Page 14 - NARM Model for Working with Affect

NARM Affect Core Principle: Anger & Aggression
§Projection: a child doesn’t know how to deal with her anger about the environmental failure so she unconsciously transfers and projects it onto aspects of her environment (protecting the caregivers), which continues unconsciously into adulthood
• e.g., children being afraid of what’s going to attack them from under the bed or in the closet
• e.g., adults seeing others as judging them or being paranoid and seeing others as out to get them
§Many symptoms and disorders can be understood through the lens of split-off anger and aggression
§Including “freeze”, which in developmental trauma signifies an intrapsychic conflict revolving around unexpressed anger that is so threatening it has to be shut-down
NARM Model for Working with Affect Laurence Heller, PhD & Brad J Kammer, LMFT, LPCC 16