NARM® – A Path to Healing Developmental Trauma
How the NeuroAffective Relational Model builds upon somatic work to restore connection, vitality, and authenticity
After completing my Somatic Experiencing® (SE) training, it felt like a natural step to continue with NARM®. Developed by Dr. Laurence Heller, a former SE faculty member and trainer, NARM integrates somatic wisdom with a more focused approach to complex and developmental trauma. My years with SE offered me a profound reconnection to my body—an anchoring into safety and sensation. NARM then brought a more direct, yet sensitive lens to the emotional and relational wounds rooted in early life.
It’s from this personal and professional journey that I feel called to share a few words about NARM—The NeuroAffective Relational Model—and the role it plays in healing long-standing patterns shaped by early attachment disruptions and emotional neglect.
What is NARM®?
The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM®), developed by Dr. Laurence Heller, is an innovative therapeutic approach specifically designed to address developmental and relational trauma. It blends somatic psychotherapy, affective neuroscience, psychodynamic insight, and mindfulness, resulting in a truly integrative model.
Rather than focusing primarily on interpreting the past, NARM explores how early adaptive patterns continue to shape our present-day identity, relationships, and physiology. The process is anchored in the "here and now", supporting clients in becoming aware of their survival strategies and gently returning to a state of self-regulation, vitality, and connection.
How NARM® Differs from Other Therapies
- Psychodynamic therapy often emphasizes transference and past interpretations. NARM brings the focus to the present moment, observing how past experiences continue to live in the body and mind.
- Somatic Experiencing® (SE) addresses shock trauma through completing fight, flight, or freeze responses. NARM complements SE by focusing on developmental trauma and the adaptive relational strategies that form in early life.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets negative thought patterns. NARM goes deeper, addressing the nervous system dysregulation that underlies many distorted thoughts and emotional responses.
- Unlike therapies centered on emotional catharsis, NARM emphasizes gentle, conscious emotional integration to avoid retraumatization and promote sustainable healing.
How NARM® Supports Healing from Developmental Trauma
NARM is built around the recognition of five core biological needs essential for healthy development:
Connection, Attunement, Trust, Autonomy, and Love–Sexuality. When these needs are unmet in early life, children develop adaptive survival styles to maintain attachment or avoid emotional pain—often at the cost of their authenticity, emotional regulation, or bodily connection.
Developmental trauma arises when these fundamental needs are chronically unmet. This leads to:
- Disconnection from self and others
- Nervous system dysregulation
- Distortions in self-identity
To survive emotionally unsafe environments, children may disconnect from their body, suppress needs, or compromise their authenticity. While these adaptations are initially protective, they often become obstacles in adult life, resulting in emotional, physical, and relational suffering.
NARM helps to bring these unconscious patterns into awareness, reconnect clients to their somatic experience, and support the restoration of their inner vitality.
The NARM Approach in Practice
Rather than analyzing the past, NARM emphasizes moment-to-moment awareness, exploring how the past shapes the present without becoming stuck in old stories. It invites clients into a collaborative inquiry process, which includes:
- Tracking somatic states (sensations, tension, breath, posture)
- Becoming aware of adaptive survival patterns and the inner conflicts they create
- Cultivating self-compassion, curiosity, and present-time connection
- Identifying and releasing shame-based identifications and limiting beliefs
A central principle in NARM is that the natural movement of life is toward connection and healing. No matter how severe the trauma, there is always an inner drive toward health and fulfillment. The therapist does not impose insight but co-creates a space where the client can discover their own truths, reestablish their authentic self, and expand their capacity for aliveness.
NARM’s Contribution to Trauma Therapy
Through working with the survival styles we developed in early life, NARM helps clients:
- Identify the adaptive patterns that limit their experience of connection and joy
- Explore unmet core needs without reactivating trauma
- Expand their capacity to stay present in their body and in relationships
- Release shame-based self-concepts and reclaim their innate worth
These shifts are not achieved by re-living traumatic events but by renegotiating the internal conflicts and disconnections that developed in response to them. In doing so, clients are able to reclaim vitality, clarity, and relational intimacy.
A Personal Reflection
For me, NARM has been a deeply transformative path of reconnection. After the years of rediscovering my body through Somatic Experiencing®, NARM invited me to gently yet precisely look at the relational wounds that shaped my identity. It helped me untangle unconscious beliefs rooted in shame, and gradually reconnect with a more integrated and authentic self.
Healing is possible—not by forcing a return to the past, but by reconnecting with the body, meeting ourselves with presence, and restoring the natural rhythm of our nervous system and relational life.
NARM: An Invitation to Live Authentically
NARM is more than a therapeutic model. It is an invitation to live with an open heart, in alignment with our inner truth, and in harmony with ourselves and others. It integrates science, compassion, and deep human understanding, offering a clear and respectful path toward healing and vitality.
References
Laurence Heller & Aline LaPierre (2012) – Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship
(Available in Romanian as Trauma de dezvoltare)
Laurence Heller & Brad Kammer (2022) – The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma: Using the NeuroAffective Relational Model to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resolve Complex Trauma
