Why Arrival and Closing Practices Matter in Counselling

The first few minutes of a counselling session matter.
So do the last few.

Arrival and closing practices — sometimes called grounding — are simple pauses at the beginning and end of a session that help signal our entry into shared space with one another. We take a breath. We notice our body. We become aware of the space around us. We slow down enough to truly arrive.

It sounds small. It isn’t. These brief moments help create a space that feels safe enough for humility, curiosity, and presence.

What Are Arrival and Grounding Practices?

Arrival and grounding may involve:

• Connecting to the breath

• Noticing the body (if it feels safe to do so)

• Becoming aware of our environment

• Slowing the pace

• Transitioning gently in and out of the work

They widen our capacity to be present — not just intellectually, but physically and emotionally. And presence is where real therapeutic work begins.

How Grounding Helps Me Show Up

Counselling can quietly become about “getting it right.”
Using the right technique. Asking the right question. Applying the right method.

But grounding reminds me: my job is not to perform expertise. When I pause and connect to my breath, I’m reminding my nervous system to be open to feel — not just to analyse.

Grounding helps me:

• Show up with humility

• Move from intellectual problem-solving to embodied presence

• Let go of needing to be the expert

• Co-create safety rather than control outcomes

Instead of applying a technique, I focus on helping create an environment where people can connect with themselves — and their relationships — without fear or performance.

Why Grounding Is Political

Grounding gently disrupts systems that prioritise speed, urgency, and productivity.

Many people — particularly those with lived experiences of marginalization — cannot simply relax into spaces that have, over time, questioned their belonging or dismissed their voices.

Grounding becomes a widening of belonging — creating space for more ways of being. It acts as a gentle repair for the nervous system, softening what has been braced. It offers a quiet counterbalance to power, and a clear refusal of the urgency so many systems demand.

It makes space for slower pacing. For sensory pause. For different rhythms of participation.

Grounded bodies can listen more fully, speak more clearly, and challenge with less defensiveness.

That is quietly radical.

Why Closing a Session Is Just as Important

Closing is an act of intentional care. It allows us to gently gather what was shared, acknowledge the courage it took to share it, and create a sense of completion. Thoughtful closure also helps the nervous system settle and supports a smoother transition back into everyday life.

Without closing well, people can leave feeling exposed or unsettled.

In systems that often extract without acknowledging, closing a session consciously communicates: what you shared matters.

The Heart of It

Arrival and closing practices are not extras in counselling. They are foundational.

• They help regulate the nervous system.

• They deepen presence.

• They create safer relational space.

• They resist urgency-driven systems.

• They honour the body as part of the healing process.

In a fast world, slowing down is a powerful act of resistance.

Sometimes, the most important part of therapy is simply taking a breath — together — at the beginning and at the end.

Because each inhale is shared. It’s the same air our ancestors once breathed, the same air moving through trees and across oceans. In breathing, we are in quiet relationship with all living beings.

One conscious breath reminds us: we are not alone.
And healing begins there.

At Shapeshift Counselling in Victoria, BC, we take a relational, grounded approach to healing. You get to move at your own pace, in a way that feels safe.

Please check out our approach to learn more, or you can reach out for a free 20-minute consult at hello@shapeshiftcounselling.ca.