Page 19 - NARM Model for Working with Affect

NARM Affect Core Principle: Fear & Anxiety
§In NARM, we don’t facilitate abreaction or going deep into old fears §But we do with anxiety is to help clients to stop running from their
anxiety and themselves
• Anxiety is a signal about something that we need to listen to
§We want to know: What are they afraid of? What are the underlying dynamics, introjects, and intrapsychic conflicts that are eliciting the fear and the various strategies of running away from one’s self?
• e.g., As a client gets closer in relationship, they may feel anxiety, but ultimately that anxiety is part of a “futuristic memory” (fear of something that has already happened)
oe.g., fear that if they open their hearts they will be left or abandoned
NARM Model for Working with Affect Laurence Heller, PhD & Brad J Kammer, LMFT, LPCC 22