Hey healers, today we are going to talk about a calm, safe place. This is a common technique used in EMDR therapy, but even if you’re not in EMDR, you can use it any time you need a little mental get away.

Picture a place that feels very calm and relaxing for you. It can be a real place, or it can be a place you imagine. Notice if you need any security or boundaries around this place before we begin. That might look like an invisible force field, it might look like a fence, or you might choose to have a guard outside of your calm safe place. No one can come into your calm safe place without your permission.

Now dropping deeper into this visualization, notice what you see around you. If your calm, safe place is outdoors, you might notice the scenery. If your calm safe place is indoors, you might notice items around you that feel very comforting or familiar. Take another deep breath in, and release. Ahhh. What else do you notice in this calm, safe place?

You might notice if you hear any background noise, from the scenery, any music playing, people talking in the distance. Or maybe it’s a quiet, peaceful sound. You might notice if you smell any perfume, any nature smells or it’s just a neutral smell. You might notice how your body feels when you’re in this calm safe place.

Now take another deep breath in, and see if you can relax even further into this visualization. Feel free to add in anything that would make your place feel more calm, more safe more peaceful. Notice any pleasant sensations that are coming up in your body as you visualize this. If you want to, you can take your arms and cross them over your chest like this [crosses arms over chest], and slowly tap back and forth [taps shoulders], alternating hands as you think about your calm, safe place.

Do this as much or as little as you need to. When you’re ready, you can gently open your eyes if you’ve closed them and bring your awareness back to the present. Take a minute to orient yourself and know that anytime you need to, you can return to this calm, safe place you’ve created.