Text Grounding Tools You Can Use: An Interactive Guide ©National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2015. All rights Reserved. 
Text- How To Use This Tool. Welcome to “Grounding Tools You Can Use.” This tool is designed for all survivors and advocates. It will walk you through five easy grounding techniques. Click on an image to get started. To return to the menu, click on the ‘x’ button in the corner. For more information for care providers, click the “more info” button.
Help Resources More Info About
Text- Where Am I? 
Where am I? This simple exercise can be done anywhere. It can help with bringing yourself back to where you are. Next. Home. 
Spoken- Where am I? Place both feet on the floor and close your eyes. What color is the floor? What color are the walls? What else can I see? Is it warm or cold in here? What can I smell? What can I hear?
Text- Alphabet Reverse 
This simple exercise can be done anywhere. It takes some brain power to remember the alphabet backwards, and helps with pulling away from negative thoughts. 
Spoken- Alphabet Reverse- Do it with me! Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A
Text- Belly Breathing 
Deep breathing can help us relax or calm down when emotions are running high or we are feeling anxious. It is also a good way to be in tune with our bodies and how they feel. We can learn to control our bodies and learn how they react to stress.
Spoken- Lay down flat on the floor in a quiet place. Take a slow deep breath in from your nose or your mouth and fill your belly with air. Feel and see your belly rise up as you fill it with air. Now very slowly breathe that air out as your belly empties and becomes flat again. Now again take a slow deep breath from your nose or your mouth and fill your belly with air again. Do you see your belly rise? Now slowly breathe out that air and watch as your belly becomes flat again. You can do this as many times as you need to until you feel calm. 
Text- Robot
Progressive Muscle Relaxation or PMR is a common relaxation technique that has been around for decades.  This exercise is designed to help relax when feeling tense or sore. The goal of the exercise is to relax all of your muscles from head to toe. That is hard to do, but PMR makes it a little easier. In PMR, you pick out certain muscles to tense up and then relax. You can start by tensing up your whole body just to practice.
Spoken- Robot! Pretend to be a stiff robot whose muscles are stiff and tense. Hold it, hold it, hold it. OK…now pretend to be a limp stuffed animal and relax. Now stiffen your muscles again like a robot. Hold it…stiff, stiff, stiff… Now be a limp stuffed animal….relax…flop over…go limp. Now STIFF ROBOT….hold it… And now stuffed animal. You can repeat it three or four times until your whole body feels relaxed and even tired.
Text- My Place
We can sometimes learn to settle our emotions by imagining ourselves in a calm or peaceful place.  This exercise involves drawing a place, real or imagined, that is super restful and calm.
Spoken- My Place. Imagine you are in a calm and peaceful place. What do you see in this calm place? What is surrounding you? What is the temperature in this calm place…is it warm or hot or cold? What do you smell? What do you feel? Turn yourself around slowly in a full circle and what do you see? As soon as you know how your calm place looks, draw it.
Text- More Info. Sometimes emotions are so strong that kids feel as though they are “going crazy.” When emotions come on strong and they are with a counselor, the counselor can help them make sense of them. But when this is happening at school or with friends, they will want to learn how to keep them under control, and this tool can help. 
Text- More Info- There are tools they can use to calm their mind and body down. These tools are called “grounding tools.” Grounding means that they are doing something to make them feel as though they are stable, steady, and unshakable. All of these tools will distract their brain from having strong emotions and refocus it on something else.
Text- Resources Check out The Advocate’s Guide: Working With Parents Of Children Who Have Been Sexually Assaulted for more information
Text- About This Tool This tool was created from “The Advocate’s Guide: Working with Parents of Children who have been Sexually Assaulted” appendix titled “Grounding Tools that Parents Can Use.” While this appendix was written for parents to teach their children, these grounding tools are appropriate for survivors of all ages. ©National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2015. All rights Reserved. 
Text- About This Tool This project was supported by Grant No. 2011-TAAX-KO23 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do no necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.