Working through trauma might be scary, painful, and potentially re-traumatizing. Usually people who have experienced trauma have coped at least partly through some degree of dissociation. Even if this was required for your survival then, continued dissociation (especially forms that aren’t within your control) is just not adaptive when the abuse has stopped. Currently the task of treatment therapy is to help you stay present long enough to understand other way of establishing safety in the present. How does someone with automatic survival skills of dissociation discover how to make this happen? Grounding is but one skill that can help.
Trauma therapy doesn’t only consist of telling your story or focusing on traumatic memories, though of course that is a crucial area of the work. Bringing trauma memories in mind, talking about them in a trusting relationship, and developing the capacities for managing them while staying contained in the minute are typical crucial areas of the recovery process. A premature concentrate on traumatic material might actually do more damage than good.
Previously, trauma survivors were motivated to speak about their abuse within the thought this catharsis can be healing. Sometimes this instead triggered re-traumatization as an alternative to mastery with the material or healing. Actually, some trauma survivors are able to tell their stories easily, in a dissociated manner. Due to the risks involved, this healing effort is best done with the aid of a seasoned trauma specialist who is able to assist you to learn techniques to handle memories effectively. One objective of trauma therapy is that will help you connect with yesteryear while residing in the current. How does someone with automatic survival skills of dissociation accomplish this kind of task?
More modern trauma therapies have dedicated to a stage approach, such as early preparation, target developing coping skills and stabilization. Judith Herman, in Trauma and Recovery, states that the central task of the first phase of therapy have to be safety. How may you experience this should you not even feel safe within yourself, but on the chance of uncontrolled flashbacks? Actually, for many trauma survivors it might have felt that there were only two choices open to them historically: abuse or dissociation.
So what can therapists mean when we discuss grounding?
Grounding is around understanding how to stay present ( and for some get seen in the first place) within you from the present. Basically it includes a group of skills/tools to assist you manage dissociation and also the overwhelming trauma-related emotions that lead to it. Processing done from your very dissociated state isn’t attractive trauma work. Neither is the goal to become so at a loss for feelings that you feel re-traumatized. When you’re present, you also need to read other means of handling the feelings and thoughts asst with traumatic memories.
Everybody is unique. Different grounding techniques will work for each person. Listed below are some general categories and ideas. Studying the positives and negatives of various approaches together with your therapist can be handy in determining that is the very best fit to suit your needs.
-Grounding often takes the type of emphasizing the existing by tuning into it via your entire senses. As an example, one technique could involve centering on an audio you hear right this moment, an actual sensation (exactly what is the texture of the chair you’re on, for example?) and/or something see. Describe each in just as much detail as is possible.
-Diaphragmatic or deep breathing: Trauma survivors often hold their breath or breathe very shallowly. This in turn deprives you of oxygen that will make anxiety more intense. Stopping and focusing on deepening and slowing your breathing may bring you time for the second.
-Relaxation, guided imagery or hypnosis- folks with dissociative disorders are starting a type of self-hypnosis most of the time. The trouble is, it can be out of your control! Some trauma therapists can also be trained in hypnosis and will help coach you on the way you use dissociation in ways that matches your needs. For instance: it is possible to develop a safe container for traumatic material between sessions, produce a safe or comfortable place (“safe” is probably not a concept some survivors can connect with or could be triggering to many) 0r learn solutions to turn down the “volume” of painful feelings and memories.
Grounding and emotion management techniques can help you proceed with all the work of trauma therapy in a way that feels empowering instead of re-traumatizing.
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