Match the tool to the state.
The steps
- Reduce all demands. Remove pressure to perform or explain.
- Physical warmth blanket, warm drink, sunlight. The body needs safety signals.
- One tiny movement stand up and walk to the next room. Just that.
- One simple sensory anchor hold something textured, smell something familiar.
- One micro-choice "water or tea?" The choice begins to restore agency.
- No pressure for insight until back in window. Presence first.
Where it comes from
- Session 15 — the full handout
- Session 15 — Shutdown, Panic, Anger, Grief, and Shame
Prefer it one step at a time? The same protocol as a guided runner in the app, which also keeps a private record if you want one.
This is one of the tools a seventeen-session series teaches, ninety minutes at a time, in a room of six to twelve people. It is peer-facilitated and free to host.
Check what stayed 3 questions
Answer in your own words, out loud or on paper. Nothing is scored, nothing is marked, and nothing is stored — this is for noticing what you have, not for anybody to grade.
What does shutdown look like, and which side of the window is it?
What the material says
Numb, flat, dissociated, cognitive fog
What is the first thing you do, and what does it remove?
What the material says
Reduce all demands. Remove pressure to perform or explain.
Somebody below their window is not explaining what happened. When do you ask for insight?
What the material says
No pressure for insight until back in window.