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What does ‘safe’ mean for you?

What does ‘safe’ mean for you?

One of the things that I’m curious about as part of my PhD research is learning about what ‘safe’ means for different women, in different contexts and in different stages of healing, recovery and integration of intimate partner violence.What makes us feel ‘safe’ is a fascinating concept.  I think it’s a word that people use, often without any real appreciation of what we really mean by it.  And, probably because it’s something I’m very focused on at the moment, I’m noticing how often it’s used in settings where it somehow doesn’t quite fit.  For example, when someone says, “this is a safe place” when they’re speaking on behalf of a group of people, but they haven’t actually ascertained what might be needed for each of those individuals to feel safe.  Because fundamentally safety is a very individual experience.  Would you be able to explain what you need from a space, place, person or organisation / institution for it to be ‘safe’ for you?

Trauma and violence informed practice

Safety is one of the foundational building blocks of all trauma and violence informed frameworks. Trauma and Violence-Informed Practice (TVIP) is an approach that builds an understanding of trauma, its widespread impact, and acknowledges the role that violence may play in shaping a person’s experiences. It considers the structural violence and systemic inequities that contribute to people’s adverse experiences, such as racism, ableism, poverty, and gender-based violence.

What safety can look / feel like:

Factors that might influence an individual’s perception of safety might include things like:

  • Environmental factors – inside / outside, day / night, lighting, access to exits, private location / public location
  • Social / interpersonal factors – gender considerations, group / 1:1 interaction, presence of supportive people
  • Sensory factors – sounds, smells, textures
  • Cultural factors – including language, traditions and delivery of services / setting
  • Individual factors – a sense of control, being able to operate from a position of equality, active involvement in the choices, options and actions

What is psychological safety?

Psychological safety speaks to the ability to be safe with oneself – to be able to recognise and rely on our internal ability to keep ourselves safe (either from maladaptive impulses attached to our internal protectors (or ‘Firefighters’ in IFS terms – see a previous blog HERE for some more context), as well as discerning external threats to our safety and being able to take appropriate action.  Psychological safety encourages, allows, and makes space for:

  • Self-protection
  • Attention and focus
  • Self-knowledge
  • Self-efficacy
  • Self-esteem
  • Self-empowerment
  • Self-control
  • Self-discipline

That’s a lot of ‘self’ orientated outcomes.  The problem with traumatic experiences – in particular those in childhood / as a result of early attachment trauma – significantly impacts the development of a clear and integrated sense of self.  Adverse life experiences negatively impact our ability to self-protect and can cause us to struggle with healthy boundaries with others.  Self-efficacy is the basic sense of believing that we have the ability to relate to world on our own terms, without abusing power or being abused by it. Psychological safety is foundational for trust in any setting, but especially in institutional settings (i.e., healthcare, social services, education, financial, legal spaces) where there are inherent power imbalances.

Using a medical / healthcare-based setting as an example, a psychologically safe environment allows us to believe that we can ask questions (we have a right to understand our care, our diagnoses, our medical information/test results), voice concerns, share ideas (‘Dr Google’, or advice / suggestions from friends) and experience our feelings in an embodied way (we should be able to cry or show frustration in a medical setting without fear of it affecting how we are treated, perceived or cared for).  We also need to have faith that if we share our experiences of past trauma that our healthcare providers are able to not only safely hold a space for that but importantly understand how that impacts not only our physical presentation and ability to communicate our needs effectively, understand the possible co-morbid relationship to other conditions/diseases, and appreciate the additional burdens that trauma forces us to carry. We should have confidence that our medical caregivers are trauma-informed in their care, however in my experience (personal and professional) we appear to have a long way to go.

Coming into land with this thought:

I’d like to finish this blog where I started…what does safety mean / look / feel like for you?  And, possibly most important of all is this: once you’re able to identify what safe is for you, then you also need to know what UNsafe means / looks and feels like so that you can figure out what you might need to do about that.  Getting back into safety is the takeaway point.  And I’m not talking ‘safety planning’ in the traditional mental health / therapist way.  I mean what kind of things can you do (maybe learn to do) to create greater individual, psychological, cultural, sensory, social / interpersonal and environmental safety?

 

If you’d like to explore safety in a trauma and violence informed space, please get in touch with us: www.theabaker.com.au / hello@theabaker.com.au / 03 9077 8194.