Step 1 Read the RULES and EXAMPLE all the way through... 

 

Step 2 Copy THE LIST, paste it into an email, and type right next to each item what did or is happening for you. Send that email to yourself or to your therapist, do not share with other people even when they are in therapy with you, until your therapist tells you to do that.

 

Step 3 For practice, complete THE LIST about 4 memory-moments, two PRIDE moments, and two HARD moments related to your emotional regulation practice. Do NOT practice on memories older than three months, this may cause emotional injury or emotional flooding.

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THE LIST 

 

Date/Time -

Trigger/Event - 

Image - 

Cognition/Thought -

Emotion -

Sensation -

Scale -

NEED: 

New Scale - 

 

 

Here are the RULES: 

 

Date/Time - Month-day at what time

Trigger/Event - what exactly happened to cause this hurt/frustration/anxiety? See the STORY that triggered you, and tell that story here in 2 sentences maximum.

 

Image - From the above STORY, which your memory plays as a movie in your mind’s eye, freeze the movie at the most intense part. When you do freeze a movie it becomes a still image on the screen, describe this image here: what do you see? 

 

Cognition/Thought - As you look at this frozen image, what do you think this image means? 

 

Emotion - What emotions are present now as you hold the image and the cognition? 

 

Sensation - Pay attention to your body, what do you feel? where? 

 

Scale - On a scale of 1-10, where 10 is the most intense emotion (good or bad) ever, how intense was this event?

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NEED: If the EVENT triggered hard emotions, how can you soften those emotions? For good moments, how can JOY be turned up? Explain the edit to the IMAGE you deserve.

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You have paint, magic erasers, and photoshop skills to change the image so it becomes more pleasant. Add, remove, or alter expressions on faces, put more sunshine into spaces, add things or people that help support hard moments, or imagine helpful actions that create more power over the circumstances. 

 

New Scale - After you sit with your new image for 3-5 minutes, retake your scale. If your new scale is above 2, edit the image again, sit with it again, and repeat this process until your new scale is 2 or below. 

 

 

Here is an EXAMPLE:

 

Date/Time - Dec 20th at 9:45 AM

Trigger/Event - Disagreement with my coworker over a work task

Image - Me at my computer, watching her on Zoom, her expressions and words are calling me dumb

Cognition/Thought - She thinks I am dumb; she is questioning my ability to bring value to this task

Emotion - Angry, Frustrated 

Sensation - Hot, my head hurts, I see red light rays in my imagination, hear ringing in my ears

Scale - 8

NEED: I felt the need to paint a smile on her face so she looks less hostile. I looked at the new image and it helped, but when I added memories of her giving me compliments last week I felt much better.

New Scale - 2

 

 

Take your time, this process is not easy… to understand more about emotional and somatic processing invest in additional resources HERE.

 

This processing script is inspired by and adapted from ©2001 Francine Shapiro – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2nd edition.