What is the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM)?

The main goal of TRM is to bring balance back to the mind and the body after traumatic experiences. When someone experiences challenges that cause dysregulation in the autonomic nervous system every day, sometimes instead of coming back into balance, the nervous system gets stuck in gear 4. By applying the 9 skills of TRM, patients are able to develop new, more resilient neural circuits in part by connecting to their inner natural resources. 

The aim of these skills is for the individual to stabilize their autonomic nervous system by managing their sensations. Often in other therapeutic models, it’s always about talking about the trauma and not really tuning into the sensations of the body. Ultimately we want to become familiar with the resilient zone and by learning these skills we can bring our nervous system back to this zone. By learning and mastering these skills, you’ll basically be taking your nervous system to the gym. 

The first 6 skills can be practiced and developed without the guidance of a counsellor, therapist or psychologist. The last 3 skills require guidance as they have the potential to destabilize the client. 

The 9 Skills

1. Tracking

Find a sensation in your body and monitor it for some time. Recognize it and describe it when it changes. Stay with yourself even if you start to feel discomfort. Train yourself not to dissociate. Over time you will be able to tell the differences between distressing sensations and sensations of wellbeing, yes those are possible. In order to get back into your resilient zone, you have to become familiar with places of comfort in your body.

When noticing these sensations in your body you must use “the language of sensations”. This entails using words that describe what you are noticing inside of your body.  Sensations give us clues as to what is going on in the nervous system. Words like “warm”, “cold”, “tingly”, “buzzy”, “tight” “light” and anything else that comes to mind can be used to describe what you are feeling.

2. Resourcing

Pin-point something (a person, animal, place, memory, activity, belief, or personal strength) that brings a sense of comfort, peacefulness or joy. Hold onto that beautiful memory and in as much detail discuss the sensory description. If the sensations are neutral or pleasant, keep them in your awareness for 20 seconds, transferring the memory from short-term to long-term. This will help the brain create positive neural pathways to counteract its natural tendency to dwell on the negative.

3. Grounding

Feeling the earth under your feet, whether you’re standing on dirt, grass or sand. Your aim is to feel gravity, feel the pressure of your body and what is supporting it. If you want you can even lie down on the ground to optimize the sensation of grounding. When you’re grounding feel the texture with your feet or hands. Try to name the details of what you touch, see, hear, smell and taste. Ground yourself.

4. Gesturing

On a day-to-day basis our body talks in many ways. By becoming more aware of spontaneous movements, we can give them meaning and create self-soothing gestures. This can be done alone or by seeing a therapist and practicing with them could be an option as well.

5. Help Now!

A strategy used within this skill is used to decrease or raise activation within the nervous system. The objective is to get your attention focused on something immediately. For example, counting steps, identifying objects or colours or pushing against a wall.   

6. Shift and stay

A technique in which we empower ourselves to shift our attention from challenging sensations and towards physical wellness, by incorporating skills 1-5.  If in a moment of distress the individual can use skills 1-5. Once they are mindfully aware of the more pleasant or neutral sensations, they stay with this still stabilization occurs or until they feel like they are in their resiliency zone. 

7. Titration

Being able to deal with a small bit of each emotion experienced throughout something traumatic. Like how do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time

8. Pendulation

Being able to be deeply present with an area of your body that is experiencing pain and switching your attention to a place of neutrality in your body. Learning how to oscillate between feelings of trauma and feelings of safety. 

9. Completion of survival responses

Completion gives us the opportunity to act out our natural survival responses physically in a safe environment. 

This bottom-up somatic approach provides the individual with the opportunity to learn 9 skills so they can emotionally regulate and integrate themselves sufficiently. Instead of their nervous system getting stuck in high gear they develop the ability to shift as they need to. By being able to shift efficiently, deeper traumatic sensations can be explored and the energy of the trauma can be released from the body, not just the mind.

If you have any questions about the 9 skills of TRM or other treatment methods for a successful recovery, please do not hesitate to reach out!