The Containment Skill: Pressing Pause, Not Pushing Away
Disclaimer: This blog and the strategies discussed are intended for educational and informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for trauma therapy or individualized mental health treatment. The resourcing and containment techniques described here may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly those with significant or unresolved trauma.
Maybe you’re about to enter an important work meeting and you’re feeling highly activated seemingly nowhere. Or it’s 2 AM and you cannot stop thinking about a difficult situation that happened months ago. Distressing emotions can and do pop up at inconvenient times. Regardless of where you’ve found yourself, using the containment skill can be beneficial until you can later be in a more supportive environment to process what’s coming up for you. When emotions become overwhelming, containment can help us stay present and continue working toward our immediate goals, whether that's getting through the workday, caring for our children, attending school, or trying to get rest.
Containment is a grounding and emotional regulation skill that refers to the process of temporarily setting aside an emotion, memory, thought, or experience until you are in a safer, more supportive environment to process it. Simply put, the goal of containment is to contain. It's important to note that containment is NOT avoidance or prolonged distraction. Think of containment as placing something important on a shelf instead of tossing it in the trash. You know exactly where it is and you’re setting the intention to come back to it. You’re making a conscious choice to engage with it rather than letting it take over your current moment.
The function of emotions is to communicate something important to us. When we temporarily contain an emotional experience, it generally means one of two things:
The emotional experience is too intense to safely process at this moment.
The emotional experience is interfering with your ability to function or meet your current responsibilities.
Containment allows you to acknowledge the emotion without allowing it to consume all of your attention.
Containment is often taught in trauma therapy as a resourcing strategy. However, anyone can utilize and practice containment. How? One simple exercise is to create a physical containment box. Choose a small box or any container that feels meaningful to you to serve as your containment box. Take a few moments to journal about the thoughts, memories, emotions, or worries that feel too overwhelming to carry right now. Once you've finished writing, fold the paper and place it inside the box. As you close the lid, notice what it feels like to physically set those experiences down. The act of closing the box serves as a reminder that you are making a conscious choice.
Some people find it easier to imagine containment rather than use a physical object. You could picture placing difficult thoughts into: a treasure chest, a safe, a room in a house, a filing cabinet–or even a tupperware container. There are also many guided meditation resources available online for those who may prefer an audio version or script of containment. The possibilities are endless! The most important part is that you are the only one who can decide when these experiences are accessible. You can return to them when you have the emotional resources to do so.
As noted, containment works best when it's paired with intentional processing later. If you've chosen to contain a difficult experience, make a plan for when you'll return to it. That might be during your next therapy session, during dedicated journaling time, or when you have the privacy and emotional capacity to reflect. Without that second step, containment can slowly turn into avoidance.
Therapy can serve as both a container and a place for intentional processing, at a pace that works for you. The therapists at Grander Peace Counseling would be honored to create space for you to hone in on these skills and explore your emotional world.