🔼: [[🛠 Protector Toolkit]]
### Containment
Containment has a couple meanings, depending on the context.
#### Therapeutic Containers
An example might be a therapy session — a specific window of time for doing our healing work. Even outside of therapy, this is an important practice. We can decide when we’ll work on our recovery and for how long. This helps us create [[🕯️ Boundaries|boundaries]] around our healing. It can be helpful to dedicate a limited block of time. We could set an alarm or create a [[🛠 Music]] playlist that lasts as long as we want our session to be.
#### Emotional Regulation
##### Unconscious Containment
It's when [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] contain a [[💡 Parts|Part]], [[💡 Burdens 🪨]], or [[💡 Trauma|Trauma]] without us realizing it's happening. This is what [[⭐️ Internal Family Systems|Internal Family Systems]] refers to as [[💡 Exiles|Exiling]].
##### Conscious Containment
Borrowed from [[💡 Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing]], it's a method of [[💡 Emotional Regulation|Emotional Regulation]] for the moments when a [[💡 Protector Parts|Protector]] feels it isn't safe allow a [[💡 Parts|Part]] or an [[⭐️ Emotions|emotion]] to arise or be expressed at the present moment. When something like an [[⭐️ Emotions|emotion]] or [[💡 Burdens 🪨|Burden]] seems capable of [[💡 Overwhelm|overwhelming]] us, or even if a [[💡 Parts|Part]] just finds it scary, the [[💡 Parts|Parts]] who feel frightened of it can put it in a container until they're ready to let us be with it. The material, content, memory, emotions, or [[💡 Burdens 🪨|Burdens]] go into the container, not the part.
Containers can help with stabilization during [[🦮 How to Recover from Trauma#Phase 1 Safety and Stabilization|Phase 1 of trauma recovery]]. They are used in Phase 2 to help with managing [[💡 Witnessing]] and [[💡 Unburdening]]. Much like like [[🛠 Safe Place Visualization|🛠 Safe Space Imagery]] this [[Protector Strategies 🛡️|Protector Strategy 🛡️]] is essentially skillful and deliberate [[🛡️ Dissociation]].
> [!important]
> All containers have the commitment to work on everything stored inside when the time is right and where it feels safe to.
###### Creating Containers[^1] [^2]
Take a moment to consider the ways you already had [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] doing their jobs before you even realized it, that some [[💡 Parts|Parts]] and [[Symptoms of Unresolved Trauma]] come and go – that you aren't experiencing all of them at once. This is because your [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] are keeping wounded [[💡 Parts|Parts]] contained.
You can actually help your [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] by helping them make a container that works even better.
Start by inviting the [[💡 Parts|Part]] who feels afraid into a [[🛠 Safe Place Visualization|🛠 safe place or a comfortable room]] to help them create a container.
Ask them: What kind of container would you like? Go with the first image that comes up.
> [!example]- If they aren't sure, offer...
> - ...a bank vault
> - ...a safe
> - ...a Tupperware container
> - ...a file drawer
> - ...a closet
> - ...a tin
Once it's chosen, focus on the container. How big do they want it to be? What's it made of? How secure is it? Does this [[💡 Parts|Part]] need anything for it to be secure to their satisfaction?
Once it's built to their satisfaction, notice that as you focus on it, the ([[⭐️ Emotions|emotion]]/[[💡 Burdens 🪨|Burden]]/thought/memory/object) is entering it in exactly the right way. Notice that the container gets stronger and stronger as it goes in. Continue until it feels complete, and notice there's a commitment built into the container that everything stored inside will be worked with when the time is right.
Notice that things are already changing because it wasn't in a container before. Invite the [[💡 Parts|Part]] to put the container somewhere safe until it's time to open it again. You might take note of what is inside the container, who has it, and where they've put it.
> [!tip]
> - If the container isn't working, make sure it's built with a commitment to work on everything when the time is right, and not a container where stuff is pushed away forever.
> - If a part is concerned that you might need what you're putting in the container in order to be safe, remind the part that they have control. Not only can they open the container, they can even put a just a small percentage of whatever it is inside of it. Invite them to try putting 2%-5% of it in the container, closing it, and then notice it lessens. Then invite them to open the container and take it out, and notice how it's returned. If they don't trust that it can be taken out again, invite the part to put something else inside the container, something they like or an object. Let them experiment with putting it in the container, closing it, opening it, and taking it back out. Then try again with the original intention, and notice how they feel. They might experiment with putting more or less of it in the container and taking it all out. Let them experiment and find out what feels good to them.
[^1]: [[📖 🟢 Trauma and Dissociation Informed Internal Family Systems]]
[^2]: https://www.emdrconsulting.com/pdfs/DEVELOPING-A-CONTAINER.pdf