How Can You Use Grounding if Emotions Return After EMDR?

How Can You Use Grounding if Emotions Return After EMDR?

Short Answer: If emotions connected with an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) session return later, grounding can help you shift your attention back toward the present. You might notice your feet on the floor, look around and name what you see, take a few slower breaths, move your body, or focus on something familiar in your surroundings. Grounding is not about forcing an emotion to disappear. It is a way to reconnect with where you are now while allowing the feeling to settle naturally. EMDR includes preparation and closure strategies specifically to help people return their attention to the present during and between sessions.

Key Takeaways

• Emotions connected with EMDR may sometimes become noticeable again after a session.
• Grounding helps redirect attention toward the present moment.
• You do not have to make the emotion disappear for grounding to be useful.
• Simple strategies can include noticing your surroundings, feeling your feet on the floor, breathing more slowly, moving, or focusing on a familiar object.
• Use grounding when it feels helpful rather than automatically after every session.
• You do not need to continue deliberately processing the memory once the session has ended.
• If you are doing therapist-guided EMDR, grounding strategies are commonly developed during the preparation phase.
• With self-guided EMDR, you can also pause, orient to the present, and return to ordinary activities before deciding whether to do more processing later.

Why Might Emotions Return After EMDR?

EMDR processing may continue to produce noticeable changes after the formal session ends.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs notes that new information processing can continue between sessions while people generally return to ordinary daily life.

That means a thought, reminder, memory, or everyday situation might later bring back an emotion connected with the material you worked on.

For example, you might suddenly notice:

• Sadness
• Anger
• Nervousness
• Frustration
• Relief mixed with emotion
• A familiar emotional reaction to a trigger

The emotion returning does not automatically mean something went wrong during the session.

It may simply be something you notice as the material continues to shift.

What Does Grounding Mean?

Grounding refers to strategies that help bring your attention back to the present moment.

The EMDR International Association defines grounding techniques as strategies used to help someone stay connected to the present when distress or disconnection is interfering with that awareness.

In plain language, grounding means reminding yourself:

“I am here, in this room, at this time.”

Instead of continuing to focus closely on the memory or emotion, you begin noticing what is happening around you now.

Grounding Is Not the Same as Eliminating Emotion

A grounding exercise does not have to make you completely calm.

That is an important distinction.

You might begin grounding while feeling upset and still feel some emotion afterward.

The useful change may simply be:

“I am still emotional, but I feel more connected to the present.”

or:

“The feeling is still there, but it is easier to manage.”

EMDRIA describes a “state change” as a temporary emotional shift created by changing the focus of attention, often with coping or resourcing exercises.

Grounding is therefore less about erasing emotion and more about helping you regain present-moment perspective.

Start by Looking Around the Room

One of the simplest grounding methods is to intentionally notice your surroundings.

Look around and identify a few things you can see.

For example:

• A window
• A chair
• A lamp
• A picture
• A door
• A plant

You might quietly tell yourself:

“I am sitting in my living room.”

“It is Tuesday afternoon.”

“I can see the window and the desk.”

This shifts some of your attention away from the memory or feeling and toward your current environment.

If your EMDR work relates to PTSD, you might use familiar details in your surroundings to remind yourself where you are now when a trauma reminder brings up emotion.

Notice Your Feet or Your Contact With the Chair

Physical contact with the environment can also help orient you to the present.

Try noticing:

• Your feet touching the floor
• Your back against the chair
• Your hands resting on your legs
• The weight of your body in the seat

You do not need to analyze the sensation.

Just notice it.

For example:

“My feet are on the floor.”

“I can feel the chair supporting me.”

That simple observation can make the present moment easier to recognize.

Use Your Senses

You can also deliberately notice sensory information around you.

For example:

Sight: What colors or objects can you see?

Sound: What can you hear nearby?

Touch: What does the chair, floor, clothing, or an object feel like?

You do not need to follow a complicated sensory sequence unless you like one.

The goal is simply to shift attention toward concrete information from your current surroundings.

Try Slower Breathing

Breathing can be another grounding option.

You do not need a complicated breathing pattern.

Simply notice your breathing and allow it to become a little slower if that feels comfortable.

EMDRIA materials include deep breathing among common calming and grounding resources used during preparation and outside sessions.

The goal is not to force yourself into perfect relaxation.

It is to give your attention something simple and present-focused.

Movement Can Also Be Grounding

You do not have to remain completely still.

Movement may help you reconnect with the present.

You might:

• Stand up
• Stretch
• Walk across the room
• Take a short walk
• Roll your shoulders
• Get a glass of water

The activity itself does not have to be therapeutic.

Sometimes doing something ordinary helps shift attention away from the memory and back toward what is happening now.

Use a Familiar Object

Some people find it helpful to focus on an ordinary object.

It might be:

• A mug
• A blanket
• A smooth stone
• A piece of clothing
• A pet
• Something else nearby

Notice its:

• Texture
• Temperature
• Weight
• Shape

Again, the object does not need special meaning.

It simply gives your attention a clear present-day focus.

What About a Calm or Comfortable Image?

Some EMDR preparation approaches use a Safe/Calm Place or similar imagery exercise.

EMDRIA describes this as a resource involving positive imagery along with associated thoughts, emotions, and body sensations that can help someone access a calmer emotional state when needed.

If you already use an image like this and find it helpful, you can return to it.

But not everyone finds visualization useful.

If imagining a place feels awkward or difficult, choose another grounding method.

You do not need vivid mental imagery for grounding to work.

Should You Use Grounding Every Time You Feel Something?

No.

Emotion itself does not automatically require grounding.

You may notice sadness or another feeling and still feel completely present and able to continue your day.

In that case, you might simply acknowledge:

“I am feeling emotional right now.”

and let the feeling pass naturally.

Grounding becomes especially useful when you want help shifting your attention away from the processing material and toward your current surroundings.

What If a Memory Comes With the Emotion?

You can notice both without deliberately continuing the processing.

For example:

“That memory came back, and I feel sad.”

Then redirect some attention to the present.

You might notice your surroundings, stand up, take a walk, or use another grounding strategy.

You generally do not need to sit down and begin examining the memory again.

The Veterans Affairs recommends allowing between-session changes to happen naturally while continuing ordinary life.

Do You Need to Figure Out Why the Emotion Returned?

Not necessarily.

You may know exactly what triggered it.

Or you may not.

You do not have to immediately answer:

“Why am I feeling this?”

“What does this mean?”

“What other memory is connected?”

If the connection becomes obvious naturally, you can notice it.

Otherwise, grounding can help you return to the present without turning the moment into another processing session.

Can You Write Down What Happened?

Yes, if it seems useful.

You might write:

“Felt sad when I passed the old neighborhood.”

or:

“Memory came up at work; used grounding and returned to task.”

EMDRIA's closure guidance recommends keeping a brief record of noteworthy thoughts, situations, dreams, or memories that arise between sessions.

You do not need a detailed journal.

A short note can be enough.

How Is Grounding Used in Therapist-Guided EMDR?

Grounding and other coping resources are commonly introduced during the preparation phase of EMDR.

EMDRIA notes that therapists may teach mindfulness, grounding, breathing, and other strategies during preparation so clients have ways to remain present during processing and during closure.

At the end of a session, closure shifts attention away from memory work and back toward the present.

If emotions return later, you can use the same strategies you practiced during preparation.

What If One Grounding Technique Does Not Help?

Try another.

Grounding is not one specific exercise.

One person may prefer:

• Walking

while another prefers:

• Feeling their feet on the floor

and someone else may prefer:

• Looking around the room
• Slower breathing
• Holding an object
• Listening to familiar sounds

It is useful to have one or two methods that feel natural rather than a long list you feel obligated to complete.

Can Grounding Become Another Form of Avoiding Emotion?

Grounding does not have to mean pushing feelings away.

You can acknowledge the emotion first:

“I notice that sadness is here.”

Then ground:

“And I am also here in my kitchen, standing on the floor, making dinner.”

Both things can be true.

The purpose is to widen your attention so the emotion is not the only thing you are noticing.

What If the Emotion Passes on Its Own?

Then you may not need to do anything.

Not every emotional response requires an intervention.

Sometimes a feeling appears, stays briefly, and fades while you continue your day.

Grounding is available if you want it.

It is not a mandatory post-EMDR routine.

What About Online EMDR?

The same grounding methods can be used after therapist-guided online EMDR.

Because you are already at home, you can use your immediate environment.

You might:

• Close the therapy window
• Stand up
• Look around the room
• Drink water
• Walk somewhere else in your home
• Begin a familiar daily activity

EMDRIA specifically recommends helping online clients reconnect with day-to-day life after sessions and establishing routines that support this transition.

What About Self-Guided EMDR?

Grounding is also relevant after Virtual EMDR, the structured self-guided online program.

Virtual EMDR users choose when to begin sessions and manage their own pacing, pauses, and available visual or audio bilateral stimulation settings.

If emotion returns later, you can:

• Pause what you are doing if needed.
• Notice your surroundings.
• Feel your feet or body against a stable surface.
• Use slower breathing or another familiar grounding method.
• Return to your normal activities when you feel ready.

You do not need to immediately begin another Virtual EMDR session simply because an emotion reappeared.

Sometimes grounding and returning to the present is enough.

Conclusion

If emotions return after EMDR, grounding can help you reconnect with the present without requiring you to restart the processing work.

You might:

• Look around the room.
• Feel your feet on the floor.
• Notice the support of the chair.
• Take a few slower breaths.
• Walk or stretch.
• Focus on a familiar object.
• Use another grounding resource that already works for you.

EMDR preparation and closure specifically include strategies for returning attention to the present and managing material that may arise between sessions.

You do not have to make every emotion disappear.

And you do not have to treat the return of an emotion as a sign that something went wrong.

Notice what you are feeling, reconnect with where you are now, and then return to your day when you feel ready.