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Preparation / Resource Clinical practice

Put a worry aside for now

Choose a container. Writing anything down is optional.

This is a reference tool, not a replacement for EMDR therapy. EMDR must be delivered by a trained clinician. If you are using these tools outside of therapy and become distressed, stop, ground yourself, and contact a mental health professional.

Keeps your choices. You can return to this guide at any time.

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Step 1: Pick your container

Which of these feels right for today?

Clinical sources

Clinical sources

Container Exercise

What the evidence supports

Research on a complete therapy does not establish that an isolated activity or this website produces the same outcomes. EMDR includes assessment, preparation, memory work and follow-up with a trained clinician. Its mechanisms are still being studied.

These pages compile published sources. An independent clinical review of this site and a trial of its tools are not documented here. Labels describe the technique’s use context; they are not an efficacy certification.

VA: EMDR evidence and limitations · NICE: recommendations by age and context

  • Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 3rd ed. Guilford Press. (Phase 2 resource installation procedures.)
How to use this activity and clinical context

What this is

A guided container exercise: you pick a container you like, put the things that are bothering you inside it, lock it, and decide where to keep it safe. It’s a way of saying “this is important, and I can come back to it — but right now I don’t have to carry it.”

When to use it

  • Clinicians: Phase 2 preparation, containment of between-session material, or at closure if anything came up that the client needs to set aside.
  • Families: At bedtime if worries are piling up. Before school if something big is on your child’s mind.

Clinical notes

Nothing the user names is stored. The exercise is about the process of choosing, naming, and setting aside — not about keeping a list.

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