Helpful Strategies

Creating Safety

Safety is the experience of being protected from the danger and hurt. Within a safe environment, we can relax and be ourselves because we know that our well-being is secure. We feel free to take manageable risks toward growth and change. When you begin to talk honestly about your life in a safe environment, healing naturally begins to happen.

Safety is the basic right of every child, yet many of us were deprived of this right. Parents and trusted adults are supposed to protect thier children from harm, yet when we were abused, these trusted adults, in many cases, were the harm.

Feeling safe is the core of the healing process. You can experience moments of safety with a ttrusted therapist, a close friend or a partner, or through sharing with another survivor. If you haven’t had the benefit of safety in these circumstances yet, you can begin to explore the possibiltiy of feeling safe with yourself.

Thinkng about safety when you’ve known only danger, hurt and betrayel can be terrifying. The very concept of safety may contradict all with skepticism, if need be. Allow yourself to doubt. But try the exercises anyway. They may open up new possibilities.

The following questions can provide a starting point. Please click here to download PDF.