Clinicians who work with groups can find it challenging to get them to open up, examine themselves, and engage with each other. Floor checks address this need. They are user-friendly for both therapist and client and take the guesswork out of incorporating experiential work into programming and practice. Floor Checks get clients out of their chairs, on their feet, grounded in the room, and connected with each other. Floor Checks activate the social engagement system in service of healing. They give participants practice in tuning in on themselves and connecting in new, more satisfying ways and experiencing the healing alchemy of co-regulation.

 

Floor Checks: Turning Education into Transformation

Floor Checks are psychoeducational processes that bring the research on cPTSD, trauma, and recovery off the page and into real-time experience. Instead of passively receiving information, clients engage with it—moving, choosing, speaking, and connecting in ways that feel spontaneous and meaningful. In doing so, they become active stakeholders in their own healing. Floor Checks help build emotional literacy, regulation, and resilience—not just by teaching these concepts, but by practicing them in the room.

These structured yet flexible processes weave trauma education with interpersonal and community-based healing. They’re easily adapted for gender and culture sensitivity, and they offer therapists a repeatable, contained format that makes group work focused, emotionally safe, and dynamic. Each Floor Check fosters insight while also strengthening connection—to self, others, and the here-and-now.

In Relational Trauma Repair (RTR), a sequence of Floor Checks can guide clients through the arc of recovery. The Feeling Floor Check lays the foundation. The Symptom Floor Check helps participants identify how cPTSD may be showing up in their bodies, thoughts, and relationships. From there, more targeted explorations—such as the Fear/Anxiety Floor Check, Anger Floor Check, and Depression Floor Check—dive deeper into specific emotional states. Further consolidation comes with The Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth Floor Checks, which shift the focus toward inner strength and renewal.

Floor Checks also warm clients up to role play in a gentle, organic way. As participants stand with their choices, speak from those places, and witness each other’s truths, simple role plays often emerge naturally. These experiential moments deepen healing, allowing the group process to unfold with authenticity and momentum.

For more examples and downloadable materials, visit tiandayton.com/RTR. Many specialized Floor Checks can be found in Sociometrics, The Living Stage, and Treating Adult Children of Relational Trauma—each one crafted to meet the unique needs of those healing from adult relational trauma and addiction.

NOTE: Level One certificate holders are expected to stay within their practice range, which does not include trauma work, e.g., The Symptom Floor Check.