I know what you mean - when I get worked up about something it can be hard to remember strategies that help too. That's why practise is so very, very important... it's kinda like emergency drills, ya know? It is important to regularly practise what to do in an emergency so that when an emergency occurs your brain knows exactly what to do and can do it almost on autopilot.

Did you know that on 9/11 there was one company that was very high up in one of the towers, and every single week without fail their manager made them do full evacuation drills... every single week they had to get up out of their seats, immediately leave every single thing behind, go directly to the stairwell and walk down 80 something flights of stairs. Every single freaking week, no matter how much they thought it was a waste of time.
When the plane hit the tower and the alarms sounded every employee in this company did exactly what they had practised every week of their employment. And every single employee survived.
Many companies on floors above and below them had many or all of their employees killed, because they stayed to get bags, or turn off computers, or make phone calls, or whatever. But in the company in which everyone had survived they knew exactly what to do in an emergency -because they practised - and they did it.

My point is all the research shows that the human brain can get overwhelmed in emergency situations (and when working through old abuse etc the brain sometimes reacts as though a real emergency or threat is present) BUT if strategies are practised regularly the brain can make use of those strategies even under emergency conditions. So even though it can be hard to remember how to use grounding techniques when trauma systems are activated it WILL get easier with practise... the more you practise grounding techniques the easier it will become to use them when they are needed.

The therapy process takes a long time. A very long time. But practising grounding techniques - read about 'em, learn about 'em, practise 'em - is something you can do to help you through the process now. It's like arming yourself for the battle, if you will.