A new canvas to help our clients with their safe places

One of the things our trauma therapists always go over when they meet with their clients is remembering their safeplace. Now we’re giving them something new to help remember those safe places!

Our therapists on the Grant Hill Trauma Team always start with safeplace to remind the brain there is a place they can go to access when they need grounding or they are overwhelmed with emotions or triggers.

They ask the client to draw a place that when they think of it, they have feelings of safety and security. Lately, we’ve gotten the horses at Davidson Farms involved! The picture above is a safeplace that was colored on Cher, one of our newer horses at the Farm. After painting their safeplace on the horse, they can practice co-regulation and deep breathing exercises with the horses.

Therapists ask the clients to use color to stimulate the limbic system (their emotional brain) and then have them describe it using words to stimulate the cortex of the brain (their logical brain). They also ask them to describe all the sensory descriptors (sight, touch, smell, hear, taste) so they can imagine themselves there and incorporate it in their picture.

Our team uses safeplace before every trauma session to remind the client of this place and remind them if they become distressed, they will stop and go to our safeplace.