Grounding: A Gentle Lifeline During a PTSD Surge

 

CALM in PTSD SURGE

When PTSD flares up, time becomes elastic. A smell, a sound, a shadow—any one of them can hurl you out of the present and into a flood of memory and fear. These moments don’t ask permission, they don’t play fair and you do not have warning most of the time. 

I teach the targeted and focused process of grounding as it can help reestablish safety, gently coaxing the nervous system out of panic and back into now.

🌀 What Is Grounding?

Grounding is the practice of anchoring yourself in the present moment. It's not about denying your past or suppressing emotion—it's about regaining control during an emotional hijack of the here and now.

Some grounding techniques are sensory:

Touch grounding: Holding an object and focusing on the physical interaction of your skin and thoughts while holding an object. It can be a specific object of any random object that is close by such as an as a small stone you carry with you, an ice cube out of glass of soda, pen, coins from your pocket, your phone, running hands under cool water, or grabbing a textured object.

Sight Ground: Focusing mentally on the space you are in. Naming five things you can see and describing them in detail. Such as: I see a black chair that has a chrome base and 4 black wheels, there is a picture of a sunflower on the wall to my right and the petals are yellow and the center where the seeds are is black... once you feel calmer you state I am in a safe place as many times as you need to gain regulation. 

Sound Grounding: Listening with sound reducing headphones or earbuds to sounds that you can completely focus on, such as: your style of music, waves, rain, or whatever sound helps you silent the PTSD surge and regain connections to the here and now! 

Some grounding techniques are cognitive:

Mental tasks Grounding: Counting is a simple one that others may never know you are doing such as counting backward from 100 by sevens, fours, or twos or naming things that start with “S.”

Affirmations or Quote Grounding: Whispering your truths: “I am safe right now. My past is not happening again.” "I am in control not my past"

🌱 The Purpose Isn’t Perfection

Grounding isn’t a magic switch—it’s a bridge to shut down the fight, flight, or freeze system and to regain emotional regulation. Its job isn’t to erase trauma but to buy you enough peace to be in the here an now again, to pause the spiral. 

Some days, the techniques work like a charm while other days they help just enough. At first they may not seem to work at all and the biggest success is just reaching and using a strategy when everything in you wants to shut down.

When to Use Grounding

  • During a flashback
  • When anxiety begins to spike - not to remove anxiety but return it to your normal
  • After a triggering conversation - when your mind is struggling to stay in the here and now 
  • Before or after therapy sessions 
  • WHEN EVER YOU THINK YOU NEED TOO! 

Grounding becomes more effective the more we use it. It’s a skill that strengthens each time it’s practiced. 

Your trauma response system is a defense system to help you survive traumatic event(s) once your safe it just does not know how to shut off and Grounding helps you build the off switch. 

For more information or questions feel free to email me. 

If your looking for a therapist in Michigan log on to my website for a free 30 min consultation. 

Lifeline Connections Therapy 

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