Seeking Safety
At Wings Recovery for Men our Seeking Safety group helps you focus on and increase your individual strengths and develop new tools for coping with life’s stressors. Helping you to stay in the present while you develop the tools to cope with triggers, ground yourself and detach from emotional pain.
What is Seeking Safety?*
Seeking Safety was designed for people with a history of trauma and/or addiction.
Trauma means a distressing event such as a child abuse, major accident, combat, domestic violence, natural disaster, etc.
Addiction means destructive use of alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, shopping, etc.
It focuses on coping skills to help you become more safe in your relationships, thinking, and actions.
Safety • Taking Good Care of Yourself • Honesty • Asking for Help • Recovery Thinking
• Setting Boundaries in Relationships • Healthy Relationships • Creating Meaning • Compassion
• Detaching from Emotional Pain (Grounding) • Community Resources • Discovery
• Getting Others to Support Your Recovery • Integrating the Split Self • Commitment
• Respecting Your Time • Coping with Triggers • Self-Nurturing • Red and Green Flags • Life Choices
Every session of Seeking Safety is structured with a check-in, an inspiring quotation, discussion, and check-out. The goal is to use time well to help you get the most from each session.
Seeking Safety focuses on the present. This means you will not be asked to reveal upsetting stories of trauma or addiction. We focus on what you can do right now to create a better life for yourself.
It is relevant to all types of trauma and/or addiction. For example, you may have survived traumas such as child abuse, combat, natural disasters, accidents, or violence. You may have addiction to substances, gambling, food, or other behavior. If you have both trauma and addiction issues, we address the link between the two—how common it is for the two to go together.
Seeking Safety has been successfully used for over 20 years across genders and with people struggling with many different life issues including HIV/AIDS, homelessness, serious mental illness, and incarceration.
It can be used for group or individual counseling and can also be delivered by peers.
Who can join Seeking Safety?
Does Seeking Safety work?
Is Seeking Safety culturally sensitive?
Yes. Seeking Safety has been implemented with diverse cultural and ethnic groups, who have consistently expressed strong satisfaction with it. It has also been translated into over 12 languages. Seeking Safety emphasizes adaptation to each person’s needs.
*This summary was written by Lisa M. Najavits, PhD, the developer of Seeking Safety (June, 2018).
