Seeking Safety is the most popular evidence-based program designed to help people attain safety from all types of trauma and/or addiction. Rather than asking you to delve into painful stories of trauma or addiction, this program is a present-focused program that focuses on what you can do right now to create a better life for yourself. A focal point is teaching you how to become more safe in relationships, thinking, and action.

Trauma is defined as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience – such as the death of a child, child abuse, domestic violence, combat, major accident, etc.

Addiction is defined as the destructive use of a particular substance, thing, or activity – such as drugs, alcohol, gambling, shopping, food, etc.

The Seeking Safety program is relative to all types of trauma/addition and is extremely safe. Treatment focuses on your personal strengths and helps you to increase those strengths. The program has 25 safe coping skill “topics,” and you can go through the topics in any order as well as study as many or as few of the topics that you wish. Topics include: PTSD: Taking Back Your Power; Asking for Help; When Substances Control You; Recovery Thinking; Setting Boundaries in Relationships; Creating Meaning; Detaching from Emotional Pain; Coping with Triggers; Healing from Anger; The Life Choices Game; and more. For a full list of topics, click here.

The key principles of Seeking Safety counseling model are as follows:

1. Safety as the overarching goal (helping clients attain safety in their relationships, thinking, behavior, and emotions)
2. Integrated treatment (working on both trauma and substance useat the same time)
3. A focus on ideals to counteract the loss of ideals in both trauma and substance use
4. Four content areas: cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, case management
5. Attention to clinician processes (clinicians’ emotional responses, self-care, etc.)

For further in depth information, visit www.SeekingSafety.org.