The client creates a safe place in the sandbox — a resource image they can return to. Especially valuable in trauma and anxiety work.
Step-by-step guide
- Offer: "Create a place in the sandbox where you feel safe"
- Observe: what elements the client chooses for safety (walls, water, trees, animals)
- Afterwards: "Tell me about this place. What makes it safe?"
- Deepen: "Stay in this feeling for a moment. Where in your body do you feel it?"
- Photograph: this is a resource image to return to
- Offer: "You can recall this place — when you are anxious, when you need an anchor"
When to use
- At the start of trauma work
- With high anxiety, or as a resource technique
Key phrases
Today let's build a place in the sandbox where you feel safe. Use anything — walls, water, trees, figures, nothing at all. There is no wrong version. When it is ready, we'll stay with it.
Follow-up questions
What makes this place safe?
Where in your body do you feel the safety?
Is anything missing that would make it safer still?
What would it be like to come back to this place in your mind next week?
Alternative phrasings
If a full safe place is too much, start with one safe corner.
Safe can be "safer than now" — it does not have to be perfect.
Warnings
- ⚠️ If the client cannot create a safe place — that is information. Do not insist.
- ⚠️ Work with what is there: start smaller, add support, slow down the pace.
Source: Kalff, 1980; Shapiro, 2001; van der Kolk, 2014
Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.