18 10. Grounding exercises
PART I: POINTS OF DEPARTURE
10. Grounding exercises
Aim. To understand the importance of stabilising techniques, grounding exercises, and practice and repetition.
When you first start working with a person exposed to trauma, stabilisation is an approach that helps the person to handle trauma-related reactions. Grounding is a stabilisation method for handling strong emotions of fear or flashbacks, when a memory‘ takes over’ and is experienced in the present. Grounding is one way to reduce reactions or symptoms of anxiety or panic that threaten to overwhelm a survivor. Always remember to invite the survivor to participate in a grounding exercise. Let it be an open invitation. If she does not feel ready to participate in an exercise, respect her wish.
Examples of grounding exercises are scattered throughout the training. It is important to practise these exercises over and over again, until they become automatic and can be called on at will by a traumatised person at moments of distress. Grounding takes a person out of the traumatic moment that she is remembering into a space that is safer and more controllable.
Grounding exercises can help a survivor to reconnect:
• With the present moment in time.
• With the here and now.
• With her body, and reassert personal control.
• To the safe context of the room in which she is.
They:
• Ground the person by anchoring her body, enabling her to connect to reality.
• Focus on breathing, increasing her awareness of the here and now.
• Relax, creating calm.
• Strengthen the body and waken it from numbness and weakness.
A trainer guides a survivor back to the present situation by talking her through each grounding exercise. It is important to remember that exercises must be practised in a calm environment beforehand, enabling survivors to do them when they feel overwhelmed and out of control.
The exercises focus on the five senses that anchor us to our bodies and our surroundings. Using them, the survivor can reorient her awareness, and focus her attention on the present rather than the past. Allow the survivor to decide where you( as helper) can sit, and how close you should be. Establish an escape route for her by suggesting that, if she prefers, you can continue later.
Explain to the survivor that, when she practises grounding exercise, she must make sure to:
• Pick a moment that is peaceful and safe.
• Be calm and ready to learn something new.
• Practise over and over again every day for some time.
A survivor that follows the above principles will eventually be able to do exercises that help to calm her even when she is stressed and experiencing flashbacks. When learned, these are effective tools that can be used in situations where few other resources or forms of therapeutic support are available.
( The grounding exercises are collected in Appendix 2.)