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Displacing Flashbacks with Visual Grounding – Go With That

"During a flashback and the accompanying emotional arousal, cognitive strategies are unlikely to work. Most clients will not be unable to “talk themselves” back into the present. What does work for the vast majority of clients is visual grounding. To demonstrate this in session, ask the client to stare intensely at an object that is in the room. The client can stare at a patch of carpet, a pastel painting on the wall, or a piece of furniture. It’s often a good idea to avoid focusing on photos of people or photos that contain people. It helps to ask the client to focus on a small part of the object and to notice the various shades of blues or to notice how the texture of an object looks like waves. Ask the client to try this every time he has a flashback.

The purpose of this exercise in grounding is to saturate the visual parts of the brain with an actual object that is fully in the present. Once the client is able to focus on the object, the visual part of the flashback will often be displaced with the object that the client is focusing on. At this point, the client can make reinforcing cognitive statements of safety to help transition the client the rest of the way back to the safety of the present, “I’m okay. I’m in my own house and I’m staring at my carpet. I live here with my wife and my two children. I’m okay right now.”

As soon as you are aware that you are having a flashback, visually focus on something in your environment. Stare at it very deeply and intensely, notice the small shifts of color in it. Notice the texture of it. Continue to stare at it for several moments after the flashback goes away. Once your vision and your mind is fully saturated with the object you are looking at and you no longer see the traumatic images, tell yourself that you are safe and tell yourself (out loud, so your ears can hear) where you are located. Will you be willing to try this every time you have a flashback? I want to help you develop this technique, so that you can stop flashbacks quickly when they happen. If you have problems implementing this technique, I want you to come back and tell me. There are often ways around these problems."