This Page Will Keep Growing

New practices, links, and EMDR-safe resources will be added over time.

You can simply check back when you need a moment of grounding.

This isn’t a list.

It’s a lifeline.

Gentle, body-first practices you can return to again and again:

• 🌀 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Scan

Name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste.

A powerful anchor when spiraling or feeling detached.

• 🌀 Butterfly Hug (used in EMDR)

Cross your arms over your chest and tap slowly, left-right-left, while breathing deeply.

Mimics bilateral stimulation and increases felt safety.

• 🌀 Safe Place Visualization

Imagine a location (real or imagined) where you feel safe and protected.

What do you see, hear, and feel there? Return to it often.

• 🌀 Tension Release: Push Against a Wall

Press your palms into the wall with force for 10 seconds, then release.

Helps discharge stored survival energy in the body.

These prompts are invitations — not assignments. Use them gently and in your own time.

• 🌀 “What does safety feel like — in my body, not just my mind?”

• 🌀 “What am I still carrying that was never mine?”

• 🌀 “What part of me needed to survive — and how did it protect me?”

• 🌀 “When I feel triggered, what part of me might be showing up?”

• 🌀 “What do I need in this moment? Can I offer even 10% of that to myself?”

Tip: If you freeze or dissociate while journaling, pause. Breathe. Come back to your senses.

It’s okay to stop. You’re allowed to go slow.

Trauma-informed books, podcasts, and websites that center healing through EMDR, somatics, and self-compassion.

Books:

• The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk

• Getting Past Your Past – Francine Shapiro (creator of EMDR)

• What My Bones Know – Stephanie Foo

• The Complex PTSD Workbook – Arielle Schwartz

• No Bad Parts – Richard Schwartz

Podcasts:

• Therapist Uncensored — neuroscience + attachment

• The Healing Trauma Podcast — survivor voices

• Notice That — EMDR-focused, client & therapist friendly

Websites:

EMDRIA.org – Find certified EMDR therapists

NICABM.com – Trauma education hub

Dr. Arielle Schwartz – Somatic + EMDR healing

• 10-Minute Grounding Meditation – Sarah Blondin (Insight Timer) Full Link

• Vagus Nerve Reset – Irene Lyon on YouTube

• Bilateral Music for Self-Regulation – YouTube

Use headphones for left-right audio support after sessions or during stress.

Healing can feel like too much.

If you’re in the middle of something hard, try this:

• Breathe – In through your nose, out through your mouth. Slowly.

• Ground – Try the 5-4-3-2-1 scan. Hold something real.

• Pause – Say aloud: “I am in the present. I am safe enough right now.”

• Choose one thing – A soft blanket, a butterfly hug, a sip of water.

You don’t have to fix everything today.

You just need to meet this moment with care.

When you've lived through trauma, your body remembers things your mind can't always explain.

EMDR — which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — is a therapy designed to help people safely process those traumatic memories, and the beliefs and body reactions attached to them.

It’s not talk therapy. It’s not about “reliving” your worst memories.

It’s about helping your nervous system finally let go of what got stuck — so you can begin to feel safe again, from the inside out.

EMDR helps reprocess traumatic memories by using something called bilateral stimulation — often eye movements, tapping, or sounds — to engage both sides of the brain while you focus on pieces of a memory.

Your therapist gently guides you to notice what comes up: images, emotions, body sensations, beliefs.

Over time, the memory loses its emotional charge. Your body doesn’t go into fight, flight, or freeze when it’s touched.

The trauma doesn't disappear — but it stops controlling your life.

1. History & Preparation – Your therapist learns about your story and explains the EMDR process.

2. Resourcing – You build tools for safety, grounding, and stabilization before starting deeper work.

3. Targeting – You choose specific memories, images, or beliefs to process.

4. Desensitization – Bilateral stimulation begins while you focus on the memory.

5. Reprocessing – Your brain begins making new connections and letting go of stuck beliefs.

6. Installation – You replace old negative beliefs with new, empowering ones.

7. Body Scan – You check for remaining tension or disturbance in the body.

8. Closure & Reevaluation – You close the session with grounding and check progress in future sessions.

EMDR is always done at your pace. You stay in control the entire time.

Let’s break some myths:

❌ It’s not hypnosis

❌ It’s not reliving trauma all at once

❌ It doesn’t erase memory — it reprocesses it

❌ It’s not for just “severe” trauma — it works for all kinds of stuck pain (childhood, medical, grief, assault, emotional abuse, etc.)

I was skeptical at first.

I had spent years dissociating, surviving, shutting down — how could moving my eyes help untangle all that?

But EMDR changed everything. It gave me a way to face the memories I never thought I could survive.

It helped me reclaim pieces of myself I thought were gone forever.

This book — and this site — wouldn’t exist without it.

If you’re curious about trying EMDR, or just want to learn more from trusted sources, here are some helpful links:

🌀 EMDRIA.org – The official EMDR International Association

 (Offers research, FAQs, and clinician directories)

🌀 Find an EMDR Therapist – Search by location and specialization

🌀 The Body Keeps the Score – A foundational book on how trauma lives in the body

🌀 When the Past Is Present – David Richo – On triggers, reactivity, and healing emotional flashbacks

EMDR isn’t a magic fix. It’s hard, sacred work.

But for many of us, it’s the first time the weight begins to lift — not because the past is gone, but because it’s no longer trapped inside our nervous system.