The Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® is a biological non-stigmatizing approach to the nervous system under stress that trains community members to not only help themselves but to help others within their wider social network. The primary focus of this skills-based, stabilization program is to reset the natural balance of the nervous system, moving an individual back into their Resilient Zone of functioning.
In this model, the core belief is that “adversity is not a destiny”. Community Resiliency Model fosters the creation of communities that are both trauma-informed and resiliency- focused. These communities, through practicing and implementing the CRM model, share a common understanding of the impact of trauma and chronic stress on individuals and in the community at large and focus on how resiliency can be restored or increased using this skills-based approach. As a training model, CRM seeks to shift the traditional paradigm surrounding stress responses and trauma. Rather than approaching the impacts of a traumatic event with the question “what’s wrong with you?”, CRM instead seeks to move the needle by asking not only “what happened to you?” (a trauma-informed approach), but also “what’s right with you?” (a strength-based resiliency approach). It is through this model of moving from assumption to awareness to action that CRM is most successful in analyzing and addressing the effects of past events through the lens of a Resilient Zone (shown below).
The Resilient Zone
In this framework, the Resilient Zone represents the baseline at which a person can function most effectively that is within their bandwidth for stress toleration. Within the Resilient Zone, there is balance and an ability to adapt to and overcome challenges in daily life. Experiencing things like toxic stress, hunger, exhaustion, burnout, and pain can narrow the Resilient Zone, leading to an acceleration or deceleration of the nervous system that places an individual outside of their baseline ability to function.
High Zones and Low Zones
When moving beyond the baseline for functioning, a person can get stuck in a high or a low zone of functioning. When the nervous system experiences an acceleration, the sympathetic nervous system is in control, causing an upswing in the heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate and a feeling of anxiety or being on edge. In a high zone, the body is expending energy rapidly and stress hormones are being produced rapidly, causing increased likelihood of irritability, anger, and lashing out.
Conversely, a deceleration of the nervous system engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which can cause slowing of the heart rate and breathing rate and a lowering of the blood pressure. While this system is typically engaged in answer to an uptick in the nervous system’s functioning, it can be triggered out of turn in a traumatic event, causing an individual to become stuck in a low zone. In a low zone, the individual is more likely to experience depressive symptoms, including exhaustion, fatigue, social isolation, and numbness.
Community Resiliency Model teaches skills to navigate both high and low zones on the way back towards the resilient zone, focusing on 6 main approaches to reregulation: Tracking, Resourcing, Grounding, Gesturing, Help Now!, and Shift & Stay. These skills, known as the CRM Wellness Skills can help reregulate the nervous system and allow an individual to move from a high or low zone back into their resilient zone.
CRM Skills
- Tracking: noticing sensations within the body, tracking where they arise in the body and how they feel (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), and following the sensations to the source or trigger.
- Resourcing: identifying a personal resource, memory, person, place, or thing that provides a sense of balance and observing how it impacts the way sensations feel.
- Grounding: using a physical object or sensation to provide support and a feeling of being present within time and space.
- Gesturing/Spontaneous Movement: using movement in the body or limbs to express an attitude, idea, or sentiment that may be difficult to express verbally.
- Help Now! / Amp Down – Ramp Up: using actions that can help you amp down from a high zone (calming or observation-based actions) or ramp up from a low zone (physical motion, socialization, and observation-based actions).
- Shift & Stay: shifting attention away from an unpleasant sensation towards a neutral or pleasant sensation or resource, then staying with those sensations.
A Helpful Resource: The iChill App
Created by the Trauma Resources Institute, the iChill App provides an overview of the Community Resiliency Model, the skills described above, and other resources for individuals who may be operating outside of their resilient zone. The app and all resources are available in both English and Spanish.
Sources
Community resiliency model (CRM)® workshops. Trauma Resource Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/crm-workshops
Ichill app. Trauma Resource Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/ichill
Understanding CRM. CRMGeorgia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2022, from http://www.crmgeorgia.org/Home/Concepts
What is the community resiliency model? The Consortium Speaks. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://blog.womensconsortium.org/what-is-the-community-resiliency-model#:~:text=%22A%20set%20of%20six%20wellness,and%2For%20traumatic%20stress%20reactions