This post is designed to give a variety of resources for reducing the frequency and intensity of flashbacks, to provide ways to ease one’s way out of the freeze response, and ways to reduce dissociation. Additional material will be added to this post in the future.
3 Keys to shifting out of freeze response
- Noticing when flashbacks are starting to come on and orienting oneself.
- Increasing sense of safety.
- Finding some part of our body that feels a little less frozen or in pain.
- Titration.
Skills for Managing and Containing Flashbacks
Understanding the Freeze response
Somatic Experiencing
Titration: Slow movements out of the freeze state. This can be done alone, but is ideally done with an attuned therapist who is trained in working with trauma via body based therapeutic modalities such as Somatic Experiencing or Sensorimotor Processing Therapy.