Feeling Safe and Protected

Experiencing feeling safe is the basis of every trauma treatment and at the heart of stabilization. Therefore, at the very beginning of our joint work we should explore with our clients whether and when they feel safe. By pursuing this question, we can identify moments, situations or conditions that have a regulating and balancing effect on our clients and let them relax and refuel. For some people, these are quite long periods of time, such as from the moment they arrive at home; for others, these can be shorter times, e.g. when they take a bath, drink a glass of wine or listen to certain music. Others tell us that they never feel completely safe and always feel a certain tension or threat. If we pursue the question together whether and when there are even very short moments in which they feel safe, however, most people find one or the other corresponding situation. We can pick up on these and use them as a resource.