🌿 Client Resource Center

Welcome to EMDR Unlocked — Your Healing Starts Here

Whether you're just beginning your EMDR journey or simply need a reset between sessions, this page is your space. Below you'll find five powerful resourcing exercises designed to help you feel grounded, calm, and in control of your emotional state.

These are tools we may use in sessions — and with practice, they can become anchors you turn to anytime.

🌈 1. The Calm/Safe Place Visualization

Purpose: Relax your nervous system and create a mental escape you can return to anytime.

  1. Sit comfortably and close your eyes if it feels safe.
  2. Imagine a place where you feel calm, safe, and at peace — it can be real or made up.
  3. Use all your senses:
    • What do you see around you?
    • What sounds are present?
    • What do you feel beneath you or around you?
  4. Take slow breaths and mentally “walk around” this place for 1–2 minutes.
  5. Bring a word or image back with you (e.g., “ocean” or a tree).
  6. Open your eyes and gently come back to the present.

Pro tip: Revisit this place regularly to strengthen its calming effect.

2. The Light Stream Exercise

Purpose: Gently release distress, tension, or difficult emotions.

  1. Close your eyes and bring to mind a recent situation that caused distress (keep it mild).
  2. Notice where you feel the discomfort in your body.
  3. Imagine a warm, healing light above your head — any color that feels good to you.
  4. Picture it slowly streaming down, melting tension through:
    • Head → face → neck → shoulders → chest → arms → hands → stomach → legs → feet
  5. Let the light gather the tension and carry it away.

Use it when: You feel weighed down by a recent event or intense emotion.

3. Container Exercise

Purpose: Temporarily set aside overwhelming thoughts, memories, or worries.

  1. Visualize a container that can securely hold anything — a vault, box, or chest.
  2. Make it strong, sealed, and only you have the key.
  3. Gently gather the thoughts or images causing stress and imagine placing them inside.
  4. Close and lock it. Tell yourself: “I can come back to this when I’m ready and supported.”
  5. Breathe deeply and return to the present.

Best for: Bedtime worry, pre-session anxiety, or when something is too big to handle alone.

4. 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique

Purpose: Reconnect with the here and now — helpful during anxiety or dissociation.

  • 5 things you see
  • 4 things you can touch
  • 3 things you hear
  • 2 things you can smell
  • 1 thing you can taste

Example: “I see my coffee mug, my phone, the window, my plant, and a lamp.” “I feel my chair, my feet on the floor, my sweater, and the cool air.”

When to use: Feeling disconnected, anxious, or “not here.”

5. Butterfly Hug (Self-Tapping for Regulation)

Purpose: Activate your body’s natural calming system with gentle bilateral stimulation.

  1. Cross your arms over your chest so each hand rests on the opposite upper arm or shoulder.
  2. Begin alternating taps — left, right, left, right — in a slow, steady rhythm.
  3. Focus on a calming word, image, or affirmation (e.g., “I am safe”).
  4. Continue for 1–2 minutes or until you feel more settled.

Use this: After intense emotions, after sessions, or anytime you need gentle support.

✨ Final Note

Resourcing is about building inner strength and safety. These exercises are not about avoiding your feelings — they’re about supporting you through them. Practice often, and over time, they become second nature.

If you're ever unsure which one to use or want a personalized version, bring it to session — we're here to help.

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