Resourced, Resilient, and Reattached

In my therapy work, I use resourcing, resiliency building and re-attachment techniques to help build the inner and outer safe containment that my clients need in order to move ahead in their lives. Resourcing is sensing into the body to find a positive memory, image and or sensation of a person, place or thing that helps us feel stronger, safer and more attached to others and ourselves. It is body based and helps the nervous system regain its balance. You feel calm, centered and present as a result. When you experience trauma, the sense of self can be shattered Often it feels like you are disconnected from yourself, others and the world. The autonomic nervous system is no longer in a relaxed state and you may be living in a state of high alert, or dissociation. Resourcing helps people situate or settle back into a way of belonging to their bodies and their life experience that is safe.

Resource Card

On a day-to-day basis we collect, store and remember certain images that create specific psychological and emotional states. We all have a storehouse of images that help define who we think ourselves to be. They are stored in the body as sensations, in the emotions as states, and in the mind as memories and narratives. If I want to feel 'at home' in any situation, I will recall images of Pender Island where my partner and I first built our home together. My sense of belonging there is personal, cultural and spiritual. 

Resource Card

Diane Poole Heller in Crash Course has created a system to help review personal resources.

1.      Internal resources are qualities, such as your intelligence, perseverance, ingenuity, confidence, competence, creativity, flexibility, and sense of value or spirituality.

2.      External resources are supports, such as friends and family members, favourite places, enjoyable sports, and positive memories.

3.      Missing resources are those that currently feel unavailable or unused, such as lack of confidence, or lack of connection to friends. 

Exercises for Resourcing; Resource Cards

These cards can be collages, photos or small drawings and/or paintings of people, places, or things that resource you. They can be the size of a business card to fit in your wallet, playing cards or any size that appeals.

A Resource Card

 Looking at your resource cards can interrupt the internal patterned responses that are triggered if we are nervous, stressed or upset. The nervous system responds instantly to what we're reading or looking at and it's most noticeable in our body's sensations. Muscles contract or relax, heart rate changes, breath speeds up or slows down, etc. Looking at images, especially colorful and engaging ones, takes us out of rote procedure. It interrupts the patterned response and moves us into a resource.

A Resource Card