EMDR Therapy Resources for Grounding, Soothing, and Emotional Safety
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When you’re moving out of trauma, anxious patterns, or overwhelming stress, having simple grounding tools you can access anytime can make a meaningful difference, especially in a world that can feel like overwhelming chaos.
These guided exercises are the same ones I regularly weave into EMDR therapy sessions — each one is designed to help your mind and body come back to a sense of steadiness and safety.
Please note that these recordings are not EMDR therapy on their own, but they can be supportive in your healing journey, helping you reconnect to your body and strengthen the skills we use during EMDR sessions.
Use them as often as you like — between sessions, before bed, after a stressful moment, or anytime your nervous system needs a reset.
If you’re new to EMDR and want a deeper understanding of how it works, you may find this guide helpful:
👉 EMDR Therapy Phoenix: A Trauma Therapist’s Complete Guide to Moving Forward and Hope
Before You Begin: How to Use These Resources
These recordings are meant to support, not replace, therapy.
Here’s how to get the most out of them:
Choose one exercise at a time rather than listening to everything at once.
Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can sit or lie down.
Let yourself be curious, not perfect; these practices build over time.
If anything feels too activating, stop and choose a different resource.
Bring what you notice to your next session so we can integrate it.
If you want a better sense of what EMDR preparation and resourcing look like, you can explore:
👉 How EMDR Therapy Phoenix Works and Why It Goes Beyond Talk Therapy
A Gentle Note About Coping & Avoidance
These resources can be wonderful and grounding supports - tools to help you regulate, calm your body, and feel steadier in the moment.
And, sometimes coping skills can accidentally become temporary escapes from the deeper stuff we haven’t had space or support to work through.
If you're using these tools to find a sense of calm, that’s great.
But if you notice you're using them (or other coping skills) to avoid feelings, memories, or stressors that feel unresolved or too heavy to carry alone, I truly encourage you to speak to a therapist if you’re not already working with one.
Healing is a balance of both building skills for the present and working through what your past has held onto. You deserve support with both.
Strengthening Our Brain Muscles
These EMDR resources are tools I regularly use with clients in both individual and group work because they help build strong “brain muscles” for grounding and regulation. They’re useful during moments of stress and during calm, and practicing them throughout the week makes them easier to access when you need them most.
While I didn’t create these EMDR techniques, I recorded these guided versions to support current and past clients, as well as anyone exploring EMDR.
If you’d like to learn more about how EMDR therapy can support your healing, feel free to reach out for a free consult — I’m happy to talk through whether it may be a good fit for you.
Quick Grounding Tools - For Stress, Overwhelm, or Daily Centering
4 Elements Grounding Exercise
Length: 3–4 minutes
Use when: Overwhelmed, scattered, dissociated, anxious
Benefit: A quick, steadying practice that uses Earth, Air, Fire, and Water to bring your mind and body back into the present moment.
If you’d like to better understand what preparation in EMDR therapy looks like, this might help:
👉 What to Expect in Your First EMDR Therapy Phoenix Session
Calm/Secure Place
Length: 4–6 minutes
Use when: You need comfort, steadiness, or a sense of security.
Benefit: A gentle guided practice that helps you build an internal sense of safety you can return to whenever you need comfort or grounding.
Containment Tools - For Big Feelings, Intrusive thoughts, or Leftover Activation
Container Exercise
Length: 3–5 minutes
Use when: You’re flooded, looping on thoughts, or carrying emotional residue
Benefit: Helps you temporarily “store” overwhelming material until therapy. This can be a helpful tool for temporarily storing overwhelming thoughts, emotions, or images so you can feel more regulated and in control.
For more support with triggers, you might like:
👉 When Trauma Triggers Take Over: Understanding Your Nervous System & How EMDR Therapy Helps You Heal
Somatic & Inner-Healing Practices For Deeper Body-Based Regulation
Healing Stream of Light
Length: 6–8 minutes
Use when: You need soothing, cleansing, or emotional release
Benefit: Supports somatic regulation and helps reset your system. This is a soothing visualization that helps release tension, soften overwhelm, and invite warmth and calm back into your body.
Spiral Technique
Length: 4–6 minutes
Use when: You feel internal pressure, anxiety, or tightness
Benefit: Helps externalize stuck energy through gentle guided imagery. This guided somatic practice can help move stuck energy or pressure outward, creating more internal space and relief.
If you want to better understand how EMDR works with the body, here’s a helpful next step:
👉 Top 5 Truths About EMDR Therapy Phoenix
🌼 After You Listen
As you explore these resourcing exercises, notice what your body responds to, what feels supportive, and what feels neutral or activating. Everyone’s nervous system is unique, and part of EMDR therapy is discovering the tools that fit you best.
These recordings can offer relief, grounding, and steadiness, and they’re also just one piece of the healing process. If anything brings up discomfort or feels overwhelming, pause and bring it into therapy so it can be worked on in a space where you can be supported.
If you’re curious about starting EMDR or deepening your healing work, I’d be honored to talk with you and discover if we are a good fit.
More Guided Meditations & Grounding Practices
If you enjoy these resources, you may also like my guided practices on Insight Timer. I share grounding exercises, self-compassion practices, and nervous-system–friendly meditations that complement EMDR therapy.
👉 Explore my Insight Timer Teacher Page
⚠️ Gentle Reminder
These resources are supportive tools, but not EMDR therapy on their own. They’re not a replacement for mental health treatment or crisis support.
My Specialties Include EMDR Therapy Tempe, EMDR Therapy Phoenix EMDR Therapy Intensives, Anxiety, Sexual Abuse, and Cycles of Family Trauma.
If you found this article helpful, check out EMDR Therapy in Phoenix & Tempe - How Trauma Triggers Sneak Up & What to Do About It and What to Expect In your First EMDR Therapy Phoenix Session: A Step by Step Guide
