Coping Techniques

Learning techniques to manage feelings such as anxiety, panic, overwhelm, and emotional reactivity can be an important part of supporting your wellbeing. These strategies can help you feel more in control, reduce the intensity of distress, and build emotional resilience over time.

Grounding techniques are simple practices that help you stay present and connected to the here and now, especially during moments of emotional intensity or disconnection. Examples include focusing on your five senses, observing your environment, or engaging in soothing, familiar activities that promote a sense of steadiness and safety.

Breathing exercises can also support emotional regulation by activating the body’s natural calming response. By focusing on your breath and practising slow, steady inhales and exhales, you can ease anxiety and support a greater sense of calm and clarity.

Below are some examples of these techniques. By gently incorporating them into your daily routine, you can begin to build a personalised toolkit for emotional regulation, nervous system support, and overall wellbeing.

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique

After a trauma, it’s normal to experience flashbacks, anxiety, and other uncomfortable symptoms. Grounding techniques help control these symptoms by turning attention away from thoughts, memories, or worries, and refocusing on the present moment

Dropping Anchor Technique

This technique is especially useful when you're feeling overwhelmed by a swirl of thoughts and feelings. It’s a simple exercise to centre yourself and connect with the world around you (to drop anchor).

Four Square Breathing Exercise

This is a deep breathing technique that can help you slow down your breathing, clear your mind, and decrease stress in your body. It is a simple but powerful relaxation technique that can be practiced anywhere and is useful in stressful situations when you want to re-centre yourself or improve concentration.

Observing Thoughts Exercise

The Observing Thoughts and Allowing Them to Pass exercise is a mindfulness practice that is helpful for reducing stress and anxiety, improving focus and concentration, and enhancing self-compassion. It involves non-judgmentally observing and letting go of thoughts as they arise.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique

This is a relaxation technique used to alleviate stress, reduce anxiety, and induce a state of calmness by systematically tensing and then relaxing various muscle groups in the body.

The RAIN Technique

The RAIN Technique is a mindfulness practice used for self-compassion and emotional healing. RAIN is an acronym that stands for Recognise, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture.

TIPP Skills for Distress Tolerance

When the limbic (fight or flight) system is in a state of extreme arousal, it may be difficult for us to regulate our emotions. Similarly, when a computer is working so hard that it is overheating, it will eventually become overloaded and freeze. The only way to recover from this is to restart the system, thereby returning it to a working state.

Download