What is the EMDR Container and Why Is It Helpful?
The EMDR Container: A Tool for Safe Healing and Emotional Balance
If you’ve ever felt completely overwhelmed by emotions or memories, particularly those tied to past trauma, you know how hard it can be to regain control. It’s like the floodgates open, and it feels impossible to catch your breath. Or maybe it feels like your brain is “airdropping” memories to you.
But here's where EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can help, and more specifically, the EMDR container—a tool designed to give you a sense of emotional safety during intense moments of healing.
What Is the EMDR Container?
The EMDR container is a visualization technique used during therapy to help you “hold” difficult emotions or memories in a safe, controlled space. When trauma or overwhelming emotions surface during an EMDR session, it can be helpful to have a way to contain those feelings until you’re ready to process them fully. The container gives you a sense of control, which is vital for those healing from anxious attachment, CPTSD, or people-pleasing behaviors, where emotional intensity can feel like a constant challenge.
How Is the EMDR Container Used During Sessions?
The EMDR container isn’t just something we talk about once and then forget about. It’s used throughout the session to create and maintain emotional safety as you reprocess trauma. Here's how we use it:
Creating the Container – At the beginning of an EMDR session, we’ll work together to visualize and create your container. This could be a box, a vault, a secure room—anything that feels emotionally safe and solid to you. It can be as creative or mundane as you’d like. This space is your place to "store" intense emotions when they arise during processing. It’s not about avoiding the feelings but about having a safe place to pause them while you stay grounded in the moment.
Storing Emotions in the Container – If overwhelming emotions come up during the session, you’ll be able to visualize placing them into your container. You can “close” it for now, knowing that the feelings are still there, but they are safely held. You can focus on reprocessing the trauma at a pace that feels manageable. This gives you the space to keep moving forward without being consumed by the emotional weight.
Reprocessing with Safety – The container helps you stay grounded. If the emotional intensity becomes too much, you can always “close” the container and take a breath. We’ll work together to keep you feeling empowered, ensuring you’re able to revisit and process these emotions in a way that feels steady and safe.
Using the Container After Sessions – The container is a tool you can also use outside of therapy. If a memory or emotion from your past comes up unexpectedly, you can use the container to hold those feelings temporarily, knowing that you have a way to come back to them with support when you’re ready.
How to Develop Your Own EMDR Container
Creating your own container is an incredibly personal process. Here’s how you can begin:
Find Your Safe Space – Visualize a space that feels safe to you. This could be a room, a landscape, or even a metaphorical “space” like a garden or fortress. The key is that it should feel solid, protected, and stable—something that gives you the feeling that your emotions can be held without overwhelming you.
Choose Your Container – Once you’ve created your safe space, choose the type of container that fits. It could be a box, a drawer, a suitcase, a safe—anything that feels “secure” to you. It should be something that, when you picture it, gives you a sense of calm and control.
Give It a Purpose – The container’s job is simple: to hold emotions, memories, or experiences that are too much to process all at once. When you visualize placing something inside, know that it’s not being ignored. It’s simply being given a temporary place to rest until you’re ready to work through it.
Practice Using the Container – During sessions, we’ll practice using the container together. If you start feeling overwhelmed, you can visualize placing those emotions into the container and know that they’re safe for now. This practice helps you feel in control, which can be especially healing when trauma has taken away your sense of safety.
Make It Your Own – Your container can have any features or qualities that resonate with you. Maybe you picture a lock that only you can open, or a shield that protects it. You can even add colors, symbols, or textures that make you feel more grounded. It’s your tool for healing, so it should reflect your needs.
Bonus Top - You can recreate this container 3D. Find a jar, box, or other object and deck it out. Practice writing out distressing thoughts or feelings and place them in the container as symbol of setting them down just for now.
Why the EMDR Container Is So Powerful
For those of us who have experienced CPTSD, anxious attachment, or people-pleasing tendencies, healing is about more than just revisiting painful memories—it’s about being able to regulate our emotional responses in a way that feels safe. The container helps you do just that. It provides a way to manage your feelings, maintain your emotional stability, and slowly work through trauma at a pace that feels doable.
What makes the EMDR container such a powerful tool is that it lets you stay in control of your healing process. You don’t have to face everything at once. You can take your time, knowing that the container is a safe place to put your feelings when it feels too much. The goal is not to avoid pain, but to manage it and to work through it when you're emotionally ready.
Healing Through EMDR and the Container: A Path Forward
Healing from trauma takes time. It’s not about rushing through the process or pushing yourself to feel better all at once. The EMDR container gives you a way to heal at your own pace, feeling safe and grounded every step of the way. It’s about meeting yourself where you are and allowing yourself to take a break when the emotional weight gets too heavy.
If you're tired of feeling overwhelmed by the past, the EMDR container might be just the tool you need to start the healing process. EMDR is about reprocessing trauma in a way that helps you feel more resilient, at peace, and in control—without being weighed down by the past forever.
If you’re curious about how EMDR might help you, let’s talk. Healing is possible, and you don’t have to do it alone.
EMDR Online Across Florida and Tennessee
Ready to start healing? Book a FREE consult for therapy here (FL, SC, & TN residents)
👋 Follow @holistictherapywithsabrina to learn more about EMDR and healing your inner child, from a therapist who truly gets it.
About the author: Sabrina Cruz, LCSW, RYT-200 is a psychotherapist and yoga teacher who truly values holistic care. She supports women to break free from people-pleasing and unapologetically embody their light. HHWS specializes in people pleasing, anxiety, and childhood wounds to help you heal from trauma, reparent your inner child, and embrace your authentic self.
This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for mental health or medical advice.