Handouts & books

A one-page weekly check-in with everyday ways to support dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.

A five-senses exercise to bring you back to the present when you feel anxious or overwhelmed.

A checklist of daytime, evening and bedroom habits that make sleep come easier, with a one-week sleep log.

Four steps to name a feeling, rate how strong it is, notice where it sits in your body and choose what you need.

A kid-friendly 0–10 scale for saying how big an upset feeling is right now, with calming ideas to try and a spot to name a grown-up to tell. Grown-ups: it works like a simple distress scale — ask for a number before and after a calming skill.

Three dated entries for what comes up after a session: what set it off, the picture or memory, the thought about yourself, the feeling, where it sits in your body, how strong it is from 0 to 10, and what you did. Ends with the one thing you want to bring to your next session.

Build a picture in your mind — a vault, a trunk, a jar — that holds thoughts, memories and feelings safely between sessions: what it is made of and how it closes, a checklist that it really holds, the three steps to put something away, and a 0 to 10 check-in.

Choose skills by the time you have — quick (1 to 5 minutes), medium (10 to 30), longer (an hour or more) — with room for your own ideas, what does not help even when it feels good at first, your top three in the order you will try them, and the people you can reach out to.

Build a real or imagined spot that feels safe: draw it, fill in what you see, hear, smell and feel on your skin, notice where the calm sits in your body, and lock it in with a cue word and a week of practice.

By Stephen Porges and Seth Porges

A plain-language introduction to how your nervous system reads safety and danger.

By Richard Schwartz, PhD

Internal Family Systems: every part of you has a protective purpose, and healing comes from your core Self leading those parts.

By Rebecca Kase

Brings nervous-system science into each of the eight phases of EMDR.

By Jim Knipe

EMDR methods for complex trauma, including having clients draw their parts.

By Dr. George Fraser

An imagined meeting table where the different parts of you can gather, be met and be worked with.

By Dr. Frank Corrigan

A trauma method that follows the body's earliest response to a shock, starting before the emotion arrives.