chicago   RESOURCES DISCUSSED Trauma & Recovery: The Aftermath Of Violence - Judith Herman The Body Keeps The Score: Brain Mind & Body In The Healing Of Trauma - Bessel Van Der Kolk   NARM Training Institute http://www.NARMtraining.com   *** The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.   For the full show notes including references, podcast episodes mentioned, and a quick glossary of terms, visit us at http://www.narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma *** We want to connect with you! Facebook @NARMtraining Twitter @NARMtraining YouTube Instagram @thenarmtraininginstitute   Sign up for a free preview of The NARM Inner Circle Online Membership Program: http://www.narmtraining.com/freetrial