Category: Transforming Trauma Podcast

ln this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily is joined by practitioner, teacher, and author, Galina Denzel. Galina is trained as a practitioner of NARM as well as Somatic Experiencing. She recently published a book, Peace with Self, Peace with Food. Throughout the episode we hear about how Galina integrates trauma healing approaches into her work.

Galina’s current focus in her work is with people who are suffering in their relationship with food, and often people who also have chronic body pain, fatigue, or other conditions. She works with people both in a group setting and one on one. After going through her own personal healing, Galina became passionate about helping others to experience similar transformation.

Learning about shock and developmental trauma were both important parts of her healing, and now integrated into the work she does with her clients. Galina shares her perspective that what is often misunderstood is that “there’s a biological foundation under [people’s] struggles, and unless that biological foundation is addressed and our nervous systems’ processes are addressed, everything else we do is just going to roll like water off a duck.”

We invite you to listen to this episode to hear more about Galina’s work and her new book. She has generously offered to share the first chapter of Peace with Self, Peace with Food with Transforming Trauma listeners – you can download it here: www.purebelonging.com/chapter

About Galina: Galina Denzel is a Somatic Experiencing, NARM and Somatic Practice practitioner, movement specialist and author based in Longmont, Colorado. She combines trauma healing approaches with movement practices and psychoeducation to support deeper connection, integration and full expression of her students’ highest potential. She works mostly in the areas of chronic pain and recovery from emotional eating.

Learn More:
Free chapter of the book: www.purebelonging.com/chapter
Instagram: www.instagram.com/galinadenzel
Website: www.purebelonging.com
Peace With Food Webinar: www.betransformed.teachable.com/p/peacewithfood101

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, Brad Kammer, NARM Senior Faculty, is joined by our guest, Igal Hamelin. Igal is a spiritual director, meditation teacher, and a NARM Master Practitioner. In addition to working one on one with people, he also offers meditative attunement workshops for therapists. Throughout their conversation, we hear from Igal about his spiritual journey, his interest in psychology, and how he integrates the two today. “You need both to progress,” Igal shares.

Igal and Brad discuss collective and generational trauma, and how suffering can often lead people to explore spirituality. Igal is a second-generation Holocaust survivor, and from an early age was aware of how unsafe life can be. “We don’t normally talk about it [this] way, but I do think that suffering can be an amazing gift in that it forces you to seek the deep questions about the meaning of life,” Igal says. 

Igal shares his personal process of studying with gifted spiritual teachers for many decades but finding that psychological understanding was often lacking. He came to the realization that it is easy for “spiritual bypass” to occur and that trauma healing is essential to integrate into one’s spiritual path. 

Igal tells Brad that he learned about NARM in his study with Thomas Hübl (who has also been a guest on Transforming Trauma – to listen to that episode, click here). When Igal first learned about NARM, he knew he wanted to become trained in the model. He shares that once he began his training, he felt very much at home in the NARM community. “NARM was such an amazing surprise for me.” Going into the training, he thought he would only be developing trauma-informed skills – but he’s discovered that learning NARM has brought him so much; another opportunity for deep spiritual healing and growth.

Igal expresses his curiosity and excitement to see how his work and integration of NARM continues to unfold.  We invite you to listen to this episode to hear more about Igal’s work.

About Igal: Igal Harmelin is a spiritual director and meditation teacher. He is a rabbinical student at the Aleph Ordination Program. He is also a NARM Master Practitioner in private practice in New York City. His website is igalharmelin.com.

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily is joined by Dr. Nadine Macaluso. Dr. Nae is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist in Glen Cove, New York. She has a Ph.D. in counseling and somatic psychotherapy, specifically honoring the mind-body connection. Her work is informed by the NARM model and she carries a strong emotional and relational intelligence as she supports individuals struggling to map their own journey and overcome self-doubt. She shares about her new book, Trauma Bond Free: A Therapist’s Guide For Healing From Traumatic Love, which grew out of her own personal life experience as she healed from the terror and trauma of her first marriage to “the Wolf on Wallstreet”. 

Throughout the episode, Dr. Nae shares a little about why she was drawn to the NARM model, and a few highlights that have really informed the work she does with patients– namely the adaptive survival styles and how her patients really appreciate understanding better what they missed in development. Upon reflecting on what she’s learned from NARM, she shares, “[It] taught me that the opposite of depression is vitality, not happiness…so I hope that you feel more alive, and give yourself permission to feel alive and if you contract and feel smaller, that’s okay too, knowing that you will feel more alive,” she says.

She also highlights the importance of working with someone to be able to be present with their emotions, which can allow the emotion to provide important information. She shares a reflection on how people often don’t learn how to be present with their emotions in childhood. “A lot of parents have a hard time with their children’s emotions, and they don’t want them to feel to feel negative emotions and they only concentrate on positive emotions…and I love that about NARM and it taught me and emphasizes that– how to be with them, hold them, ride them like a wave. And know that they [difficult emotions] end,” she reflects. 

We invite you to tune in and hear more of Dr. Nae’s story and her reflections on her work.

About Dr. Nadine Macaluso:

Nadine Macaluso is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice. Trained in NARM and Somatic psychotherapy, she emphasizes the mind-body connection when working with couples and individuals. Her personal and clinical expertise is in complex trauma, attachment, trauma bonds and narcissism. Dr. Nae is also the ex-wife to the infamous Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, with whom she shares two children. Nadine has been happily remarried for 20 years; she and her husband John share a blended family of five children.

In this end of the year episode, we are joined by Brad Kammer, NARM Training Director and Senior Faculty, Dr. Laurence Heller, creator of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), and new Transforming Trauma host, Emily Ruth. 

They start by saying goodbye to Sarah Buino, the inaugural host of the podcast, and expressing their gratitude for her contributions to Transforming Trauma. 

They then share a heartfelt welcome to Emily and how thrilled they are to be bringing Emily on as the new host of Transforming Trauma.

Emily, a NARM Practitioner and NARM Training Assistant, shares a brief overview of her background and how she originally found NARM. In her early part of her career she was a movement artist and a choreographer.  “I really enjoy creating and so choreography was always more of my jam.” Then when she became pregnant with her first son she was curious about what was happening in her body and how she was being impacted in such transformative ways. This experience led her to becoming a birth doula. “The training that I had as a doula was really about creating an environment for a baby to be born with as little trauma as possible.”  Emily shares that she found NARM shortly after starting graduate school and that NARM aligned with how she was already approaching her work and her life. After Emily shares a bit about herself she then invites Larry and Brad to share about what they have been up to over the last year and reflect on what they are looking forward to in the future with NARM. 

Larry reflects on the tremendous growth over the last year within the NARM international community. He was able to complete several trainings in Europe, completed a book in German on Shame and Guilt, and he and Brad completed a book (which will be published July 2022).  “It’s been a busy and productive year and I’m happy with NARM being taken into the world in broader ways.” Larry shares that over the next year he plans to continue with the NARM Post Masters Immersion Training. This Level 4 NARM Training is for clinicians who have completed the Level 3 NARM Masters Therapist Training and want to continue deepening their learning. 

Brad reflects on how NARM’s growth over the last year honors the mission of the NARM Training Institute, which is to create a professional community where helping professionals can receive mentorship and support in their work with complex trauma.  “It’s exciting to see the level of growth that we’ve had.”  He shares that he’s excited about the future direction of the podcast, the further development of the NARM Inner Circle, and especially about their new book coming out soon: The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma: Using the NeuroAffective Relational Model to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resolve Complex Trauma.

As their conversation comes to a close, they reflect on the thousands of people now trained in NARM. As senior trainers in NARM, Brad and Larry express feeling humbled to see the growth of NARM and excited to know that this work is getting out more into the world. They are looking forward to building on the momentum in 2022 and taking on new projects to continue making NARM more accessible to helping professionals around the world.

Brad closes by expressing his gratitude towards the NARM community and what they’ve built together. “We are creating a sacred environment, and I hope that this [community] supports people to go out into their communities and to the clients they are working with and know that they have a place they are a part of professionally.”

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our guest is Chaz Franke, LCSW. Chaz is the owner of Light Source, a private practice in Belleville, Illinois, is an adjunct professor in the MSW program at St. Louis University, and has over 15 years of experience working with trauma. Chaz shares with listeners his journey to becoming a trauma therapist, the role curiosity can play in the therapeutic relationship, and how his work has impacted him and his clients. 

Curiosity is a theme that is interwoven throughout the episode. Chaz shares, “I always try to tell people that I promise to be interested.” He reflects on the value he holds in being able to be curious with his clients and to support them to not be afraid to challenge or confront him if they aren’t feeling heard. He explains that his curiosity with his clients has not only helped and supported them, it has allowed him to also learn from and be impacted by his clients. 

Chaz had many opportunities early in his career that supported him to better understand trauma and how to be with clients in a way that supports their healing. He was mentored by highly skilled figures in the field of trauma and therapy such as Dr. Ira Chasnoff and Dr. Bruce Perry. Chaz shares that Dr. Perry helped him to look beyond the behaviors and to try and understand the person, not pathologizing them, but to hold compassion and curiosity. “If you’ve suffered, you need understanding.”  

Chaz also shares about his background in Zen Buddhism which helped him better understand suffering and the importance of not putting pressure on himself or his clients to rush the healing process. The relational framework that Chaz uses, which involves the therapist slowing down and not pressuring themselves, or their clients, is aligned with the NARM framework as well.

Chaz reflects on the reality that despite their best intentions, helping professionals over the years have created harm for their patients due to the lack of support and competency around trauma. Chaz is passionate about the growth of trauma-informed field. He explains that an important area of trauma-informed focus for therapists is on their own connection to Self as helping professionals. He shares about how he uses supervision as an opportunity for therapists to be self-reflective, shifting patterns of self-criticism and self-shaming that lead to over-efforting, pressuring, comparing and other disruptive strategies for therapists. He says that if you can’t look inward you will shut your clients down unknowingly.  When give the right kind of support, therapists can be more effective in connecting with themselves and their clients, and more effective in their healing work.  

Chaz has so much excitement for his work and for his continued learning.  He finds hope in the healing work of trauma therapy.  He shares, “I think that therapy is 100% the coolest thing in the world.”