Becky Russell Counseling, LLC
Child, Adolescent, and Adult
Trauma Therapy
The Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM)
How is CRM different than other trauma therapies?
1. All of the CRM skills/model can be used with any other psychotherapeutic modality as well as a stand alone model/case conceptualization
2. The variety of internal resources as well as the sequential and concurrent use of the resources in a stacked or “nested” manner builds a neurological scaffolding of resources in the brain stem, midbrain, limbic system, and neocortex. The client remains in the highest level of resource during their trauma processing as a result of this scaffold so that the client is not re-traumatized by the work and attachment disruption re-wires completely.
3. Clients are educated about the purpose and mechanics of the CRM resourcing skills with the intention that they can use these resources in between sessions to strengthen their own sense of empowerment and self-regulation day to day.
4. Therapists are taught how to differentiate authentic processing from abreactions and “hamster wheel” processing that is re-traumatizing and does not “stick.” Educating therapists regarding their ability to attune to a client’s process and thus their moment-to-moment needs, is done through study of the model as well as by utilizing the tools themselves.
5. CRM allows for the three stages of trauma treatment (stabilization, processing, and integration) to occur simultaneously throughout the therapeutic process.
Uses of CRM (as a whole:)
~Complex PTSD
~Anxiety Disorders
~Mood Disorders
~Dissociative Disorders
~Attachment Disorders
~Performance Enhancement
~Traumatic Brain and Body Injury
Uses of CRM (Specific Skills:)
~Treating complex PTSD as well as all diagnostic categories.
~Treating Military PTSD after Attachment Disorders and BEFORE Performance Enhancement ~As “take-home” tools for between session stabilization and healing
~For therapists to resource themselves during work with clients
Overview of CRM
The Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM) was developed by Lisa Schwarz, M.Ed., a licensed psychologist in Pittsburgh, PA, who has traveled extensively nationally and internationally providing trainings and healing intensives to health practitioners and “lay people”. The goal of CRM is to remember, re-process, and release traumatic material from the nervous system in order to provide the opportunity for re-connection to one’s true self, the meaning of the truth of one’s life, and to the ability to embody love in one’s actions.
Development of CRM
Healing from the impact of traumatic experiences requires that there is sufficient brain-based safety physiologically for the survival terror to be stepped into, felt fully, remembered/re-membered, and re-oriented to so that it can be transformed.
CRM was developed as a result of seeing clients experience a fear response to their own stories and the remembering that prevented the client’s implicit memories from becoming conscious and explicit and processed through to a healing resolution.
As a consequence of not being sufficiently neurologically resourced, clients were going into overwhelm, flooding, abreaction and defensive dissociation which prevented them from processing, memory re-consolidation and long-term positive change.
CRM was developed with the final goal of processing the traumatic material from a place of complete neurobiological resourcing in various brain structures simultaneously while the client is consciously present in the moment. Eye positions are used the anchor the resources during processing.
Core Components of CRM
Attunement is an essential component that helps to create the overall framework for the Comprehensive Resource Model. Within the strength of attunement, additional resources are activated neurophysiologically within the client that enables them to remain present and embodied during trauma processing. The three levels of attunement which are taught in CRM trainings are client-therapist, within the client, and within the therapist. Working with therapists to enhance their awareness of their own triggers and dissociation during their work with clients is an important aspect of the model. Without therapist attunement to themselves, their decision making and ability to attune to the therapeutic process is compromised and the work is not done to the highest level of effectiveness. Evidence for this is talking about the therapeutic content rather than actually doing the work.
Other components of the model include a wide range of breathing skills each with a specific role or healing property, somatic embodiment skills, attachment neurobiology, and spiritual resourcing. The entire therapeutic modality is a nested one, with each resource used in a fashion that paves the way for the next level of resource to be developed and utilized. There are seven primary resources and five secondary resources utilized in the CRM model.
CRM is a streamlined modality in which deep healing occurs deeply, gently, and it sticks. Work is done from the time of conception through the present and includes methods for working with generational trauma out of the realm of the client’s conscious knowledge. This is a heart-centered approach in which clients are guided to re-member who they really are and to learn to embody their true spiritual essence in their day to day lives.
Intake, Self-empowerment, and Between Session Resourcing
All of the layers of this nested model are taught to the client for an immediate sense of agency, self-empowerment, and resourcing during and between sessions. This allows for much less dependence on the therapist now and in the future if problems arise and client is not in therapy at that time. The CRM does not give clients fish, it gives them the tackle box and teaches them HOW to fish. Clients who use the skills at home during their daily life heal much faster than those who do not.
*For more information, please visit the CRM website: