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.
I encourage clients to connect with themselves and their breathing with a hand on their chest and belly. Many of my clients love vooing. I use tapping and many other tools. Helping clients reconnect with their bodies and how they can positively influence their experience is the basis of my work. Thank you
Thank you, Peter, for using the term client when referring to those with trauma.
I feel that the term patient implies sickness, when trauma is actually an event, or possibly many events, that causes a natural response to that trauma. Trauma informed language helps ease the person whereas terms that imply illness promote/imply disease.
Good advice. I am a Reiki practitioner. I see the hand positions you used are much like I do for my clients. A great point you make is having something that clients can do at home when they do not feel safe. Thank you!
Thank you very much. My client is with me she feels safe and when she goes back she feels the suicidal feeling again.
I am going to apply the two ways
Thank you. I did the exercise and immediately tears fell. I have been doing a ton of meditation but in a body that feels unsafe. We need greater awareness of mindfulness and trauma.
Thank you very much. My client is with me she feels safe and when she goes back she feels the suicidal feeling again.
I am going to apply the two ways
This is so useful. I am starting to work with women who live with persistent pain using a mindfulness based cognitive therapy approach. Very often chronic pain conditions arise due to adverse childhood experiences so there’s often trauma there – and of course living with pain is trauma in itself. I’ll definitely be using these techniques to help women feel safe before prating any mindfulness meditation.
I always start with self-soothe techniques before anything else. Small resourcing can have a really big impact. Can really see in this in the body questionnaires.
Very helpful thank you !!!
RTMS
Thanks for your great video.
I will do all the technic.
I suffered of insomnia panic attacks and depression.
Antua petrimoulx
Windsor ontario canada
I learned in the early 80’s from Dr Stone and the Polarity Institute to Rock gently for trauma and insomnia ~ I lay in my side, either side, bring my legs up a bit, close my eyes, Bottom hand on opposite shoulder And other arm resting on side and then to gently rock.
We learned this technique to do for others. Sitting behind them one hand on hip and one on shoulder and gently rocking. Helps for trauma, restless sleep especially for helping children get to sleep. Can be done alone or with others!!! Works well. I’ve done it for years!
Oh how nice to read this, I sometimes add this gentle rocking at the end of my massages: holistic pulsing.
Andrea Wandel, health practitioner in Europe and South Africa
I love this physical touch, Peter. Often I combine different things into a bigger picture. When the trauma was too strong I search first safety outside the body in a defocused way and integrate it slowly later with opportunities like taking a blanket around you or working with tension building up and expressing it via a movement and at the same time with the allowance to create space and to be far away. Here I use landscapes and the elements and a spiritual presence which just wants to support the nature of being. Often the shifts in direction safety just happens by itself. That are the wonderful goosebumps moments in a session. : )
Thank you very much for these useful techniques that i will use to help ground my patients.
Thank you for suggestions. Ideas. I will using them both. But I have a self defeating thought because. I have been in state hospital I fear going again and feeling vulnerable to the abuse that happens there and because I am a mental health h consumer. I assume that at some point the need will arise to go to an abusive place. So I struggle with working to feel safe and whole to be retraumatizef in the local hospitals.
I don’t feel safe at home or school and I don’t trust a one with my secrets anymore, my past caused me to have trauma and I will never forget what happen. I don’t even trust myself falling asleep at night because of it, I hate that the fact that I don’t trust anyone – like my family or friends – and when I should get rest, I can’t because I’m to afraid on what’s going to happen. 🙁
Thanks for these. I found them very helpful. I also use a lot of breathing techniques with my patients especially 4 by 4 breathing.
I use two other easily learned techniques. Interested?
Can you please share the two other techniques? Eci2001@yahoo.com
Hi there
Yes please can you share with me too at spiralsnail@hotmail.com
Thank you
Amanda
Yes. drbethreimel1@gmail.com. Thank you
How to feel safe when weapons in our country are legitimately accessible on the streets. I am enraged to see that the reforms in place are not making progress. The United States is in first place among the countries where people are the most armed. I am an immigrant, and I am devastated to see that this problem is visibly deadly and annihilating as well as destructible for humans. I don’t feel safe in the city, on the bus, on the train, and I’m always on my guard. My therapist puts my suspensions on account of my past to have been abused. It’s a shame, is it possible that by reducing these factors, my symptoms will also improve and that these techniques that I remember come back to me in good time?
It is strange that our brain is in a constant working mode and does not stop until we let it know. And often we don’t stop ourselves. That’s crazy! Blocking all distractions with headphones sometimes helps me, and frankly, it’s the only thing that isolates me but that has done well. I even consider wearing them for meditation with music or without. It is isolation from the outside world and a recluse in a total void where one feels infinitely center. I appreciate that you post this video and I hope there will be many more.
Practice meditation for a minimum of 15 to 30 minutes every day. Prevent overthinking, which normally drives you nuts.
These approaches and explanations are so practical and easy to recall, especially for the trauma brain. I definitely plan to add these two techniques to my “tool box” of strategies.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Liked these 2 soothing techniques and plan to add to tool box of skills to help clients. Thank you.
I have used the “butterfly hug” for calming traumatized clients before, but I like the other techniques shown in the video, as well. As some techniques work better for some clients than others, it is good to have several tools that they can choose to see what works best for them.
Thanks for allowing us to learn techniques that help our students re gain their sense of safety. I am a school counselor and sadly many students have had adverce conditions that create traumatic effects. Thanks to you I can help them more effectively.
Focusing on breathing helps as breathing itself is calming
and can feel safe, controlling, and regulating.
1) Using a Haberman ball (the bigger ones are better) to visualize breathing helps anchor the senses with breathing.
2) Or we also teach kids to breath slowly while swaying their arms slowly in the infinite 8 pattern, (seated or standing) The 8 can be vertical or horizontal.
Coping with traumas has become a primordial issue. Shooting in Las Vegas or in other public places shows the lack of training for this matter. So, I believed those techniques are meant to be priceless and could be part of a learning plan for in any places to help self-care, first, and keep it safe for all and not be in the “fight – or – fright” , anxious mode
Wow, it is hood to hear this again as a reminder that there are ways not to scare the flock of birds taking naps. Stay calm in all circumstances especially caught being alone . Thanks for sharing.
My apologize for the misspell, “good” vs. “hood”.
You have just shown me two easy techniques for the children who have or are being bullied. While having mindfully rooted or grounded by being a tree can help, these can be done in school without calling attention. These my also help the children who are easily distracted or hyperactive. Thank you Ruth and Peter.
Thanks, may be a very important help to my pacients. Meanwhile I utilize the EMDR that has some similar techniques!!
Sorry I’m a Portuguese psychologist but For me is very difficult to write .
Always grateful for more tools. Thank you!
I teach my Mind Mastery (above and beyond mindfulness) and self hypnosis to all of my clients who come to me to overcome the effects of trauma and stress in general. Teaching them the mind body relationship is crucial and how to use their minds to cal themselves and get in touch with their healing powers and inner strengths. Also I use hypnotherapy to help my clients heal on the deepest levels of consciousness, because unless this is done the effects of trauma will continue to rise to consciousness and impact their lives in myriad ways.I work with people all over the world employing many methods I’ve created to facilitate healing and change.
I would like to try hypnotherapy for the subconscious. What kind of changes do you see and what aspects can be reprogrammed?
Thank you Dr Levine for these body techniques, I’ll try them in the office to help patients find calm and containment.
I’ll observe a patient’s body language and incorporate skills from body techniques I consider relevant and evidence based. One technique is reminiscent of the principles of EMDR, but I am not an EMDR practitioner. For example, when I observe victims of sexual abuse tell any part of their abuse story, I may notice their gaze upward to the ceiling. I understand this to be protective, a manifestation of the dissociation children and others employ to cope with abuse or trauma in the moment. I’ll notice the pattern of looking upward out loud, explain dissociation and coping, ask my patient to notice whenever and wherever they are looking upward and bring their gaze downward to eye level while noticing their safety in the moment, accompanied by a comment to self such as “I am safe now.” Notwithstanding, I rule out and address current safety in relationships and environment.
Thanks always for interesting and compelling ideas. Sometimes “simple” is most profound.
Dahna Berkson
Dahna, What you describe reminds me of the “gazespot” described by David Grant, PhD. He is a long time EMDR practitioner. He developed a technique that evolved from EMDR called Brainspotting. He has a small paperback book out, available on Amazon, that gives a description of his work. He, and his certified trainers, teach the process to licensed mental health professionals.
Michal, I left a comment above, and will expand on it here. It might be useful for you in dealing with pre-verbal trauma. David Grand, PhD, a long time EMDR practitioner, developed a technique that evolved from EMDR called Brainspotting. He has a small paperback book out, available on Amazon, that gives a description of his work. He, and his certified trainers, teach the process to licensed mental health professionals. A core belief is that the brain/body has the capacity to heal itself under the right conditions. The experience of, and the impact on the brain/body, of the traumatic event is stored and accessible through the optic nerve.
Ooops, not so good as a typist, and sometimes as a proof reader. David Grand, not David Grant..
I have used techniques that I learned from a occupational therapist: to stand behind the person (with their consent first) who is seated and press down on their shoulders. Another is to ask them to half rise from the ‘ARM” chair, holding the weight of their body on their feet but also on their hands, their weight distribution divided equally between hands and feet in a half seated position. Very grounding and settling and client can do the latter alone at home.
Thank you so much Ruth and Peter. I love the tools and will attempt to use them with my trauma patients. Are use EFT right now and that is effective at times.
Thank you for these. So helpful. I work a lot with reconnecting to the body and have appreciated the body container concept of peter’s teaching. One thing I use is to clasp hands in front of the body and pull – like breast exercise and then push the hands together. The pull activated muscles in the front and the push the the muscles of the back… these help one feel the strength of our bodies as a protective wall…
I use EFT. Tapping. When I am really stressed I hold the tapping points and breathe. It helps. I also like what Peter showed us too.
When lying in bed I tap rythmicly on my chest (I am a musician )
It helps me to fall asleep.
As adoptive mother of a boy who was severely abused until age 3 months, we have always squeezed his arms and legs to help him calm down. It’s nice to have that approach validated, as it has always worked for him. He even asks for it. He needs lots more help, and any advice is always welcome!
Thank you very much, Ruth. I am not a therapyst, but I went through a severe trauma in my childhood. Over 20 years of dealing with the aftermath of it, I tried many different techniques. Most of them did not help at all, but there were few that helped a lot. One of the techniques is holotropic breathwork created by Dr.Stanislav Grof. It literally brought me back to life!
So helpful. Simple and yet deeply useful as well as intuitive. Love Peter Levine.
Yes, being able to find and feel the sense of safety in the body is so important. I also find that pushing against something gently, like pushing the two hands into the wall two feet into the floor, even pushing the two hands against each other, can support a sense of body boundaries and container, enhancing presence.
I would like to know if there is a psychologist that work with post traumatic disorder in Southern California
Thank you
I am grateful for this information. I use eye contact and scent to help with dissociation. I also use acupressure points and the NADA Protocol for ear acupuncture which I am trained in to help traumatized people in session.
Thankyou again Ruth and Peter for providing me with a reminder of how to help traumatised clients develop ways of containing their own emotional reactivity and strengthening their own resolve and independance outside the therapists room.
I keep a dish of stones in my office that clients can choose one to hold while they talk with me. I also have a bowl of stress toys they can squeeze.
Thank you so much for these tools. My only caution would be that with my clients who also have eating disorders touching the belly with a hand would be triggering for them. I love the first technique and just body as container is helpful
Most of my work has been based in Trauma-Focused CBT (Cohen and Mannarino), which has proven highly effective in working with trauma that occurred after age 5 or so, when the client has attained verbal fluency. Pre-verbal trauma, however, is by definition unreachable through language and therefore unavailable for integration. I’ve been researching body-based interventions for pre-verbal trauma. I will add these to my repertoire, thank you.
Michal, I left a comment above, and will expand on it here. It might be useful for you in dealing with pre-verbal trauma. David Grand, PhD, a long time EMDR practitioner, developed a technique that evolved from EMDR called Brainspotting. He has a small paperback book out, available on Amazon, that gives a description of his work. He, and his certified trainers, teach the process to licensed mental health professionals. A core belief is that the brain/body has the capacity to heal itself under the right conditions. The experience of, and the impact on the brain/body, of the traumatic event is stored and accessible through the optic nerve.
I have found it effective when I ask them to be aware and connect to their sensations without actually labeling them. Focusing on the breath and being aware of the thoughts gives rise to the suppressed emotions. The therapist needs to be adept in handing the situation. EFT of course is also very supportive. Being aware of he ‘container’ I must use it. Thank you and I am grateful for the learning.
Thank You.
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that we forget to use, demonstrate or teach that are the most effective. Our bodies contain all that we are; our thoughts, emmotions, memories, all that we have experienced since conseption. Why do so many therapist not include the whole person in their work?
Hazel
Learning about their personal power and their mind body relationship is enormously helpful. People who feel traumatized feel helpless, and powerless; demonstrating the ind body relationship with biofeedback often helps people realize the power of their thoughts. Without those instruments available in the therapy room, hypnosis can prove to the client the power of their minds to calm their body and tap into the resources for relaxation, comfort and healing. In my Mind Mastery Course i teach how to gain conscious control of the mind body relationship and how to employ that control wisely.; they learn a one breath technique to take command of their emotions and body. Also self hypnosis is an incredibly powerful self help to that I teach all of my clients. I make it simple and quickly applicable.
Anneka Skirrow says:
Have just tried these exercises with two boys, one felt comfortable and the other struggled with the holding/hugging experience but was ok with the hand on forehead and chest. This was interesting for me to observe as the second boy is one who struggles with contact and so would need a “looser” type containment I am guessing. Have you ever observed something like this?
Thank you for these tips I can see that they would fit with a number of my clients.
Have just tried these exercises with two boys, one felt comfortable and the other struggled with the holding/hugging experience but was ok with the hand on forehead and chest. This was interesting for me to observe as the second boy is one who struggles with contact and so would need a “looser” type containment I am guessing. Have you ever observed something like this?
Thank you for these tips I can see that they would fit with a number of my clients.
Thank you. I find it useful to remember the information about the body as the container and to make contact with its boundaries. There are a number of comments here about how useful the breath is, and I would just like to add a warning to use of Brest or the expectation that it is a benign tool. For some people the breath is a significant trigger that may or may not relate to original trauma, so always check out with yourself if you are the one with the difficulty or your client. If it is, then finding rescources that do not refer to breath is useful in the first instance and breathwork can arise naturally later.