Loading…
Practise and record the use of grounding techniques when experiencing flashbacks, dissociation, or overwhelming emotions.
When you notice yourself becoming overwhelmed, dissociating, or experiencing a flashback, try one of the grounding techniques and record your experience here.
Use in the stabilisation phase and throughout treatment when the client needs tools to manage overwhelming re-experiencing, dissociation, or physiological hyperarousal. Essential preparation before any trauma-focused work.
Frame grounding as a practical skill for managing moments when the past intrudes on the present. Practise techniques in session first to identify which modalities (sensory, cognitive, physical) work best for the individual client.
For clients with dissociative features, prioritise sensory and physical grounding techniques over cognitive ones, as dissociation impairs higher-order cognitive processing. For clients with chronic pain or physical trauma, choose grounding techniques that do not require physical contact with the body.
Grounding is not a substitute for trauma processing — if used excessively as an avoidance strategy, it can maintain PTSD by preventing emotional engagement with the trauma memory. Monitor whether grounding is enabling therapeutic processing or functioning as safety behaviour.
Encourage clients to practise grounding daily when not distressed so the skills become automatic and accessible during high-arousal moments. Personalise the toolkit — a strong-flavoured sweet, a specific scent, or a particular physical movement can be more effective than generic '5-4-3-2-1' approaches for some clients.
Suitable for clients working with trauma, ptsd, grounding, dissociation, flashbacks, coping. This tool can be used as a standalone worksheet or as part of a structured homework plan.
Create a free account to access 10 worksheets per month.
Explore how the traumatic event has affected your beliefs about yourself, others, and the world.
Write a structured impact statement exploring how the trauma has affected your beliefs about safety, trust, power, esteem, and intimacy.
Prepare for a visit to the trauma site, record predictions, and process the experience afterwards to update the trauma memory.
Identify triggers that activate trauma memories and systematically compare the original trauma context with the present reality to reduce flashback intensity.