Hi there. As my psych explained it to me, grounding is a process of detaching from emotional pain and remaining in the present, mentally, psychologically and from a sensory perspective. It's a series of mental processes and exercises which allow you to fight against flashbacks, dissociation, self harm or other impulses or intensely negative feelings of any sort.
Grounding can be mental, physical or soothing. Mental grounding examples could include simple mental exercises such as listing the names of your 4th grade class members, counting backwards from 100 in multiples of 3, naming all of the objects in the room around you or listing the steps involved in performing a familiar task such as baking a cake or taking the dog for a walk. Anything that requires you to call on the processes of memory, cognitive planning, stimulus recognition etc can be used as mental grounding.
Physical grounding could involve describing the feel of an object in your hand, describing all of the sounds you can hear at a given time or eating a particular food and concentrating on its taste, texture, temperature etc. Stamping your feet, moving your hands, rotating your neck or linking your fingers together one by one are more active forms of physical grounding. Similarly, any activity which creates intense physical sensations, such as holding onto an ice cube, jogging on the spot or tying a knot in a piece of string can be useful.
Soothing grounding involves calling to mind things, people, situations or scenarios which are reassuring, safe or calming. Perhaps it's the sound of a loved one's voice, a favourite song, a safe and favourite place or a much-loved pet. Or perhaps it's something actual, like taking a warm bath, curling up under a blanket or holding onto an object that you associate with something or someone safe. Soothing grounding is about holding those thoughts and images in mind and using them to stay focused on the present at the expense of the intrusive mental process you're trying to resist.
I'm not sure I've explained that very well, but I always remember the quote from the first chapter of the book that my psych and I worked from when we first started doing grounding exercises... the quote reads "no feeling is final". It's such a simple philosophy, but it's a core principle of grounding which says that all feelings are temporary states and will pass in time and with effort on our part.
Personally, I find soothing grounding to be useful - imagining the conversation I would be having with my psych at that moment if he was there, or calling to mind a safe place where the people and things from my past cannot find me. Repetitive physical activity, such as grooming my dog or typing on the computer, are useful physical grounders. I often play this silly little game on the train, which is often a source of much anxiety for me. I listen to and count the number of one-sided mobile phone conversations I can hear from fellow passengers, or take inventory of how many people are doing what, eg, reading the paper, listening to an ipod, talking to a neighbour etc.
The thing about grounding is that it's all so simple... it's really not rocket science. Partly for this reason I was cynically dubious and openly scoffed at the concept when my psych introduced it to me just prior to our commencing exposure therapy. Thankfully he is patient with my beligerence and asked me to humour him... which I did. The thing is that it does work... better than I could have imagined, but it does take a lot of practice at using the exercises when you aren't highly triggered or distressed, so that they can be called to mind more easily and spontaneously when your arousal levels are high.
I hope this helped a little. I admit to being a true convert... it's good stuff, it's kept me safe many times I think, and nobody has to ever know you're doing it.
Maddog
