Welcome to the EMDR containment exercise.
If you would like to experience the full benefit of this bilateral music,
Please use headphones.
The purpose of this exercise isn't to avoid or to suppress,
But to allow yourself some space and containment.
It is intended to help you contain things when they can't be solved right now,
And can also be useful to use between therapy sessions.
For example,
If you are trying to fall asleep and you can't stop your mind from racing,
This would be a good time to practice.
The idea here is that you would use the container to put your worry thoughts and feelings and come back when you are ready and more resource.
So let's give it a try.
If you'd like,
You can close your eyes now.
I want you to bring to mind some sort of secure container,
Perhaps in this room,
Perhaps in another place.
This container is strong enough to hold everything that is disturbing,
Such as memories,
Images,
Thoughts,
Physical sensations,
Sounds,
Smells and emotions.
What does your container look like?
How big is it?
What color?
What material is it made of?
People have imagined all sorts of things with this exercise.
There is no right or wrong.
Now,
What is bothering you?
Identify something that is mild to moderate,
Something you can't do anything about right now.
Perhaps you keep having an intrusive thought or you keep thinking about a situation.
Maybe you feel nervous or worried about something in the future.
So for this exercise,
We want to think about distressing or disturbing items that are about a three max out of 10,
Where 10 is the most disturbing.
Take a moment to check in how you feel when you think about this disturbing image,
Thought,
Emotion.
If you can just be with this for a moment.
And now I invite you to send all of these feelings,
Images and thoughts to your special container.
You might visualize all of this flowing from your body into the container.
Or you might imagine placing all of this into your hands and dropping these items into the container.
Whatever you choose,
Know with complete certainty that all of this is being held safely and securely in your container.
If you're still feeling like this container isn't strong enough brainstorm,
How can you make this container more secure?
Perhaps it's shutting the door where the container lives.
And how do you feel now?
And the next time something disturbing comes up that's mild to moderate,
Just imagine sending it there,
Putting it in the container and knowing that it will be safe and secure for when you're ready and resourced to process it.
And as we close,
Check in with yourself again,
Noticing sensations in the body,
Checking back in with that distress level from zero to 10.
And just knowing that we're all different.
Some techniques work better for us than others.
And if this technique worked for you,
Then it could be a useful tool that can help you manage emotions and mental difficulty.
Great work today.
Thank you for your time.
