The Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM®) developed by Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW and Laurie Leitch, PhD is a body-centered approach which explores the biology of fear and threat and the autonomic, natural defensive responses that occur when faced with a life-threatening and/or dangerous situation. TRM focuses on resiliency and how to restore balance to the body and the mind after traumatic experiences. This model teaches skills to help clients to connect with their inner resources and facilitate development of new resilient neural circuits.
The Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) addresses trauma gently in an invitational manner using both a bottom up as well as top down focus. TRM uses nine skills to teach clients self-regulation. Many of these skills can be used by client’s outside of the therapy room. Clients learn to nonjudgmentally observe “body sensations” (tracking); resourcing, a skill to change feeling states by bringing to mind a memory connected with calmness or joy while noticing associated sensations; and grounding, in which clients learn to focus on their feet touching the floor and the body connection to the chair while observing and naming what is in the room, in order to bring clients into the present moment.
Trauma and Resiliency
Other skills used in reprocessing are done with the therapist in sessions. TRM therapists gently titrate from traumatic memories or feeling states back to a more grounded resource place processing small parts of the trauma in order not to retraumatize the patient. Using dual-awareness clients are given tools to help stay in the present moment during the processing phase. Deepening resources and increasing the capacity for tolerating distress allows the client to experience their own resiliency and enjoy a greater window of tolerance.
