Names Changed to initials unless given permissions.
(Translated from German) – K.F. , Germany, 2023
I wanted to write this to you for a long time but I have not yet dared.
That I do it now, I am very pleased and touched, I can see I can also see my development in it and am again deeply grateful for your work with NARM, which gives me the opportunity to emerge.
I am deeply touched by the NARM work and its principles and it gives me great joy to dive further and further into it – I would say, it is definitely my heart subject. For me, the NARM work, as you may have already read out, is quite big, it has something so deep and wide, and there is also the dimension of spirituality, but in such a beautiful connection with my deepest humanity, which I find great.
I am reading your new book and I am – I repeat myself 😉 – very deeply touched by your way of writing,
I feel it as so soft and affectionate and somehow it also has a greater self-evidence in the way it is and in this is perhaps also your development, that is at least my guess 🙂
I really find myself in your writing and would like to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.
In November I will start my training with Angelika, whom you also know well, and I am very much looking forward to it. I would also like to carry NARM further into the world, for me it is deep peace work, which somehow brings compassion with it as a consequence and certain things from it then just don’t go anymore, at least that is my experience. It is like diving into deep humanity beyond self-optimization, which brings a connection with the earth, the world… Tears come to my eyes and sometimes it is still difficult for me to find words for my deep feeling of being touched.
Dear Dr. Heller,
S.V., Thailand, 2020
thank you so much for NARM! As a Buddhist nun living in Thailand I’ll probably never have the chance to have a session with a therapist using your method, but I read the German version of your book three years ago and found it very helpful. The Buddha teaches that all things arise from causes and conditions. Understanding the dynamics of shame-based identifications and pride-based counter-identifications has saved me a lot of time, because it gave me a framework for categorizing confusing recurring situations.
When I was still a laywoman I had the chance to attend a few workshops of Pesso-Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP) and I keep using the elements of this method. While PBSP mainly deals with the interpersonal aspects of relations and their impact, NARM offers me a valuable addition on the intrapersonal level.
I rejoice in all the good deeds arising from your work and share the merit of my practice with you!
I have been wanting to reach out to say thank you for the inspiring work and impact you are having world wide.
With gratitude
I was fortunate enough to make it happen to be able to attend and complete my NARM level 1 training in Belgium.
Now back home in South Africa, I am using and integrating / embodying Narm on a daily basis in my work with my clients and my own personal journey.
It has been amazing to see both the growth within myself and with my clients – we are full of gratitude!
I now look forward to finding a way over the next year or so to attend NARM level 2
You can now add SOUTH AFRICA to your Narm trained therapists
Carol Millar
After all these years: thank you!
H.F.
After NARM I still had to hit rock bottem in “real” life, but I had the tools to slowly help myself out.
Last years my life is unfolding so beautifully. I am very very gratefull to you and your work!
I wanted to say thank you for writing “healing developmental trauma” and for the information videos on youtube. Saying thanks feels so inadequate. This is the first time in my life (I’m almost 65), that I’ve understood what I’m dealing with. I tried so many things and many of them left me even worse off. I’m so grateful that you explained why things like talk therapy or holotropic breathwork aren’t helpful and can even be harmful. I’ve found that nobody believes me when I say I’ve been harmed by the things I’ve tried.
Judy Forester, Canada, 2019
6 years ago, I said “never again” to therapy. I’ve tried valiantly with Buddhist practice (over 25 years) and qi gong. Both helped in some ways, but have never addressed the emptiness, core beliefs, nor the negative self-image. I was feeling pretty hopeless about healing, until I read the book. I’m not certain I can allow myself to be that vulnerable again, as I’m not sure I could handle another betrayal or disappointment….but I also don’t want to continue living as I have.
Sorry…that’s a long explanation. But I wanted you to know the people that you are reaching with this book. I’ve passed the information on to friends, meditation teachers, and to my family physician. I wish every single therapist read this book and took part in your training. I could have avoided the judgement, shaming, and other harm I’ve received from therapists and doctors over the years. It’s hard enough living life through the lens of developmental trauma, but do have injury added by people that should be trustworthy is another layer of devastation.
Thank you for explaining and writing in a non-pathologizing way. Those of us with trauma have so often been seen in such a negative light and told we are broken beyond repair.
“Larry Heller’s approach was a revelation to me. Larry teaches us in an in-depth and practical way how to help our patients in depth and it’s exciting. He proposes a scientifically-grounded, theoretical understanding of the primary needs of the child and the inner conflict that he experiences in a situation of paradox or emotional insecurity. Larry then introduces us to the potential for resilience that the presence of the therapist brings at every moment. An original, powerful and innovative approach.”
(Dr. Eric Dachy, psychiatrist and NARM practitioner, 2018)
My session with you during shame and guilt in NL – has given a significant shift in my OCD.
H.F. – Netherlands
I can stay much longer in the discomfort of not doing my rituals – and I am more aware of what is underneath.
I would like to thank you for the session – and for your contribution to life.
Met vriendelijke groeten,
I made up my mind last year, that I was going to find a way to help survivors heal, by helping them learn you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) give up living for today and tomorrow to heal from yesterday, and that it’s absolutely necessary to keep using the positive tools we have or it all just becomes negative. I just recently found your book, and I have to tell you that I LOVE everything about your model! It is exactly the model I see myself needing to use to to truly heal, and it helped me understand so much about myself. I feel like it’s a model of hope vs the most common model of dwelling in pain that never seems to end.
T.P.
You asked for feedback after every interview and I have yet to do that until now. Christine Askew (Day 8) motivated me to attend my first CODA meeting since beginning recovery in 1988.
K.
Between her interview and Dr. Laurence Heller’s (Day 12) my recovery is on a whole new level!