Overcoming Resistance to Grounding and Fear of Overwhelm

Day 3 

For many trauma survivors, grounding can feel more threatening than dissociation. Rather than offering relief, returning to the body may provoke intense fear, emotional flooding, or even episodes of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). These responses are often misunderstood or inadvertently retraumatized by well-meaning attempts to "anchor" the client too quickly.

On Day 3, Dr. Bethany Brand and Dr. Ruth Lanius will guide clinicians through nuanced, research-informed approaches to working with clients who fear grounding. This day focuses on:

  • Pacing interventions in ways that promote safety, not overwhelm.

  • Using gradual, body-based tools to build tolerance for presence, without forcing emotional exposure.

  • Validating fear  to stabilization that respect the client's internal timing and protective system.

This training day is essential for clinicians who work with highly dissociative or somatically reactive clients and are seeking tools that prioritize nervous system safety, trauma-informed pacing, and deep respect for client readiness.

Learn how to meet clients exactly where they are—with empathy, skill, and patience—while helping them gently begin to reclaim their embodied experience.

Learning Objectives

  • Discuss ways to support clients who fear grounding by validating their concerns and exploring why grounding may feel unsafe or triggering.

  • Prepare to help clients gently build tolerance for presence using paced, somatic-based strategies tailored to their nervous system and trauma history.

  • Identify and manage our own empathetic reactions to clients’ terror-based reactions .

  • Demonstrate the ability to find one's own solid ground while working with severely dissociative clients.

About the instructor

Ruth Lanius, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Lanius is a Psychiatry Professor and Harris-Woodman Chair at Western University of Canada, where she is the director of the Clinical Research Program for PTSD. Ruth has over 25 years of clinical and research experience with trauma-related disorders. She established the Traumatic Stress Service at London Health Sciences Center, a program that specializes in the treatment of psychological trauma. Ruth has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Banting Award for Military Health Research. She has published over 200 research articles and book chapters focusing on brain adaptations to psychological trauma and novel adjunct treatments for PTSD. Ruth regularly lectures on the topic of psychological trauma both nationally and internationally. Ruth has co-authored four books: The Effects of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease: The Hidden Epidemic, Healing the Traumatized Self: Consciousness, Neuroscience, Treatment, and Finding Solid Ground (textbook and workbook). Ruth is a passionate clinician scientist who endeavours to understand the first-person experience of traumatized individuals throughout treatment and how it relates to brain functioning.

Bethany Brand, Ph.D.

Dr. Brand is Emerita Psychology Professor at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She has over 30 years of experience in researching, assessing, and treating the impact of psychological trauma with a specialization in dissociation. Dr. Brand has been honored with the endowed Martha E. Mitten Professorship as well as teaching, research and clinical awards including the Outstanding Contribution to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. Dr. Brand has served on national and international task forces that developed guidelines for the assessment and treatment of trauma-related disorders. She has published over 130 peer reviewed papers and three research-based books about assessing and treating dissociation, The Concise Guide to Assessing and Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation, Finding Solid Ground: Overcoming Obstacles in Trauma Treatment and The Finding Solid Ground Program Workbook. Dr. Brand is the Principal Investigator on the largest treatment outcome studies to date of dissociative disorders (the TOP DD studies). She has delivered hundreds of clinical and research presentations at national and international conferences. In addition to treating patients in her private practice, Dr. Brand serves as a forensic expert in trauma-related cases including state, federal and capital cases and an international Supreme Court case.

Continuing Education Credits

4 CE credits available

  • Bridgepoint Psychology Center (BPC) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

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  • For additional information regarding CEs, email: [email protected]

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