Category: Transforming Trauma Podcast

In this special episode of Transforming Trauma, the NARM Training Institute presents a summertime gift to Transforming Trauma listeners: a special topic webinar from the NARM Inner Circle online program. This webinar provides a window into the Inner Circle learning community where helping professionals from around the world come together to learn more about the NARM approach to resolving Complex Trauma.  

In this webinar, NARM and Intergenerational Love, NARM creator Dr. Laurence Heller and NARM Senior Faculty Brad Kammer, explore how intergenerational love interfaces with complex and intergenerational trauma. Larry and Brad reflect on how love – manifesting initially through the early attachment relationship between child and parents and later developing into other forms of intimate connection – plays a significant role in attachment, developmental and relational trauma. They discuss the importance of not leaving love out of the therapeutic process.  

Larry and Brad touch on such areas as: 

• What intergenerational love means.
• What the paradox is of trying to be loved.
• How to distinguish between unconditional love and trying to be loved.
• The relationship between love and hope.
• How themes of intergenerational love show up in clinical sessions.
• The connection between love, secure attachment and object constancy.

Throughout the episode, they also introduce several self-reflective exercises to support listeners’ learning process on the theme of intergenerational love. 

If you enjoy this episode, we invite you to explore the NARM Inner Circle online learning program, where we host NARM Topic Webinars like this one every month. An example of webinar topics from the Inner Circle are: Differentiating Shock and Developmental Trauma; Working with Shame, Self-Hatred and Self-Sabotage; Differentiating Depression and Grief; Complex Trauma and Addictions; Relational Trauma, Intimacy and Sexuality; Addressing Burnout in Helping Professionals; and the NARM Approach for Supporting Personal and Spiritual Growth. 

To learn more about the Inner Circle and to sign up for a free two-week trial, please visit: www.narmtraining.com/freetrial

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, NARM Senior Faculty Brad Kammer shares an excerpt from the highly anticipated new book he co-authored with NARM Creator Dr. Laurence Heller, The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma: Using the NeuroAffective Relational Model to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resolve Complex Trauma. 

This book will be released soon on July 26, 2022! 

The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma provides helping professionals with the theoretical background and practical skills they need to help clients transform complex trauma using the Neuro Affective Relational Model (NARM). Using many therapeutic examples, case studies and exercises throughout the book, it demonstrates how NARM can serve as a catalyst for clients to feel more fully alive, and become more fully human. Brad shares, “Our intention for this Practical Guide is to promote greater accessibility to the NARM Therapeutic Approach. It is our hope that this book will be used by helping professionals in enhancing therapeutic effectiveness for healing complex trauma”

Reflecting on this book as a resource for not only helping professionals, but for anyone seeking healing and growth, Brad shares: “Our greatest hope is that NARM can lead to increasing opportunities for connection, healing, and transformation in individuals, relationships, communities, and society. It is our hope that this work will support personal and collective change.”

This episode is the first time the new book is being shared publicly and we hope you enjoy listening! If you’re interested in reading the book, we encourage you to pre-order your copy today! Please visit www.narmtraining.com/books for more information and to view available online retailers.

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily facilitates a discussion between NARM creator Dr. Laurence Heller and Dr. Stephen Porges PhD, the originator of the Polyvagal Theory. Dr. Porges is a distinguished neuroscientist, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium, and author. He is also creator of the Safe and Sound Protocol™, a music-based intervention which is a “distilled essence of trust in acoustic signals to achieve physiological shifts.”

Dr. Heller and Dr. Porges discuss cues of safety and the nervous system, connection as our “biological imperative,” as well as shame and life-threat reactions. Dr. Porges describes how the Polyvagal Theory emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral, mental, and health problems related to traumatic experiences. In their engaging conversation, Dr. Porges presents the polyvagal interpretation of trauma as physiological states similar to NARM’s understanding of adaptive survival strategies. “What we learn in adapting to connection failures very early on in life is what we have a tendency to carry forward, not just on a cognitive level but on an emotional level and a physiological level.” Dr. Heller shares.   

Dr. Porges did not set out to so greatly influence the field of trauma, but he is happy to see how much trauma therapists have been able to use the Polyvagal Theory in their understanding and work with trauma.  He shares, “What I often say is that we’re a traumatized species. That’s our history. We are transgenerationally traumatized and our journey to a type of normalcy is, can we get back into our bodies and can we feel the states that we’re in? So can we be informed that when our physiology is in a state of threat (…) we’re broadcasting cues of separation and not connection.”

We hope you will enjoy this episode with two pioneers in the trauma field, Dr. Laurence Heller and Dr. Stephen Porges.  Both of their models – the Polyvagal Theory and the NeuroAffective Relational Model – have significantly impacted our understanding of trauma and we are honored to host this important conversation.

We invite you to listen to the full episode and follow Transforming Trauma in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

About Dr. Porges:

Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D. is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland.

He served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a former recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers across several disciplines including anesthesiology, biomedical engineering, critical care medicine, ergonomics, exercise physiology, gerontology, neurology, neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, psychometrics, space medicine, and substance abuse. In 1994 he proposed the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behavior and emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders. The theory is leading to innovative treatments based on insights into the mechanisms mediating symptoms observed in several behavioral, psychiatric, and physical disorders.

He is the author of The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation (Norton, 2011), The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe, (Norton, 2017), co-editor of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton, 2018) and author of Polyvagal Safety: Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation (Norton 2021). Dr. Porges is the creator of a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol ™ (SSP), which is used by therapists to improve social engagement, language processing, and state regulation, as well as to reduce hearing sensitivities.

Learn More:

https://www.stephenporges.com/

https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/

https://kinseyinstitute.org/research/traumatic-stress.php

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily is joined by Dr. Sandra Bloom. Dr. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy at Drexel University, and the Founder of Creating Presence, an online organization for creating trauma-informed systems. She is the founder of the Sanctuary Model which provides inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related emotional disorders. Dr. Bloom is the author of a series of books on trauma-informed care, including “Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies.”

Dr. Bloom is also the co-chair of a new national organization, the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP), whose goal is to advocate for public policies and programs that incorporate scientific findings regarding the relationship between trauma and many social and health problems.

Dr. Bloom shares that she began her work with complex trauma before there was research on it or even a name for it.  In the 1980’s, she was listening closely to her patients in the in-patient program that she had developed and started to create an understanding of the “traumatogenic culture” that is impacting so many individuals, families and communities. She began collaborating with others to implement trauma-responsive policies and procedures which helped evolve our understanding of how to treat complex trauma. Dr. Bloom would like listeners to “get a sense of the connection between trauma work and working with individual patients and the bigger picture of how trauma and adversity impact our workplaces and impacts our society in very similar ways to the way it impacts individuals.”

Dr. Bloom introduces the SELF tool for working through trauma: Safety, Emotions, Loss, and Future. Dr. Bloom likens these four domains to a compass, “You move it around depending on where the person is at in the process.” SELF provides an organizing framework for the complex problems presented by trauma survivors, by families with problems, and by chronically stressed organizations. 

We hope you will enjoy this episode with Dr. Sandra Bloom, one of the pioneers in the modern trauma-informed field.  We are grateful for her being able to follow in her footsteps in bringing trauma-informed care to individuals and communities everywhere.

We invite you to listen to the full episode and follow Transforming Trauma in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

About Dr. Bloom:

Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine and currently Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University. For the past forty-two years, Dr. Bloom has done pioneering work in the field of traumatic stress studies and is a past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Bloom is the Founder of the Sanctuary Model (1980) and in 2020 introduced a new, online organizational approach called Creating PRESENCE™. Since 2012, Dr. Bloom has also served as Co-chair for the Philadelphia ACEs Task Force. Since 2015, Dr. Bloom serves as Board Chair of the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP).

Learn More:

https://www.creatingpresence.net

https://www.philadelphiaaces.org

https://www.ctipp.org

https://sandrabloom.com

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily is joined by Dr. Jena Vasquez, LCSW-S, NARM Therapist, SEP, Yoga Therapist and Instructor, professor and researcher. Dr. Vasquez recently completed her doctoral dissertation, Meaning Making: Understanding Professional Quality of Life for NARM Trained Trauma Therapists, one of the first research studies on how professional training in trauma impacts quality of life for trauma therapists. Dr. Vasquez specifically chose NARM to research, and throughout their conversation, she shares the findings of her research, including powerful quotes from those she studied.

Dr. Vasquez has worked in the field of trauma for many years and observed that so many of her colleagues and supervisees were getting burned out. She reflected on what resources were available and realized that those that went for further training in trauma seemed to fare better. She, herself, had trained in several modalities before she found NARM, and realized she saw something different in therapists trained in NARM. In her search to better support fellow therapists and supervisees she began to hypothesize that there’s something in the NARM Training that can be beneficial for trauma therapists. “The NARM Training can really help trauma therapists to reduce the impact of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue that so many therapists are exposed to in their work.” Dr. Vasquez says.

Dr. Vasquez shares a few powerful quotes from research subjects (i.e., NARM Therapists), including:

1. “I feel more joy in my work, and in my life personally.”
2. “Working with trauma is a difficult choice, and using NARM has allowed me to really stay in it without being in it in a way that’s impacting myself and my ability to be there and be present.”
3. “Not only is the modality effective, but it also supports me in being able to do the work and sustain it.” 

Dr. Vasquez also shares about her own journey through the NARM Therapist Training, the impact this work and community had on her, and how she now integrates NARM into her teaching, supervision and clinical work. When reflecting on her integration of NARM, she says,  “The four pillars of NARM really are the framework that guide my practice with complex trauma survivors.” Dr. Vasquez and Emily reflect on the transformative nature of NARM Therapy as well as discuss ideas for further research on NARM clients as well.

We invite you to listen to the full episode to hear their full conversation and to learn more about Dr. Vasquez’ research and work with NARM.

About Dr. Vasquez: Jennifer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker- Supervisor (LCSW-S), Neuro-Affective Relational Model (NARM) Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), International Association of Yoga Therapy (IAYT-C) Certified Yoga Therapist, and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-500) with a specialization in developmental trauma. She integrates somatic psychotherapy and therapeutic yoga techniques to support her clients’ holistic healing. She co-founded the group practice Inspired Practice, LLC with her son, a fellow Social Worker, to provide psychotherapy and clinical supervision services.

Learn More:

https://www.yogajena.com
https://www.instagram.com/yogajena/
www.inspiredpractice.com