Stabilization / Self-Regulation
When we talk about stabilization, we mean the ability to meet reactions related to trauma and its triggers in a more robust way [1]. This means that when we are outside our Window of Tolerance, we are able to bring ourselves back inside again and into an area of tolerable arousal, e.g. by creating distance between what is happening in the moment, and what happened in the past.
Our 'stabilisation muscle' can be trained, and there are many different types of exercises that can be done depending on the kind of reactions one has, and whether or not one is hyperaroused or hypoaroused. Psychoeducation - information about how the psyche functions - can help you understand how a reaction to trauma arises, and that information can contribute to your experiencing more stability, peace, and trust. The combination of knowledge and skills make people with reactions to trauma more stabile in their dealings with life (ibid). Stabilisation training is recommended prior to moving on to treatment and integration of traumatic experiences (ibid).
Being able to regulate one's own feelings and reactions and bring oneself back to an experience of peace and trust contributes to feelings of empowerment, that one can manage one's own life. When you know what is happening to you, and what to do about it, it is easier to take decisions in your life and experience more freedom, mastery, and independence. You are able to manage, and even enjoy, situations to which you previously reacted with fear. You have confidence in yourself, others, and the world, and have here-and-now experiences which are clear to you and not coloured by past experience or fears related to the future.
As mentioned above, it is possible to train and improve the ability to self-regulate. There are many resources and forms of therapy available on this subject. If you should wish to read up on some of these strategies on your own, you could have a look at the book Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists by Boon, S., Steele, K., & van der Hart, O. (2011). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
[1] Holbæk, Ingunn (Ed.)(2014). Tilbake til nåtid. En manual for håndtering av traumereaksjoner. Oslo: Modum Bad, p. 14. [Back to Now. A Manual for Managing Reactions to Trauma. Not available in English.]