What is Resource Therapy?

Resource Therapy is a trauma-informed, strengths-based psychotherapy that works directly with personality parts to bring healing, resilience, and lasting change.

Unlike surface-level talk therapies, Resource Therapy targets the exact part of the personality holding pain, trauma, shame, or unhelpful behaviours. These internal parts—called Resource States—are accessed, validated, and helped to heal using evidence-informed techniques grounded in memory reconsolidation.

The result? Fast, focused therapy with deep emotional shifts that feel empowering, effective, and often long-lasting.

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A Strengths-Based Approach With Real Impact

At its core, Resource Therapy is about empowering the parts of you that are stuck and reconnecting with the inner strengths you already have.

This makes it not only powerful in trauma treatment, but also ideal for:

• Resilience coaching
• Executive leadership development
• Athlete performance psychology
• Creative breakthroughs and mental clarity
• Peak performance coaching for high achievers

Whether your goal is to overcome anxiety or optimise performance, Resource Therapy helps your internal team work together, not against you.

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Developed by Professor Gordon Emmerson, PhD

Resource Therapy was created by Professor Gordon Emmerson, an internationally respected author with a background in Ego State Therapy, behavioural science, and client-led practice.

He developed RT to offer therapists, coaches, and clinicians a structured, fast, and client-empowering way to treat emotional distress, behavioural stuckness, and trauma responses—without relying on guesswork or outdated scripts.

Learn more about Professor Emmerson’s work here.

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Why It Works: Memory Reconsolidation in Action

The magic of Resource Therapy lies in memory reconsolidation—a scientifically supported process where outdated emotional memories are updated and re-stored in the brain in a less distressing form.

This allows emotional healing at the source without hours of storytelling or years of coping strategies.

This is not symptom management. It’s part-based healing that rewires the emotional root.

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What Sets RT Apart from other Parts Therapies?

If you’ve worked with IFS, Ego State Therapy, EMDR, Brainspotting, or somatic modalities, you’ll feel right at home here.

But what sets Resource Therapy apart is its:

• Clear, structured clinical model with 15 treatment actions
• Strengths-based, trauma-informed approach
• Brief and solution-focused process—often delivering results within the session
• Direct access to the part of self in need—no hypnosis required
• Systematic and teachable format ideal for therapists, coaches and trainers

Learn more in our blog on Resource Therapy vs IFS.

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The Core Question: ‘What Are You Willing To Change Today?’

That’s where we begin—with your clarity and your intention.

In RT, we do not waste time interviewing your inner “Sally” when it’s “Johnny” who is upset at the back of the classroom. Just like a teacher who speaks to the wrong student, therapy that avoids the hurt part can miss the mark.

Resource Therapists are trained to connect directly with the part that needs care, compassion, and change.

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Who Is Resource Therapy For?

Resource Therapy is designed for:

• Psychologists and psychotherapists
• Clinical counsellors and social workers
• EMDR, DBR, and ACT therapists
• IFS-trained or parts-curious professionals
• Mental health nurses and psychiatric clinicians
• Clinical hypnotherapists and NLP practitioners
• Sensorimotor Therapists
• Career Change
• Trauma-informed coaches, body workers, and expressive therapists
• Medical doctors and psychiatrists with an interest in mind–body treatment

If you work with human emotion, relational patterns, or trauma responses, Resource Therapy gives you a structured, compassionate method to create lasting change.

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Learn With The Experts

Led by:

• Philipa Thornton, President of Resource Therapy International and Psychologist and her husband
• Chris Paulin, Consultant Psychologist
• With guest appearances by Professor Gordon Emmerson, Founder of Resource Therapy

Explore our Clinical Training Program – the premier path to trauma-informed, strengths-based parts therapy.

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Expert Voices On Parts Therapy

“The client is the expert on their experience. Our job is to speak to the part of them that knows what it needs.”
– Professor Gordon Emmerson, PhD, Founder of Resource Therapy

“Memory reconsolidation is the only known process that can erase emotional learnings that drive symptoms. This is what makes transformational change possible.”
– Ecker, Ticic & Hulley (2012), Unlocking the Emotional Brain

“Each ego state possesses its own individuality, including a separate memory, behavioural patterns, and even physiological responses.”
– John G. Watkins, PhD, Ego States: Theory and Therapy (1997)

“Parts therapy is based on the concept that we all have various aspects or ‘parts’ of the mind that make up our total personality… The key to resolving inner conflict is to talk to the part that wants to change.”
– Roy Hunter, Hypnosis for Inner Conflict Resolution: Introducing Parts Therapy (2005)

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“Parts work is essential for treating trauma. When you speak to the part holding the emotion, transformation happens.”
– Robin Shapiro, MSW, Easy Ego State Interventions (2020)

“All parts are welcome. Even the ones we hide. Especially those.”
– Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, Creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS)

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📚 Suggested Reading for Resource Therapy & Parts-Based Practitioners

By Professor Gordon Emmerson, PhD – Founder of Resource Therapy

• Emmerson, G. (2012). Healthy parts, happy self: 3 steps to like yourself. Old Golden Point Press.
  Buy on Amazon
• Emmerson, G. (2014). Resource Therapy. Old Golden Point Press.
  Buy on Amazon
• Emmerson, G. (2016). Research your Therapy – analyze your results – and Publish: Examples in JASP, a free and user friendly analysis tool. Old Golden Point Press.
  Buy on Amazon
• Emmerson, G. (2020). Resource Therapy primer: Introduction to Resource Therapy. Old Golden Point Press.
  Buy on Amazon
• Emmerson, G. (2024). Therapist Gold. Old Golden Point Press.
  Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. This comes at no extra cost to you and supports the development of trauma-informed training worldwide.

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Other Influential Works in Parts Therapy, Ego State Therapy and Trauma-Informed Practice

• Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the emotional brain: Eliminating symptoms at their roots using memory reconsolidation. Routledge.
• Buy on Amazon
• Emmerson, G. (2003). Ego state therapy. Crown House Publishing.
  Buy on Amazon
• Emmerson, G. (2006). Advanced techniques in counselling and psychotherapy. Crown House Publishing.
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• Hunter, R. (2005). Hypnosis for inner conflict resolution: Introducing parts therapy. Crown House Publishing.
  Buy on Amazon
• Watkins, J. G., & Watkins, H. H. (1997). Ego states: Theory and therapy. W. W. Norton & Company.
  Buy on Amazon
• Shapiro, R. (2020). Easy ego state interventions: Strategies for working with parts. W. W. Norton & Company.
  Buy on Amazon
• Schwartz, R. C. (2021). No bad parts: Healing trauma and restoring wholeness with the Internal Family Systems model. Sounds True.
  Buy on Amazon