What is CSRT?

We are born with a Core Self --- the innate capacity for love. But when the world we meet is traumatizing, we respond by rejecting and condemning ourselves, creating a Wounded Self built on false beliefs about our worth and our place in the world.

Core Self Reclamation Therapy (CSRT) is an experiential, attachment-focused model of psychotherapy devoted to undoing the structure of the Wounded Self so that the Core Self can be reclaimed. CSRT is built on a fundamental premise: the deepest source of suffering is not traumatic experience itself, but the self-destructive meanings we make about ourselves in the wake of trauma --- and the rigid survival rules we put in place that once protected us but now keep us imprisoned.

Using targeted interventions, the CSRT therapist pierces and melts entrenched defenses and toxic shame states, standing boldly on behalf of the client's Core Self. The therapist does not position themselves as the primary healing agent. Instead, CSRT empowers clients to become their own healer --- guiding them back to their birthright of love.

The model is grounded in memory reconsolidation research, affective neuroscience, attachment theory, and mother-infant intersubjectivity research. CSRT is also informed by other clinical models, including AEDP, Somatic Experiencing, ISTDP, Eriksonian Hypnosis, and Nancy Napier's parts work.