Grounding skills can be helpful in a variety of situations. They can help cope with managing strong emotions, intense anxiety, dissociation, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and when waking following a nightmare. WHAT IS GROUNDING? As the name implies, grounding is a simple but effective therapeutic technique designed to ‘ground’ you to the present moment. In this way, grounding might be considered similar to mindfulness. The main aim of grounding is to connect your mind and body, and re-orient yourself to the present moment reality. WHAT CAN GROUNDING HELP WITH? People with a history of childhood sexual abuse or sexual assault often experience painful memories, flashbacks or nightmares and
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to managing anxiety. The right strategy is the one that resonates with you, fits your lifestyle, assists you to focus your mind and succeeds in interrupting anxious thoughts. You may even find that alternating or using a combination of different techniques provides the best results. Here are 17 ways to manage anxiety: Slow Deep Breathing with Long Exhalations is one of most effective ways to manage anxiety. By taking slow, deep breaths through your nose into your belly and long exhalations out of your mouth, you activate the body’s calming parasympathetic nervous system which controls our flight or fight response. When experiencing
Survivors of sexual trauma often blame themselves for how they reacted during a traumatic experience. This can contribute to intense feelings of guilt and shame after the event. The truth is however, humans have no control over how they respond during trauma and are often left confused as to why these reactions continue long after the trauma has past. Learning about how the body responds to trauma is the first step towards lifting blame and shame and provides an understanding of, and context for, managing trauma symptoms. What is the fight-flight-freeze response? The body has a remarkable primitive survival mechanism as part of our evolutionary design. Both animals and humans possess flig
