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How to Guide Someone Through the Grounding Flow

Who this is for: Supporters — partners, siblings, friends, coworkers — helping someone through a panic attack. No account needed; you can run this entirely from your own browser.

Darnell keeps the grounding flow bookmarked on his work laptop. When his younger brother panics, Darnell reads each step aloud and his brother answers without touching the device. The grounding flow is designed to be read aloud — it's a script, not a speech.

Steps​

  1. Open the app and tap the Grounding card. You don't need an account, and neither does the person you're helping. Relief is shareable by design.

  2. Take the five steps one sense at a time. The flow presents the 5-4-3-2-1 prompts — things you can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste — one prompt per step. Each step names how many things to find.

  3. Read each prompt aloud and let them answer. The steps are self-paced: nothing advances on a timer. You set the tempo, not the app. Wait as long as they need on each sense.

  4. Advance together through all five senses. When you both are ready, move to the next prompt. There is no score, no timer pressure, and no wrong answers.

  5. Finish the flow. Completion returns to Home calmly. Because you're signed out, nothing is posted anywhere — a quiet, sign-in-free close.

Expected Outcome​

You and the person you're helping complete all five senses together, at your pace. The flow completes and returns to Home with no records written and no account involved.

Notes​

  • One prompt per step — never a wall of text. Mid-attack working memory is impaired; the flow shows exactly one instruction at a time.
  • No timer pressure anywhere. If a step takes two minutes, that's the right amount of time.
  • It works on a locked-down network too. If your browser has never visited the app and you're offline, you'll see a calm offline state with a retry — never a blank screen. Once loaded, the flow runs with no network.
  • Supporters can read the plan aloud too. If the person you're helping has a safety plan, they can open it on their screen and hand it to you — see reading a safety plan at a glance.

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