One of trauma’s most insidious effects is how radically and completely it can take away someone’s sense of safety.
That’s why it’s crucial to create a safe space when working with patients who have experienced trauma.
But that’s only part of the equation.
According to Peter Levine, PhD, there’s a very important follow-up step – it’s about resourcing patients with techniques they can use to help themselves feel safe – even when you aren’t there.
Peter shows us one way to do it in this short video. Check it out – it’s about 6 1/2 minutes.
What techniques have you found effective in helping patients feel safe? Please share your comments below.
Take your right hand and wrap it around your left index finger. Drop your shoulders. Relax your belly. Breathe.
Look around the room. Notice something you can touch. Name it’s color. Repeat 4 times.
Inhale deeply. Hold. Give your exhale sound. Repeat 3-4 times.
I cannot wait to try out these new methods with my students at school. It’s so important to teach our kids to stay in a relaxed body.
Really effective, as far as I just tried them along with the video. Thanks so much!
Love these techniques. I use a lot of somatic interventions and also work in Nature with clients.
Clients with trauma and/or anxiety can come to feeling of safety by leaning back up against a big tree while seated or standing…..squeezing between two big boulders or just lying on the earth/sand or a large rock and feeling the support & connection. Basically grounding and feeling contained/supported by something larger than themselves.
Thanks for the reminder about ‘earthing’ as the earth will heal us.
The tree lately I have been using that both men and women seem to jump at. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you not only for these techniques but also for validating what trauma can do to an individual. I am an advanced practice nurse. I wish my peers would Of cared enough to help me. Unfortunately, these seem not to care.
This is awesome! Could feel a change almost instantly.
Thank you again of reminding me of the containment consent that is so crucial in traumawork.
Thank you excellent idea, “tools” The 1st one you demonstrated looks like a hug.I learned from Donna Eden (Energy Medicine ). She states that is a way of rebalancing the Body energy the hand placement involves the connection with the Merdians which I kind of forgotten until now.
Thanks for the reminder.
Yes, thank you for the reminder! This is a powerful tool. Thanks again.
Thank you for the simple techniques to share
I already have three people who leapt to mind who might enjoy having this way of finding boundaries
Thanks for providing some simple techniques which I can use right away with people who are suffering and feel helpless against their anxious state. I work in mental health and this reinforces my commitment to learning more body-based techniques.
Thank you very much for making how long the video is clear.
And the content is helpful and concise.
Thank you dr Levine. I will use this with my Pt who can’t self regulate
And with my grandson who also can’t self regulate
Thank you very much
Regulating breathing and using hand techniques once the breathing is regulated and take the breathing onto meditation.
Thank you! I will use these with my clients. Very simple but useful tools to have one become mindful of our bodies, housing the fearful emotions.
Great way to refocus off the anxious state and back to the self.
Thanks! These are great techniques and I also incorporate breathing practices, yoga nidra/integrative restoration and mudras.
Good information here, I agree
Thank you
I already use these techniques with traumatised clients, having learnt them on a NICABM trauma course, and I’ve had very positive reports of how helpful they are. I also use ‘anchor objects’ (an object which has safe and positive associations for the client, kept in the pocket to hold when feeling stressed) and encourage clients to assemble a ‘mood basket’ of sensory items with safe and positive associations, to go to when required. It may contain a CD of favourite relaxing music, chocolate or other favourite sweets, a picture of a safe and positive place or person, an anchor object to hold, and perhaps a handkerchief with the scent of a perfume or aftershave used by a person to whom the client feels safely attached.
Thanks for sharing your toolkit. Great ideas.
Great tips. Have used others as a body oriented psychotherapist. Thanks.
Hi Ruth, good one! I love Peter… I see a tie here into the DNRS work that i am doing myself. So far I am the client i am working with til i get well so my reports are on my own learning and what works for me. The knowledge that i can interrupt what is essentially a trauma response to environmental triggers and not be made worse by the exposure but actually use it to heal more deeply seems along these lines of a self-soothing action, in addition to the rewiring. As the body shifts out of the fear gear, the physical and emotional reactions completely shift, so amazing.
Sometimes mirror work or with a loved one to look in my eyes and say a calming affirmation with me can have a very dramatic effect in shifting things very quickly, then i have the presence of mind to do the full practice or just move on if i am already fully re-set. The truth of what we are… 50+ trillion cells with self receptors on every cell receiving our unique frequency of light is just so mind boggling. We are freaky creatures. Thanks again, always great to see your posts, valuable and a wonderful contribution to the discourse, thank you!!!!!
I can’t wait to pass these tips on to my clients.
I’m looking forward to a trauma and yoga workshop to find out what positions my clients can use readily to help self-soothe.
Very helpful! I found myself doing the hand-under-my-arm-and-across-my-shoulder-with-the-other-hand technique somewhat spontaneously while I was at home, alone, in between therapy sessions, for the very purpose of attempting to recover a sense of personal boundaries. I usually ended up rocking myself back and forth, in addition, trying to soothe my soul and bodily sensations back into homeostasis. Too, the ‘tapping’ that Dr. Levine mentions seemed to be an extremely important element of regaining self-control, as it served to remind my bodily vehicle to stay present, in the moment, and to meditate on feeling safe instead of going off into one of my dissociative meanderings … So appreciative of NICABM! Nia Innes (ritual abuse/traumatic stress survivor)
excellent suggestions, I will definitely be sharing with my clients. I also have found that having them purchase a marine/ boat whistle (very small and thin shape) and having it on a necklace to wear under their clothing can help with safety grounding. They can feel the whistle, it’s not noticeable to others, and it can be heard for 2 or 3 miles away, if needed to use. This seems to be more useful when the trauma is more recent.
Thank you Ruth for sharing this and allowing us to contribute as well. I love Peter Levine’s exercises and use them often. In addition, I also use the following “soulful relating exercise”:
Clients ask the body where it wants to be touched and answer the request. First, they focus on their giving hand and experience themselves as the giver. Then, they shift focus and become aware of their receiving body-self—experiencing themselves as the receiver of their touch. Going back and forth helps them remember that they are not bound by false identities like “I am not enough”, “I am powerless”, “I am all alone”, “I am broken,” … . Rather, they experience themselves as an instrument of giving and receiving. They learn that their witnessing Soul-self is always ready to give to their body-self what it needs to feel safe and cared for. In time, this exercise helps clients remember their wholeness.
Very helpful , thank you, doris.
Thank you Ruth for sharing. I might suggest that patients meditate daily, many times a day if thoughts arise, the Buddhist meditation of Lovingkindness, simply stated:
May I be Safe
May I be happy
May I be well
May I live with ease
Qigong is a wonderful practice to address fear and bring it down.
I like it. Sort of holding ourselves, feeling ourselves, etc … cracking the shell of dissociation and self-alienation caused by trauma. Levine is great … very helpful.
I specialize in the treatment of all kinds of trauma, esp. traumatic brain injury and abuse. I know this journey well, as a TBI survivor…. I use meditation and yoga for clients, in addition to cranial sacral therapy. At some point, you might want to find a qualified teacher, who is well trained in all of these modalities! You can use the meditation in any and all situations… I often do it when driving or talking w/ others.
~ meditation: keep it simple, focus on the breath, feel ALL OF THE BODY, make contact with the ground, notice your sensations and your breath. Watch your thoughts but DO NOT grab on to them or begin discursive thinking… if you do, just go back to the breath
~ yoga: (I recommend Iyengar Yoga). Restorative poses are excellent and can be done at home. You can begin with just lying on the floor with the head supported by a folded blanket and something under the knees, if your are stiff. Cover the eyes with a soft cloth and be sure you are warm enough.
During EFT sessions I sometimes use magic bubble . This is where no one and no thing can permeate the surface . I get the client to imagine someone outside the bubble punching or throwing things at the bubble but it just bounces off . The client can imagine their magic bubble when alone also . I like Peters techniques it seems to bring someone into the present moment. Children benefit , in my experience from wearing Superman outfits and such like . Thanks for the video .
Nice, Marilyn!! I do the same with a technique I learned from a Cherokee medicine woman, called the Blue Egg!
A superb demonstration which, as a Trauma Therapist, I am finding really helpful. Not just for my patients, but for me too when I feel ‘wired’ or when I (frequently) experience difficult getting to sleep. Also I deeply appreciate the suggestions in the comments below – fantastic and thanks for sharing.
this was simple and helpful, Thanks. I teach all my Chronic Pain patients, most of whom have Hx of childhood abuse, how to breathe Diaphragmatically. They can do this anywhere, anytime, but I strongly recommend a daily practice.
Thank you 🙂
thanks so much for these very useful techniques. I am a yoga teacher(not a therapist) and I will be working with Sexual abuse survivors as well as their families and I plan to incorporate these into my classes!!! again thank you so much
Thank you, Peter and Ruth. I really like the utility of the embodied container concept. And I know my clients need more accessible ways to self-soothe and self-regulate outside of session.
Very good to learn it’s useful to know
Loved the demonstration Thank
You! There are two soothing movements I learned with my mother and grandmother
I use them in myself and family
1. Stroke the upper face from one side to another slowly. Repeat it as much as needed to bring back well. Eing
2. Cuddle the top of the head moving gently the hair. We call it in Portuguese ‘cafunhe’
It was practised often by mothers/careers
Reminds me of what I see cranial sacral specialists utilize.
Thank you Peter (and Ruth) for these great strategies. I appreciate that you get right to the point so that the video is brief, yet it’s chock full of helpful, immediately applicable strategies.
Simply Wonderful. I will use these two great methods to help my clients. I use physical grounding methodS adapted that incorporates a body scan and guided imagery, as well as mental and soothing grounding techniques. I also adapted deep breathing to add the connection to the body I call Deep Belly breathing, where mindfulness meditation is devoted to connecting by placing both hands spread out on belly before guided breathing begins. Clients generally report a reduction in their current stress levels of 2_6 points and are able to take the skills with them and use on their own.
Love working with mind and body concurrently. I will incorporate some of these techniques into my next public speaking engagement. Easy for my patients to remember
I appreciate the reminder to build a container through body awareness. I am curious, could exercise (wirh encouragement to of aware of body ) or yoga (again includi g the practise of experiencing the body as container) also be used as a therapeutic tool?
It occurs to be that exercise or yoga could provide multiple benefits if used in conjunction with “body as container”.
Very useful. I will apply this in patient care and with my grandchildren!
Butterfly hugs crossing the arms over the heart and alternately tapping the arms like he demonstrated. I add a mantra to it for kids, it’s not real it’s pretend I am safe
Thanks. Most helpful.
Thanks for sharing these techniques. The more I have in my toolbox, the more likely I am to find one that works for a particular client, so I really appreciate this. I like the conceptualization of reinforcing the the sense/experience of the container. That’s useful; I hadn’t heard it framed that way before.
Thank you. This helped me realize my own lack of awareness of body boundaries.
WORKS – a bit. Everything works- a little. More strategies helps, thanks.
I love both of these techniques, which i have used many times thank you for sharing them. I am a meridian tapping practitioner and find that very useful in helping a client to gain a calm relaxed state of being.
Often times for mild paranoia, or fear of something ” getting them from behinds, a hand on the back of the neck, and the other on the back of the head. Letting the head rest back into the hands.
Thanks for these simple techniques. Have you found that they work at all age groups? I work with adolescents in a school setting.
Anything that connects them again to the ground. Wiggling toes, pushing into the ground feeling the muscles in legs, butt and back, stomping. Focus on sitz bones is a way to connect client to earth while sitting. Put hands under sitz bones to get stronger proprioceptive sense of the sitz bones, breath into them, imagine them widening when you breathe in etc. Connect to base of the body which is where we leave when traumatized. Imagine laying an egg through the perineum/ genitals. When they have the feel of that, add breathing in at the same time as laying the egg.
I’m visiting here just to have a better understanding of what some of our students are dealing with. We are a post secondary college focusing on art based careers, and we have a handful of very talented transgendered students attending in the fall who are coming from the USA (Georgia) and India, 2 countries where they have been fearful and menaced. We are trying to prepare to offer support.
Some of these suggestions are non-invasive and we can pass on these strategies to them…so thank you.
Useful techniques! I’ll add them to suggestions I give my patients. I use many techniques tailored to patient. Of course deep breathing, positive thoughts such as “this is normal given what I’ve been through”, imagery of LIFELINE (from my book) of energy from core of the earth coming into the body and energy from universe above coming into body, creates a “Lifeline” of support that stays with us at all times.
Thank you!
Dr. Morett
What is the name of your book. I would like to learn more energy techniques. thanks
Excellent!
I like these! ‘Reminds me of some old huna approaches as well… Including Dr Morett’s lifeline… I’m not practicing now & had forgotten my connection to you, Ruth but today you showed up while I’ve been looking into work for myself being in the midst of some trauma and great loss AND change while working from within TBI. As we moved through the video I played along and assimilated some very comforting change in just this brief moments!
My medical providers have been encouraging cognitive work which is good stuff BUT I’ve not seen how I could force compliance from where I am emotionally. This somatic approach opened resource to me from my past work when I was a practicing therapist and I don’t feel as scattered already. When the patient is ready… AND I love when a good plan comes together. Thank you, Ruth!
Sorry that you are dealing with difficult issues, but impressed with your reaching out actively to engage others for help. Thanks for sharing!