DNMS Glossary of Terms

• Adaptive information processing model – Theoretical basis for the efficacy of EMDR therapy.
• Alternating bilateral stimulation - Side-to-side eye movements, alternating bilateral auditory or alternating bilateral tactile stimulation. Used to strengthen positive DNMS experiences
• Blocking belief - A type of negative belief that inhibits processing from moving forward.
• Block – Anything that slows down or halts the DNMS process.
• Checking in – During the course of a DNMS protocol, asking the client about her experiences or perceptions.
• Counting up – A process to help the client shift from a trance state to full alertness.
• Developmental needs – Those essential factors in the environment that must be provided by primary caregivers for physical, intellectual, behavioral, emotional, or social potential to be maximized at a given age or stage.
• Developmental stages – Segments of a person’s life that involve a set of needs that should be met by parents or caretakers. In DMNS, the client defines the duration of a stage.
• Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (DNMS) - A tool for both ego strengthening and trauma processing. It provides for attachment and attunement needs, builds self-esteem, furnishes a powerful container for processing strong emotions, integrates dissociated parts of self, and can be used as an effective tool for affect regulation.
• Ego state - In DNMS, An engrained state of mind or a part of self with a point of view.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) - A form of therapy that is well suited for processing traumatic experiences. It is founded on an adaptive information processing model and uses alternating bilateral stimulation to help process disturbing events.
• Healing circle – A loving, nurturing, protective container for healing, consisting of the three Resources working as a team. A mental construct in which the Resources join as a team to develop positive aspects of self through forming neural pathways in the client’s brain that can lead to good mental health.
• Introject - An internalized representation of significant people in a person’s life. A part of self that mimics significant childhood role models, both healthy and unhealthy.
• Introject, adaptive – An introject that provides positive nurturing and protection for self and others
• Introject, maladaptive – An introject stuck in the past because the internalized behaviors (e.g. hostility, shame, disrespect, rejection) do not match the person’s true nature.
• Introject, simple – A maladaptive introject that mimic someone’s dysfunctional behaviors and beliefs that are internally directed or self-oriented.
• Introject, oppressive – A maladaptive introject that mimics someone’s dysfunctional behaviors and beliefs that are externally directed or other-oriented.
• Mask/costume – With an introject, the facade that a reactive child part wears while mimicking an unhealthy role mode.
• Introjection – The process by which one incorporates in his ego system the picture of an object as he conceives the object to be.
• Needs meeting – Within the DNMS protocol, the process of a reactive ego state experiencing having previously unmet needs provided by the Resources while within the Healing Circle
• Memory, explicit – Memory that is verbal, episodic and/or semantic. It requires conscious awareness of encoding. It involves a subjective sense of elf, or time, and or “recalling.” It includes factual memories and autobiographical memory.
• Memory, implicit – Memory that is nondeclarative and procedural. It includes behavioral, emotional, perceptual, and perhaps somatosensory memory. It lacks a subjective experience of self, of time or of “recalling.”
• Negative belief – Belief held by a child part stuck in the past. It is an irrational, untrue or over generalized belief about self or the world.
• Nurturing adult self – The internal Resource developed in a guided meditation first anchoring the nurturing and caring traits, then later the protective externalized traits.
• Processing track – The mental guide that the client chooses to select child parts for needs meeting work. Processing tracks include 1) current issues or chronic problems, 2) specific traumas, or 3) chronological order.
• Processing strong emotions – A procedure within the DNMS protocol that focuses on emotions and/or sensorimotor sensations to process emotions.
• Protective adult self - The internal Resource developed in a guided meditation first anchoring the protective externalized traits, then later the nurturing and caring traits.
• Reactive (child) part - A part of self (ego state) the oppressive introjects act out on.
• Resources - Mental constructs build by the client by way of a guided meditation. The Resources become newly developed neural networks that are used to provide the needs that reactive child parts experienced a lack of and have found themselves stuck in the past because of the lack of having early needs met.
• Resource development – Building with guided meditations new neural networks containing desirable skills and traits. DNMS Resources are called Nurturing Adult Self, Protective Adult Self and Spiritual Core Self.
• Sensorimotor processing – A DNMS procedure that provides an opportunity to physically release strong emotions.
• Spiritual core self – The internal Resource developed in a guided meditation to represent the spiritual core part of self that does not change over time.
• Stuck - Ego state is burdened with negative experiences, such as trauma, abuse, neglect, or unmet developmental needs, that are encountered repeatedly or are overwhelming and is left with the sense of being stuck in the past.
• Tucking in - A process for putting a child part into a non-active state.
• Unstuck– Ego state is free from the dysfunctional behaviors, beliefs, and adaptations that have hindered it.

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