Seeking Safety

What Is Seeking Safety?

Seeking safety is an evidence-based therapy that’s used to help individuals with their coping skills and to strengthen stabilization, especially for those dealing with the often-co-occurring diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse. Seeking safety can also be used to treat any diagnosis where coping skills and stability need to be improved.
Seeking safety treatment helps individuals break out of cycles of codependent and damaging behaviors often brought on by co-occurring PTSD and substance abuse. Seeking safety helps clients get their lives back by providing them with the skills to defeat those vicious cycles and by helping them make healthier choices.

Seeking Safety Components

At Lifeskills, the fundamental principles of seeking safety include:
  • Safety: The main component of seeking safety is helping clients feel safe in their everyday lives, including in their relationships, thoughts, emotions, and behavioral choices.
  • Dual Diagnosis/Integrated Treatment: Seeking safety simultaneously treats both PTSD and/or trauma symptoms as well as co-occurring drug or alcohol abuse.
  • Focus On Values: Addiction and trauma can often lead to a sense of self-loss. Seeking safety helps clients re-identify with their values and goals and helps them work towards reinstating them.
Our therapists focus on four main content areas with each client including cognitive (understanding of the situation), behavioral (choices), interpersonal (how they communicate with others), and case management (how they work with the therapist). These content areas are explored by helping clients set boundaries in relationships, cope with triggers, stay grounded, protect themselves from emotional pain, be honest with themselves, and learn to ask for help.
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