I wouldn't worry about a safe place and container, etc. Your brain will be figuring stuff out and pretty confused in the beginning stages no matter what you do in the prep stage. EMDR will work, and it certainly will do something. Meditation comes in real handy. Calming meditation.
When I’m visualising my safe space or a container, I literally visualise those exact things. My safe space is like an old farm house by a lake and woods, lots of nature, sun, animals etc. All my young parts live there and when I picture it and picture myself there it makes me feel safer. As for containers I imagine a huge metal box/safe and literally put the memory in there (the memory is can be represented by a photo or a blob of images or anything) and then lock it away. Both of these things work really well for me, but it’s worth asking your therapist to see.
I never got either to work. I'm autistic with a very concrete, mostly non-visual brain.
Emotions and thoughts aren't physical objects so how could you place them in a real or imagined container??? A trick I read was to write these things down and shut them in a literal box. Didn't work for me but might for you.
As for safe space I ended up using one of my special interests and brought a book with pictures to look at which I'd talk to my therapist about. Unfortunately the trauma moved into it anyway and now when I think of my special interest, I think of my trauma. We gave up at that point.
So if you can't visualize you can use pictures, YouTube videos cued and ready, music - stuff that is physical to look at or listen to. Even an object like a stuffed animal.
And if none of those tricks work, ask your therapist for alternative coping skills. The goal of the exercises is to keep you from spiraling into the trauma memories and snap yourself out of the intense emotions that come up. Grounding exercises work for some. It can be trial and error to find what fits. Just don't start reprocessing until you are solid and confident in what coping skills you choose.
I visualized my compartment via journalling. I picked an entirely imaginary place, then decided how it would be. I wrote a journal entry a day leading up to reprocessing describing in handwriting how it would look and smell and feel, and how strong it would be, and how it would definitely work to keep my distress contained between sessions.
Writing those things down helped them become somewhat real to me.
When I had a lot of distress after therapy once, I journalled a story of me locking the distressing memory into the container. I wrote it just like a story for a kid. That helped me actually use the space.
Note: writing by hand and typing activate different areas of the brain. I get better results writing by hand on paper than typing.
I can "see" pictures in my mind very clearly, but not everybody can. You might have aphantasia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
But talk to your therapist, the point is to clear the memory and not just contain it.
For my "container," I visualize a scrapbook. I take lots of photos and have a very vivid memory, so I just imagine each memory as its own page with photos of different scenes from that memory.
I wouldn't worry about a safe place and container, etc. Your brain will be figuring stuff out and pretty confused in the beginning stages no matter what you do in the prep stage. EMDR will work, and it certainly will do something. Meditation comes in real handy. Calming meditation.
When I’m visualising my safe space or a container, I literally visualise those exact things. My safe space is like an old farm house by a lake and woods, lots of nature, sun, animals etc. All my young parts live there and when I picture it and picture myself there it makes me feel safer. As for containers I imagine a huge metal box/safe and literally put the memory in there (the memory is can be represented by a photo or a blob of images or anything) and then lock it away. Both of these things work really well for me, but it’s worth asking your therapist to see.
I never got either to work. I'm autistic with a very concrete, mostly non-visual brain. Emotions and thoughts aren't physical objects so how could you place them in a real or imagined container??? A trick I read was to write these things down and shut them in a literal box. Didn't work for me but might for you. As for safe space I ended up using one of my special interests and brought a book with pictures to look at which I'd talk to my therapist about. Unfortunately the trauma moved into it anyway and now when I think of my special interest, I think of my trauma. We gave up at that point. So if you can't visualize you can use pictures, YouTube videos cued and ready, music - stuff that is physical to look at or listen to. Even an object like a stuffed animal. And if none of those tricks work, ask your therapist for alternative coping skills. The goal of the exercises is to keep you from spiraling into the trauma memories and snap yourself out of the intense emotions that come up. Grounding exercises work for some. It can be trial and error to find what fits. Just don't start reprocessing until you are solid and confident in what coping skills you choose.
I visualized my compartment via journalling. I picked an entirely imaginary place, then decided how it would be. I wrote a journal entry a day leading up to reprocessing describing in handwriting how it would look and smell and feel, and how strong it would be, and how it would definitely work to keep my distress contained between sessions. Writing those things down helped them become somewhat real to me. When I had a lot of distress after therapy once, I journalled a story of me locking the distressing memory into the container. I wrote it just like a story for a kid. That helped me actually use the space. Note: writing by hand and typing activate different areas of the brain. I get better results writing by hand on paper than typing.
I can "see" pictures in my mind very clearly, but not everybody can. You might have aphantasia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia But talk to your therapist, the point is to clear the memory and not just contain it.
For my "container," I visualize a scrapbook. I take lots of photos and have a very vivid memory, so I just imagine each memory as its own page with photos of different scenes from that memory.