Adaptive Internal Relational Network (AIR)/ Anchored Relational network

What is it?

Hold on to your seats. Adaptive Internal Relational Network is a tricky one to explain. AIR, Internal Family Systems, ego psychology are all based on the concept that we all have parts of ourselves. For example, you have a part of yourself that is you at work, at home, as a parent, a friend, romantic partner, and so on. No matter who you are, you have parts. Really think about it here- when you say, “a part of me feels like…” that’s you identifying another part of you and the thoughts/ feelings of that part. It’s not a bad thing to have parts, it is normal to have parts. It doesn’t mean you are “crazy.” If you didn’t have parts that would be weird.

How does it work?

AIR is based on what they call Anchors. Therapists pay very close attention to the parts of you that arise, and use different “anchors” to reground you, focus on your ultimate aim, and adjust emotions accordingly. The overall goal in the long run is regulating the part of oneself that can think and act in a manner that is effective. AIR looks at parts, and focuses on the use of the Most Resourced Self. The most resourced self is the part of you that is most authentically you, has internal resources (boundaries, emotional regulation, asking for help, other skills), positive characteristics and pieces of your personality that make you uniquely you. One of the “anchors” is go to back to regulation when clients get overwhelmed. Doing talk therapy while intensely dysregulated is not all that effective.

If you have a part of you that causes distress, dissociation, anxiety, panic, depression etc. We ask questions, about that part and the source of that part, why it comes up, and what it’s purpose is. However, we don’t want those parts of you to go away, we don’t want to integrate them, we want to help them be better versions of themselves. We want to examine when your MRS (Most Resourced Self) was present in a moment of distress and how to get your most resourced self to be present again and even more often when you’re anxious, depressed etc. We don’t want to examine what happened and how it went wrong. We also don’t examine the details of trauma, most of the time that is reactivating. There is a time and a place for that, which is for another time, but for this explanation, we don’t want you to re-spill the details.

We can also see variations of parts, parts that interfere here or there, cause tension in relationships, or parts that take over completely and cause loss of memory, have different names etc. The latter is highly dissociative. The important thing to know about parts is most of them that are interfering with life, causing anxiety, depression, dissociation are there for a reason. Those parts of you are protecting you (most of the time from historical fears), they are built for a reason.

A side note: AIR was recently renamed to Anchored Relational Model. To read more about the concepts, the founders and other details go to the Anchored Relational Network’s website.