This poster PDF provides three strategies for grounding based on three parts of the ‘front brain’ – cognitive strategies using the front left brain, reflective strategies using the front middle brain, and relational strategies using the front right brain.
It’s a quick-and-easy reminder of different things we can try when triggered and complements my article ‘Managing Triggers‘.
This is a free downloadable PDF.
Page 1 is a full-colour poster.
Page 2 is a low-ink, print-friendly version.
When we are triggered, we are often encouraged to ‘ground’. But what does this actually mean?
In essence, we are talking about moving from a state dominated by our back brain (which dominates in danger mode, when we perceive threat) back into our front brain (which is effective in daily life mode, when we feel safe.)
Our front brain is our clever, thinking, rational, neo-cortex, where we can assess reality and make conscious decisions based on choices – not on instinctive, danger-based, survival-driven reactions. Being grounded means that our front brain has come back online.
The front brain can be divided (more metaphorically than precisely neuroscientifically!) into three ‘parts’:
So when triggered, it can be helpful to think in terms of these three parts of the brain and then three strategies – what is available to me right now?
For more information, check out my article ‘Managing Triggers‘ or my training ‘Dissociation and DID: The Fundamentals‘.
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