At TACT HELLAS we are Psychological (trauma focused) therapists working to support you, but we cannot reach you all.
A few of us working in Greece and following the Global Initiative for Stress and Trauma Treatment (GIST-T) have translated recordings which were first produced in the UK by https://1stcontact.net/. These recordings are a few simple yet powerful exercises for psycho–emotional self-care to protect Front-line staff and others from developing traumatic stress, burnout and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The Butterfly Hug and 4 Elements exercises were developed by our GIST-T (http://gist-t.org) colleagues, Dr Ignacio Jarero and Elan Shapiro. Both are internationally renowned for their evidence based work on scaling up psychological trauma treatments in response to large scale crises.
Their techniques were specifically designed to reduce the negative impact of acute stress from recent and ongoing events, by focusing on stabilization, symptom reduction, and reprocessing of trauma memories. They are not intended as therapy, for which we advise you to seek alternate help.
Instruction Videos
The Butterfly Hug
How to do the Butterfly Hug.
Please follow these instructions carefully.
Cross your arms over your chest, so that the tip of the middle finger from each hand is placed below the clavicle or the collarbone and the other fingers and palms cover the area of the sternum or breastbone. Hands and fingers must be as vertical as possible so that the fingers point towards the neck and not towards the arms. Interlock your thumbs to form the butterfly’s body and the extended fingers form the butterfly’s wings.
Your eyes can be closed, or partially closed, looking towards the tip of your nose. Next, alternate the movement of your hands, like the flapping wings of a butterfly …but alternating …left, right, left, right… at your own steady pace. Left-right-left-right… as if you are soothing a loved one…feel the vibration of the tap….that’s good…..
Let your hands move freely. You can breathe slowly and deeply (abdominal breathing), while you observe what is going through your mind and body such as thoughts, images, sounds, odors, feelings, and physical sensation without changing, pushing your thoughts away, or judging. You can pretend as though what you are observing are like clouds passing by.
Now let’s do the Butterfly Hug to process distressing material in 4 steps.
Step 1:
Before evening dinner, or right after a distressing event, do the following with eyes open or partially closed, not totally closed.
Run a mental movie of the whole distressing event. If you are doing this on a daily basis, for example if you are a front-liner helping people with the corona virus issue in a hospital or other settings, start from right before the beginning of the disturbance until today or even looking into the future for any distressing scenario you have imagined.
Step 2:
Once you have finished running the mental movie, observe and notice your body. Not just observe, but really notice your body, scan your body for any disturbance. This can be unpleasant or annoying emotions or physical sensations. Then assess your level of disturbance from 0, which is no disturbance, to 10 which is the maximum disturbance you can feel.
Step 3:
Now start the Butterfly Hug while standing or sitting in a chair. At the same time, pretend that you are marching at your own pace in time with the Butterfly Hug.
With your eyes open or partially closed, go over the mental movie again…continuously doing the Butterfly Hug and marching at the same time. At the end of the mental movie, stop the Butterfly Hug and the walking or marching in your own seat. Now breathe deeply twice. Again, breathe deeply twice.
Step 4:
Observe and notice your body, scan your whole body. Then assess your level of disturbance for unpleasant or annoying emotions or physical sensations, from 0, which is no disturbance, to 10 which is the maximum disturbance you can feel.
If your disturbance is 4, 5, 6 up to 10, repeat steps 3 & 4 until your disturbance reaches levels between 0,1,2 or 3.
Important note, if the distressing symptoms do not decrease or increase, immediately contact a mental health professional expert in trauma treatment.
Thank you very much for your attention and Butterfly Hugs for each one of you.
4 Elements
Step 1: Present Safety Exercise
We are going to work together on something that we call “Present Safety”.
Have a look at Step 1 Worksheet with a yellow box labelled “Present Safety”.
It provides you with some tools you can use to calm yourselves whenever you need to and it enables us to determine what kind of follow up would be most appropriate and helpful for you.
I’m going to show you how you can keep yourself calmer & more in control with a wristband [or sticker] reminder and what we call the‘4-Elements’ exercise. You can put the sticker on your cell phone.
Please put the band [or sticker] on your wrist – either right or left, it doesn’t matter which – and place the Step 1 Worksheet on the table in front of you.
Write today’s date below ‘Now-Here’ in the bottom right-hand corner.
At the top of the Worksheet there are 3 scales. The ones on the left are used to assess and record how much stress we’re feeling at specific moments.
We’ll use the ‘0’ to ‘10’ numbers scale where:
‘0’ corresponds to ‘No stress’
‘10’ corresponds to ‘As bad as you can imagine’
It’s a ‘negative’ scale: the higher the number the worse the situation.
The faces are a guide that you can use.
On the right there’s a scale to assess and record our feeling of safety at specific moments. You can imagine it as ‘glasses of water’ which you fill in.
This is a ‘positive’ scale: the higher the number – the more full the glass – the more safe you feel:
‘0’ – an empty glass – corresponds to ‘totally unsafe’
‘4’ – a full glass – corresponds to ‘completely safe’
Now, please look at your wristband [or sticker] and then notice how much stress, tension or disturbance you feel right now on a scale of ‘0’ (low stress) to ‘10’ (high stress).
Go to the yellow box of the step 1 Worksheet and write that number in the circle in the top left of that box where it says ‘Before [0….10]’.
4 Elements Exercise (this can be used as a stand-alone exercise)
To calm and stabilize ourselves we’ll now do the ‘4-Elements’ exercise.
Starting with your feet we begin with the 1st Element, EARTH.
Place both feet on the ground, feel the floor/ground … and the chair supporting you… take a minute to ‘land’, to take ‘time out’, to be here, now…
Look around and notice 3 things you didn’t notice before:
Now, what do you hear?
What do you smell?
How is the temperature in the room?
What else?
[Pause…]
And notice any people you are sharing this space with…….in the room… You are not alone……we are all connected.
[Pause…]
You are here, now, in the present…and you are safe here, now.
“Now going up your body for the 2nd Element AIR. Notice your breathing………..now breathe in through your nose letting the air go all the way to your stomach as you count 4 seconds (1..2..3..4)….then gently hold for 2 seconds (1…2) and then breathe out for 4 seconds (1..2..3..4)….Let’s take a minute for about 6 deeper slower breaths like this……….as you come back to yourself…..to your centre”…….
“Continue up your body to the 3rd Element WATER. Is your mouth dry or do you have Saliva?…..When you are anxious or stressed your mouth often dries up but when you are making saliva it is a sign that you are relaxing…..take a minute or two to make more and more saliva……you can imagine the taste of a lemon……..to make more and more saliva……..as you do this you may also notice that you have more and more focus and control of your thoughts and body”…….
“Now with your feet on the ground, breathing more deeply and slowly; making more and more saliva we move to the 4th Element FIRE or LIGHT…..bring up an image or a PLACE or a situation that helps you to feel calmer and safer……..let’s call this your SAFE or CALM PLACE……in the yellow box draw and/or write something that reminds you of this safe or calm place, situation, or activity……a sketch or a symbol or words…..notice what you feel when you connect to that place and how you feel in your body?”…….
“Keep noticing how you feel in your body when you focus on your safe or calm place…….give it a name………and strengthen the connection with a long set of Butterfly Hugs as you say the name and focus on your safe place…………………. Look at your wristband (sticker) again and notice how much stress you feel now from zero (low stress) to 10 (high stress)……….and write it in the small circle in the box where is says ‘after 0 – 10)”…
If you practice the 4 Elements exercises about 6 – 10 times a day…..every time you notice your silicon wristband (or sticker) you can monitor your stress level from 0 – 10 and then try to reduce it at least by 1 or 2. After a week or 2 you may be able to calm yourself more easily just by looking at and touching your wristband”.
Grounding
GROUNDING & RESOURCE EXERCISE USING THE BUTTERFLY HUG –
This is a grounding and resource exercise using the Butterfly Hug which you can do at any time, to bring down the intensity of emotion and to strengthen positive experiences.
Before we begin the grounding exercise, let’s remind ourselves how to do the Butterfly Hug.
Cross your arms over your chest, so that the tip of the middle finger from each hand is placed below the clavicle or the collarbone and the other fingers and palms cover the area of the sternum or breastbone. Hands and fingers must be as vertical as possible so that the fingers point towards the neck and not towards the arms. Interlock your thumbs to form the butterfly’s body and the extended fingers form the butterfly’s wings.
Your eyes can be closed, or partially closed, looking towards the tip of your nose. Next, alternate the movement of your hands, like the flapping wings of a butterfly …but alternating …left, right, left, right…at your own steady pace. Left-right-left-right… as if you are soothing a loved one…feel the vibration of the tap….that’s good…..
Let your hands move freely. You can breathe slowly and deeply (abdominal breathing),while you observe what is going through your mind and body such as thoughts, images, sounds, odors, feelings, and physical sensation without changing, pushing your thoughts away, or judging. You can pretend as though what you are observing are like clouds passing by.
Now let’s start the grounding exercise by taking a deep breath in …when you reach the top, just hold a moment…and naturally breathe out…and then slowly start tapping at a steady pace. Alternating each side…that’s good…just noticing the breath….that’s good….noticing the body sensations……tapping at a nice steady pace. Allow yourself to enjoy this for a moment…..
You can add any imagery to this – a positive or happy memory – maybe of a loved one, a calm place or time when you felt at your strongest or best. Take the time to notice what you see….
Notice what it feels like to be here right now noticing this memory.
Continue the Butterfly Hug as you do this…noticing the body sensations that come up…just breathing at a steady pace as you tap. Allow yourself to enjoy this for a moment.
Is there a word that describes this feeling? It could be relax, safe, calm, peace. Whatever works for you. Think or say to yourself this word and notice the positive feelings and sensations that come up….
Now as you continue tapping, try adding some positive words about yourself or how you would like to see yourself in a difficult future situation. It may be….I am loved, or I have strengths, I can handle it, I am good enough, I can only do my best….Whatever fits your needs right now.
Continue the Butterfly Hug as you repeat these words to yourself, softly or in your mind… just breathing at a steady pace…noticing what it feels like to say those words…. Allow yourself to enjoy this for a moment.
Carry on as long as you need to….until you feel a little bit calmer… or its good enough for the moment….breathing in and out at a natural pace…tapping…..
When you find that point where you feel it’s good enough for today, just pause for a moment and rest with your hands still on your chest….take a deep breath in ….holding at the top for a moment…and then a natural breath out…..bringing your attention back to the sounds and the space around you.
Remember to do this as many times you can in a day – even if it’s for a minute or two. The more you can practice, the more automatic this feeling will become. It can help you come back to the present moment quickly and calm your emotional state.