James McNinch LCSW is the chief clinical officer and co-founder of Momentum Modalities, a clinical intelligence platform focused on scaling trauma-informed and addiction-focused treatment models through advanced training, supervision and experiential AI-supported learning systems. He is also the co-founder of NARM Addiction (NARM-AC) alongside Dr Laurence Heller and Deirdre Stewart, and co-author of the forthcoming NARM-AC book and experiential workbook scheduled for international release in 2027. His work sits at the intersection of clinical care, trauma treatment, technology, and large-scale therapist education. He has spent years instructing interns and clinicians in trauma-informed treatment approaches, including NARM and EMDR at the University of Southern California.

James began his career with Microsoft in his 20, contributing to projects involving Xbox and early international infrastructure development, including data centre initiatives in Scandinavia. He later worked in publishing and outreach in the recovery field before earning his Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Arizona State University, where his research focused on attachment, complex trauma, and predictive factors underlying PTSD among soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was later selected as a Fulbright candidate under Dr Steve Farnfield at Roehampton University in London, briefly studying child attachment and developmental trauma.

Early in his clinical career, James helped develop trauma-informed community care models in S Arizona as a crisis social worker, working with refugees resettled through the US State Department, underserved populations and communities impacted by the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. His work focused on integrating short-term trauma stabilization and substance use treatment into community-based systems of care.

James was subsequently recruited to Malibu, California, when addiction treatment programs faced mounting clinical challenges, poor outcomes, patient fatality concerns and legal scrutiny. There, he helped implement and integrate trauma-informed approaches, including EMDR and relational trauma treatment models, into residential and aftercare systems that had historically relied heavily on cognitive and confrontational treatment approaches. These efforts contributed to broader shifts toward modern trauma-informed addiction care in high-visibility treatment settings.

In 2013, James discovered the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), developed by Dr Laurence Heller, and began integrating it into addiction treatment programs in Malibu to address the relational trauma underlying shame, disconnection, attachment disturbances and compulsive behaviours. He also worked alongside leaders in the EMDR community, including Dr AJ Popky and Francine Shapiro, helping expand visibility and adoption of trauma-focused approaches in mainstream addiction treatment culture.

James later collaborated with Dr Heller and clinical partners in developing and researching NARM-informed addiction treatment approaches, including training initiatives connected with the University of Southern California. His work focused on comparing relational and trauma-informed models with standard cognitive and motivational approaches in addiction treatment settings, contributing to the development of NARM Addiction (NARM-AC), an adaptation of NARM focused on addiction, attachment injury, attunement, shame and relational trauma.

He has instructed interns and clinicians in trauma-informed treatment approaches, including NARM and EMDR at USC, and now leads clinical strategy and training development at Momentum Modalities. Its “Clinical Intelligence Platform” is designed to help institutes, treatment centers and clinicians maintain fidelity to complex therapeutic modalities while scaling experiential learning, supervision, and client support through clinical intelligence systems and AI-support.

James is co-authoring the forthcoming NARM-AC book and workbook alongside Dr Laurence Heller and Deirdre Stewart. The books are developed in partnership with North Atlantic Books, Penguin Random House and Kosel distribution, and international publishing partners, with publication due in 2027 and translations planned in multiple languages.

PRESENTATION

Healing the Roots of Addiction: a new NeuroAffective Addiction-Centered Relational Model (NARM-AC) for treating addiction

Explore addiction through the lens of relational trauma, attachment disruption, shame and nervous system dysregulation. Drawing from both personal recovery experience and over a decade of clinical work in trauma-informed addiction treatment, trace the evolution from traditional cognitive and behavioural addiction models toward deeper relational and developmental approaches, including EMDR and the NeuroAffective Relational Model for Addiction (NARM-AC). Examine how addiction often functions not as a moral failing or isolated disease process, but as an adaptive strategy developed in response to disrupted attunement, emotional disconnection and unresolved developmental trauma.

James shares his early experiences working in trauma-informed community models in Southern Arizona, his later work integrating trauma treatment into addiction programs in Malibu, and his collaboration with Dr Laurence Heller in the development of NARM-AC. Particular focus is placed on the distinction between shock trauma and relational trauma, the role of shame in perpetuating addiction cycles, and why many people continue to struggle with dysregulation, disconnection, and relational difficulties long after achieving sobriety. Explore how traditional recovery approaches and modern trauma treatment can complement one another when viewed through the lens of attachment, synchrony, and emotional completion.

Delegates will leave with a deeper understanding of addiction as an adaptive survival strategy, the profound role relational trauma plays in compulsive behaviours and recovery outcomes, and how trauma-informed approaches such as NARM-AC can help create more effective and compassionate models of addiction treatment and therapist training.

Learning objectives

• Addiction is not the primary problem, it is an adaptation to relational trauma and disconnection
• Sobriety alone does not heal relational trauma
• Healing happens through attunement, relational safety, and being deeply witnessed, not through shame.

Read more about the Learning objectives and James McNinch’s book: DB-James McNinch LCSW indepth