The purpose of containment is to allow yourself to have space to separate from painful, often intense emotions until you are able to process them in the safety of the therapeutic relationship. I recorded a containment exercise for clients and want to share it with you!

Library Exercise

Grounding is an essential skill needed when walking through hard moments of our stories. It helps us remember we are safe now. In the present, we can anchor ourselves by utilizing our senses and present-awareness. Set your mind outside of your body and into the direct environment around you. Looking at a drivers license or other present-dated object can be a reminder we are no longer in the past (war-time). Rather, we made it through, we are safe, and we are learning how to now exist in peace time (the present).

Warm Light is an exercise I often use with clients at the end of a completed EMDR session. It is a great tool for honoring our bodies and what they carry by releasing any tension and anxiety our muscles and nervous system holds on a daily basis.

Natalie Pritchard

Maggie Herman

Melanie Spurgeon

John Monroe

Whitney Ballinger

Rachael Miller