Many therapies work with parts of the personality, but Resource Therapy offers something truly unique.
Developed by Professor Gordon Emmerson, PhD, Resource Therapy (RT) is a trauma-informed, strengths-based model designed to directly access, heal, and empower the parts of the personality driving distress. It is clinical, precise, and deeply respectful of each client’s internal world.
Here’s what sets RT apart:
🧭 1. Speak With the Part – Not Just About It
RT brings the specific personality part – known as a Resource State – into the conscious so it can speak for itself. This is not metaphorical or imaginative: the therapist uses structured interventions to vivify the exact part involved in the issue.
Action 2 – Vivify Specific – allows the therapist to speak directly to the part that is hurting, stuck, or protecting.
🗺 2. A Diagnostic Framework for the Personality
Rather than viewing all parts as equal, RT offers a clinical map that recognises different types of states:
- Vaded States – carrying unmet needs (e.g. rejection, fear, confusion)
- Retro States – repeating outdated protective patterns (e.g. avoidance, anger)
- Dissonant States – in conflict with other parts of the self
- Conflicted States – experiencing inner tension or ambivalence
This gives the therapist a clear formulation and the client a pathway to resolution.
⚙️ 3. 15 Targeted Treatment Actions
Resource Therapy is not a philosophy – it is a method. The model includes 15 evidence-informed interventions for:
- Accessing the root memory behind symptoms
- Resolving trauma safely
- Shifting parts stuck in protective roles
- Healing wounded states
- Creating long-term emotional change
These actions support memory reconsolidation, the neural process required to erase and replace traumatic emotional learnings.
💡 4. Empowering the Client as Captain
RT is based on the belief that every part has a purpose, even if that purpose is no longer helpful. We do not pathologise the personality – we work with it.
Clients are empowered to become the Captain of their own ship, learning to listen to their inner crew (Resource States) with compassion, clarity, and leadership.
🌍 5. Based on Science, Taught Worldwide
Resource Therapy draws from:
- Ego state psychology
- Hypnosis and neuropsychology
- Clinical trauma insights
- Memory reconsolidation science
It is used by psychologists, trauma therapists, social workers, and counsellors around the world in clinical, community, and coaching settings.
💬 What Therapists Are Saying
“I’ve trained in many modalities – RT is the one I actually use in session, every day. Clients feel real change.”
– Counsellor, New Zealand
“Parts work made sense to me, but Resource Therapy made it practical. The 15 actions give me a map and confidence.”
– Psychologist, USA
🎓 Ready to Learn More?
Whether you’re trained in IFS, EMDR, ACT, or CBT, Resource Therapy offers a trauma-informed, action-based way to work with parts.
👉 Explore the Clinical Resource Therapy Program
Join a growing community of clinicians who are helping clients heal – part by part.