The Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (DNMS): An Ego State Therapy for Healing Adults with Childhood Trauma and Attachment Wounds

This book teaches psychotherapists how to apply the Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (DNMS). The DNMS is an ego state therapy designed to treat a wide range of clients, symptoms, and issues. This includes clients with complex trauma wounds, such as those inflicted by verbal, physical, and sexual abuse; and clients with attachment wounds, such as those inflicted by parental rejection, neglect, and enmeshment. The DNMS is based on the assumption that the degree to which developmental needs were not adequately met is the degree to which a client is stuck in childhood. It starts by guiding clients to establish three internal Resources: a Nurturing Adult Self, a Protective Adult Self, and a Spiritual Core Self. Together these Resources gently help wounded child ego states get unstuck from the past by meeting their unmet developmental needs, helping them process through painful emotions, and by establishing an emotional bond. Alternating bilateral stimulation (made popular by EMDR) is applied at key points in the process. The DNMS focuses special attention on healing maladaptive introjects (ego states that mimic abusive, neglectful, or dysfunctional caregivers). Since these wounded ego states cause the most trouble for clients, their healing results in a significant benefit. As introjects heal, clients report unwanted behaviors, beliefs, and emotions diminish. This book provides DNMS background material, including a discussion of ego state theory and the practical application of ego state therapy. It outlines detailed protocol steps for establishing Resources, selecting maladaptive introjects for processing, and meeting developmental needs. The final chapter is devoted to handling processing complications and blocks. The appendix provides practice worksheets and forms and many other supportive materials. (Drawings in the book are in grayscale, not color.)