Safe Place Exercise: Feeling safe and calm in your mind

The safe place exercise is a guided visualisation exercise for stress reduction. It involves imagining a place where you feel calm, peaceful, and safe, using all your senses to create a vivid mental image. The safe place can be a real or imaginary place, as long as it makes you feel relaxed and secure. The purpose of the exercise is to activate your soothing system, which can calm your nervous system and reduce negative emotions. You can use the safe place exercise whenever you feel overwhelmed, distressed, or triggered by a traumatic memory. It can also help you to prepare for or recover from a challenging situation.

Safe Place is often used in the early stages of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) to help soothe and rebalance difficult emotions and bodily sensations.

0:00 Introduction to Safe Place Exercise
01:30 Guided Safe Place Exercise
8:00 Completion of Safe Place Exercise

Adapted from Gilbert (2010).

Please note that InvestCBT does not provide a crisis support service. There are different ways to access urgent mental health support in a crisis, depending on your situation and needs.

Remember, you are not alone and there is always help available for you. You deserve to get the support you need in a crisis.

Sources of Support in a Crisis - International

Suicide prevention hotlines provide help to those in need. Contact a hotline if you need support yourself or need help supporting a friend. If you're concerned about a friend, please encourage the person to contact a hotline as well.

If your country is not listed, please contact your local emergency services.

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