Grounding basically involves connecting yourself to the current moment without getting lost in your thoughts, triggers, or emotions. When you are grounded, you are present, aware, responsive, and attentive.
When you are not grounded you may feel many different things: stressed, numbed, angered, frozen, disconnected, distracted, or lost in your thoughts to name a few.
Grounding is used to prevent this detachment so you can be involved in the present time. Grounding can be helpful in dealing with flashbacks, dissociation, and anxiety. Grounding methods often use the five senses (sound, touch, smell, taste, and sight). It is a temporary way to gain control, anchor yourself, calm down and address the issues that could be triggering. It can be done anytime, anywhere easily.
It is essential to be grounded during treatment. If you are not grounded is much harder, if not impossible, to do meaningful work on trauma.
The way someone grounds is highly personal, in other words, what works for one person may not be helpful to another. Due to this, I have many different options in my office for grounding. You may need to explore other techniques to find what works best for you.
Some examples of tools I have available in my office are:
- Sound-tuning forks, music
- Touch-acupuncture rings and balls, fidget toys, ice or heat
- Smell-essential oils, candles
- Taste-hard candy, snacks, gum, cold/hot drinks
- Sight-safe place imagery, artwork
I also teach breathing, movement, and tapping techniques to help with grounding. I am also open to new ideas and tools that may work best for you.