Safe Place Exercise

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Safe Place:

:bulletpurple: This exercise is perfect for anyone, especially those experiencing trauma without any coping devices readily at their disposal. This exercise will give you a safe haven, something that many of us have found ourselves without at one time or another. Sometimes, we can't always go home and get help from family, friends, or authorities, but we can visualize or go to a place where we are safe and feel secure to calm down and figure out what we need to do to get help or to change what we are feeling. It's true that we can be our own coping mechanism, and sometimes, that is all we need to start the healing process.

:bulletpurple: The first thing you need to do to start this exercise is think about what form of safe place you want. Is it somewhere real? Is it somewhere imagined? Or, is it both (containing elements of reality and your imagination)? It can be anywhere that you feel comfortable and contain things that make you feel safe.

:bulletpurple: The best questions to ask at this point is "Where did I first report the abuse?" (ie: bath tub) or "Where did I feel the safest after, before, and during the abuse?" (ie: your basement) or "With whom did I feel the safest after, before, and during the abuse?" You can also ask more in-depth questions and incorporate the seasons, time, and colours you feel are calming (unconsciously, people have been known to associate safety with these areas that were present at times of calm during their abusive periods.) When you ask these questions, it can be easier to sort out the places and people that you feel safest in and with, even unconsciously. Also, for some extra support, I like to think of five or so activities or objects (games, drawing/writing utensils, music) that help me feel better, and I add them into my safe place as extra coping strategies.

:bulletpurple: Make your self a list, real or mental, of these answers to the prior questions. Then, you can decide if you want to use visual or literal arts to express your safe place. Once this is decided, you should take some time to sit down and think of your safe place or actually go there if it is a real place. Just let all of your ideas flow together and imagine what your safe place is. Ask yourself some questions like: What does it smell like? What colours do I see? What does it sound like? Do you taste anything? Is anyone else there with you? What objects do you see? What are you doing? How safe do you feel on a scale of 1-10?

:bulletpurple: Once you have your safe place really figured out in your mind, you should set out to drawing it or writing it. What I found helpful was doing a quick sketch or a quick list of what my safe place was. Then, once you have the time, then or at another time, it is easier to make your safe place into a further developed idea. Making a physical record of your save place helps you to get there easily when you need immediate coping help.

:bulletpurple: When you finish your safe place, I find it helpful to put it in a place you usually find yourself in distress. This could be in a note book, a novel, in your room on a wall, framed somewhere around the house, ect...

:bulletpurple: Now, go to your safe place when ever you're feeling sad, overwhelmed or alone. Remember, in your safe place you're the God or Goddess. You made this place. Nothing you do not want there cannot go there, and everything you want there will be there. You have the right to your safe place belonging to you and no one else. This if your safe place, and it was made especially for you.

Remember, if you need help please contact me or any of our Admins/Contributors and we'll be happy to help you out with your Safe Place or anything else. I hope that this helps you.
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