In this episode of Transforming Trauma, NARM Senior Trainer Brad Kammer is joined by Clementine Morrigan, writer, podcaster, socialist, and trauma educator. Clementine embodies their teaching, sharing and perspective in the courageous trauma-informed work they are doing, specifically addressing the shame-based dynamics of what is presently referred to as “cancel culture”. Clementine is a strong advocate for a new understanding of the dynamics of cancel culture, and how publicly canceling fellow human beings impacts individuals and communities. In this discussion, Clementine shares about the psychological impact for individuals who are publicly shamed and rejected, and how trauma-informed therapists can play a role in individual healing and relational repair.

Clementine presents the concept of the “Nexus”, which is a synthesis of identitarianism, social media, and cancel culture, and about the traumatogenic nature of this synthesis. Through their research and experience, Clementine has found that leaving the Nexus, and/or experiencing cancel culture, has traumatic effects similar to complex trauma due to the loss of relational connection. Feeling ostracized or excommunicated has long-term effects because it prevents future attempts at creating connection and community. Clementine suggests that in the world of cancel culture, the relational understanding of “rupture and repair” do not seem to exist.

Clementine recounts their own experience in the Nexus which led them to a hypervigilant obsession with social justice culture since they felt fear that if they made mistakes, they’d be defined by them and not allowed to live them down. This time in Clementine’s life felt like walking a fine line between wanting to act from a place of integrity that honors human dignity for all people and the shamed-based behavior of not wanting to get in trouble. They highlight the importance of not defining people by their behaviors, but rather by their human potential; something they learned through their own therapy work and their involvement in twelve-step communities. 

Connection, therapy, and twelve-step programs are what Clementine cites as contributing to their deprogramming of the Nexus-way of thinking. All of the internal work allowed them to create healthy boundaries and live their integrity. It has also allowed them to rebuild a community with shared values; a community that speaks openly about cancel culture and strives for solidarity, freedom and responsibility.

We are grateful to Clementine for sharing their story and their insight to the nexus. We invite you to listen to the full episode to hear more about the adverse effects of cancel culture and how to overcome them.

In this webinar, NARM and Heartfulness, NARM creator Dr. Laurence Heller and NARM Senior Trainer Brad Kammer, explore the importance of integrating the heart with the mind during the healing process. More specifically, they reflect on the survival functions of disconnecting from and shutting down the heart based on early loss, heartbreak, and the impact of developmental trauma.

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, Dr. Laurence Heller, the Creator of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), is joined by our host, Sarah to answer a very common question about the role spirituality plays in the healing of trauma. How can spirituality serve reconnection to oneself in the aftermath of complex and developmental trauma? What are the ways that religious and spiritual practice might support trauma healing?  What role does spirituality play in post-traumatic growth, and specifically in the NeuroAffective Relational Model for resolving Complex Trauma?

What’s the root cause of addiction? Renowned author and researcher Dr. Gabor Maté considers addiction a normal response to abnormal circumstances. That simple reframe moves treatment options beyond pathologizing to inspire hope and a path toward healing.

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, Emily is thrilled to welcome back Gabor Maté, MD, the esteemed physician best known for his breakthrough analysis of addiction as a psychophysiological response to childhood trauma and emotional loss. Gabor co-wrote his latest work, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, alongside his son Daniel Maté. It became an instant New York Times bestseller, and the duo is already working on their next project, Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and Their Adult Children. Emily and Gabor explore the pain behind addiction and the promise of wholeness.

“Addiction isn’t the problem,” observes Gabor, who defines the behavior as anything––from narcotics to pornography, social media to shopping, exercise to alcohol––in which a person finds temporary relief or pleasure and, therefore, craves but can’t or won’t give up despite its negative impact on their life. “It’s an attempt to solve a problem, and the problem is one of pain.” Addiction then is often an understandable but maladaptive response to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). “It does not mean that there's something irrevocably wrong with you. It does mean that (the addiction) was adaptive at some point, but it's not helping you anymore.”

What are the defining characteristics of good psychotherapy? Increasingly, the answers are filtered through the lens of incomplete research or, worse, via buzzwords popularized by wellness websites. Despite what many people are led to believe, “evidence-based” psychotherapeutic approaches have significant limitations for both clinicians and clients.

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, Emily welcomes author, consultant, researcher, and clinical educator Jonathan Shedler, PhD, to discuss the widening chasm between the research conducted by academic psychologists and real-life psychotherapy. The pair also examine the importance of forming a therapeutic alliance and misconceptions about psychological concepts such as transference and countertransference. 

“The field of psychology is very compartmentalized,” Dr. Shedler concedes. As one of the relatively few professionals who can successfully navigate mental health research and clinical practice, he asserts that the divide has contributed to a quantity-over-quality proliferation of mainly short-term, CBT-informed approaches; and more recently, web-based platforms. “People think the crisis is about access to therapy.” In reality, he says, there’s a glut of therapists in the field. Instead, “it's about access to meaningful, serious psychotherapy––and that takes time.” 

Speed isn’t an effective treatment for mental health challenges. “That’s the disease,” explains Dr. Shedler. “The goal is to slow things down and create freedom.”  Addressing issues like complex PTSD requires a commitment to comprehensive, and generally longer-term therapeutic models like NARM.  “We don't work magic,” Dr. Shedler says. “These patterns that clients have taken a lifetime to develop are flat-out not going to just go away in a matter of weeks.” 

Time is a powerful ally. Given enough of it, patients will inevitably recreate their problematic relationship patterns with their therapists, which is what psychologists have traditionally referred to as transference. “Our unavoidable participation in these patterns provides the crucial window into their inner world,” says Dr. Shedler, referring to what psychologists have traditionally referred to as countertransference. In alignment with relational psychodynamic models, Dr. Shedler considers the therapeutic relationship central to the healing that takes place in effective psychotherapy, and which can’t be replaced by protocols, homework or artificial intelligence. Stressing how important the relationship is between therapist and client, he says that “the last thing we want to do is shut that out! I wanna take that information that arises in the [transference and] countertransference, and I wanna make use of it constructively.”

Transforming Trauma appreciates Dr. Jonathan Shedler's continued efforts in bridging the gap between psychotherapeutic research and real-life practice. We also thank him for calling attention to the worrisome trend toward so-called “evidence-based” therapies, as well as other short-term approaches that maximize profits at the expense of our profession’s credibility. Dr. Shelder is a fierce advocate in shifting the dominating narrative that these short-term approaches are more effective than relational, depth-oriented, longer-term psychotherapeutic models like NARM.