Imagery Tools for EMDR and Wellbeing

Imagery-based exercises can help create feelings of safety, strength, and calm. In EMDR therapy, these tools are often introduced before memory reprocessing begins, so you have strategies to steady yourself during and between sessions. They can also be used at other times to support regulation.
Choose a tool from the list below to learn more.

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Explore the Resources

You can click each link below to learn more about the tool and how to use it:

Before You Begin

These exercises are designed to support grounding and resourcing — ways of helping your mind and body return to steadiness. They’re not intended to reprocess difficult memories, but sometimes they can still stir emotions or bring old memories into awareness.

You’re in control of how you use them. You can pause, adapt, or stop at any time. If a practice doesn’t feel right for you in the moment, you might choose to focus on something steady in your environment, take a few slow breaths, or try a different exercise.

If you’re working with a therapist, you may wish to share anything you notice during or after the exercise. If you’re exploring on your own, it can help to reach out to a trusted friend or support person if something feels heavy. Move at your own pace — there’s no need to push through.

Calm/Safe Place

Calm/Safe Place – A Mental Space to Rest In

The Calm Safe Place is an imagery tool often used in EMDR to create a mental space you can return to when you need a sense of steadiness. This place might be somewhere you’ve been before, somewhere from your imagination, or a blend of both.

During EMDR preparation, we use this exercise so you can “step into” your safe place in your mind whenever emotions feel too strong or a memory feels overwhelming. You can also use it between sessions whenever you’d like to pause and reconnect with a sense of calm.

When creating your safe place, you might:

Picture what you see, hear, and feel there.
Notice the colours, textures, and sounds around you.
Imagine what it’s like to breathe in this place, and how your body responds.

Your safe place is yours alone. You can return to it anytime, and you can change it over time if you wish.

🖇️ Listen to a Calm Safe Place Guided Audio

An external link to a short guided Calm, Safe Place practice you can follow at your own pace. This 13-minute recording includes bilateral music (best experienced with headphones), which is designed to support relaxation and grounding. Not every technique works for everyone—if you notice unexpected or uncomfortable feelings, you might pause and turn to something that helps you feel grounded.

Container Exercise

The container is a mental image or visualised space where you can safely set aside thoughts, memories, or feelings when they feel too much for the moment. It’s not about locking things away forever — it’s about having a place to keep them until you’re ready to return and work with them

Your container might be anything that feels secure and contained: a box, chest, jar, safe, or even a natural place like a hollow in a tree. It can be as ordinary or as imaginative as you like, as long as it feels strong enough to hold what you put inside.

In EMDR therapy, the container exercise can be used during sessions to pause distressing material, or between sessions if something comes up unexpectedly. You’re always in control of what goes in and when to open it.

🖇️ Listen to a Guided Container Exercise

Listen to an audio version of the container exercise to guide you through creating and using your own secure space for thoughts and feelings. This exercise is intended to support grounding and steadiness. Not every technique works for everyone. If you notice unexpected or uncomfortable feelings, you might pause and turn to something that helps you feel grounded.

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Protective Figure

Protective Figures

Protective figures are a gentle imagery tool used in EMDR therapy to help you feel safe, grounded, and supported—especially when working through difficult memories or emotions. Your protective figure might be anyone or anything you imagine: a real person, a beloved animal, a superhero, or even a character from a story.

Their role is to stand beside you, create a sense of safety, and help you face challenges with strength. In therapy, this connection can be nurtured so that your protective figure feels easy to call upon, both during sessions and in everyday life.

🖇️ Download – Inner Support Imagery Practices

EMDR Imagery Figures Handout that guides you through identifying your own nurturing, protective, and wise figures, with space to write or draw your ideas.

Close-up of a person’s eyes looking to the side, with colourful children’s blocks in front spelling the letters EMDR.

🖇️ Explore More EMDR Resources

Including practical tools, reflective exercises, and strategies to support your therapy process.

Disclaimer

The information on this page is for general education only and is not a substitute for professional care. EMDR should always be undertaken with a trained therapist who can guide the process in a way that is safe and appropriate for your needs.