11/08/2025
The Community Resiliency Model (CRM) introduces a trauma-informed and resiliency-informed approach to well-being. It highlights a "Perspective Shift" from conventional views of people as "bad" or "lacking" to understanding that "people are suffering" and "people are resilient."
The core concept revolves around the "Resilient Zone" (or "OK Zone"), which is the optimal state of well-being. The goal of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) is to widen this zone, allowing individuals to better manage life stressors without being "bumped" into "High Zone" (e.g., anxiety, anger) or "Low Zone" (e.g., depression, numbness) states.
The CRM emphasizes the biological basis of the human nervous system and introduces six key CRM skills:
Tracking: Noticing and paying attention to physical sensations within the body, discerning between pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant sensations. The insula, a part of the brain, is highlighted for its role in interoception (awareness of internal body states).
Resourcing: Identifying any person, place, thing, memory, or part of oneself that evokes feelings of calm, pleasantness, peace, strength, or resilience.
Grounding: Making direct contact with something that provides support in the present moment, such as sitting on a chair or standing against a wall.
Help Now!: Immediate strategies to shift attention and regain a sense of control (e.g., drinking water, counting backwards, noticing surroundings).
Gesturing & Spontaneous Movements: Using movements and gestures that express or emphasize an idea, sentiment, or attitude, including self-soothing or protective gestures.
Shift & Stay: Intentionally shifting attention from unpleasant sensations to neutral or pleasant ones and maintaining that focus.
The CRM also covers:
Key Concepts: Including the brain's three parts (Cortex, Limbic Area, Survival Brain), the amygdala's role in threat appraisal, mirror neurons, and survival responses (Tend & Befriend, Fight, Flight & Freeze).
Memory: Distinguishing between explicit (conscious, factual) and implicit (unconscious, body-based) memories, and the concept of "memory capsules" that can trigger traumatic responses.
Toxic Stress: Discussing different types of trauma ("Too much too fast," "Too little for too long," "Too much for too long," "Big 'T' Trauma," "Little 't' Trauma," and "Cumulative Trauma") and their impact.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Highlighting the original and expanded ACE studies and their lasting impacts on health and well-being, while emphasizing the mitigating role of resilience.
Supporting Children: Providing guidance on how adults can help children during crises by fostering open relationships, providing security, being role models, and applying CRM skills in age-appropriate ways.
