Hello and welcome to the EMDR Butterfly Hug.
This is a wonderful grounding practice that focuses on using bilateral stimulation,
Which in this context means tapping on one side of the body and then tapping on the other.
If you are already familiar with how to tap,
You can go ahead and get started.
And if you are learning,
There are a couple of options that you can try.
The first one is to interlace your thumbs and place your hands right below the collarbones,
Fanning your hands out to the side.
And you would just give this a try by tapping on the right and the left.
Right,
Left.
Another option is to place your right hand on your left bicep and your left hand on your right bicep,
So that you're giving yourself a hug.
Same idea here,
Tapping on one side and the other.
One side and the other.
Another option is to place your hands on your lap.
You would just tap with the right hand and then the left hand.
Right hand,
Left hand.
And if you're looking for something a bit more discreet,
You can tap your feet on the ground.
So go ahead and ask yourself which position felt the most comfortable.
And we'll start there.
I invite you to see if you could get just 5% more comfortable in whatever position you're in.
And take a breath in.
And out.
Let's begin tapping.
Tapping on the right side,
Left,
Right,
Left.
So I'll invite you here to take a conscious breath in and out.
And bring to mind a situation where from 0 to 10,
Where 10 is the most distressing,
It's about a 3.
So there might be an image that comes up,
Some feelings,
Some thoughts.
And let's begin tapping.
Right,
Left.
Right,
Left.
You can increase the pressure or decrease the pressure however you like.
Feeling the rhythm of this tapping.
Tapping for however long feels good.
And if you're ready to take a pause here,
I'll invite you to check lightly back into the situation,
The feelings,
The image,
And just see how you're doing.
If you were feeling uncomfortable,
You can move your hands to another position and let's try another round of tapping.
Knowing that you can keep tapping for as long as you like.
Try not to get caught up in any worries about whether or not you're doing this right.
Because as long as you feel that tapping on both sides of the body,
That's all you need.
And next I'll invite you to take a pause from the tapping and this time to bring a positive statement to mind,
Such as I'm safe,
I'm okay,
I love myself.
Whatever feels right to you.
And trying another round of tapping here.
You're welcome to stay with this tapping,
But let's take a pause here when you're ready.
And checking back in with the original distressing situation.
Seeing what number you're at now.
Keeping in mind that there are a range of tools that you can use in EMDR and some of them work better than others for us.
And knowing that the most important thing is that you recognize that you are needing support and you looked for it.
So if you're able to extend some compassion or some simple acknowledgement.
Great work today.
If you found this helpful,
I encourage you to add this butterfly hug to your toolkit.
Thank you for your time.
