It’s easy to identify an objective measure of safety. Simply remove any threat. Job done.
The trouble is that’s not how our bodies and brains function. Our bodies are striving to feel safe and these feelings of safety emerge from inside the body.
Why?
Feelings of safety are a direct result of the cues of safety provided by our environment and relationships at the time. Our bodies are subconsciously scanning for these cues all of the time!
When we identify cues of safety, our bodies downregulate their stress and threat responses and simultaneously promote social engagement behaviour as well as bodily functions that provide for health, growth, and repair. This is the ‘bodily state’ in which we can effectively learn.
When we can’t identify those cues of safety, the opposite is true. Threat responses are triggered, the body prepares for flight, freeze, or fawn and we cannot effectively socially engage.
In Practice
In practice we need to consider how we support:
Cues of Safety from the Environment
Consider the senses - sound, temperature, light (including flickering light fittings!) , airflow, temperature and the wider environment such as organisation, seating plans and clutter!
Cues of Safety from Relationship
Think about sensitive use of eye contact, body language, facial expression, tone and prosody of voice, and young people’s time and space to communicate their emotional state.
Cues of Safety from Practice
Be ready to welcome children into the room, ensure predictability and adopt a reflective approach. Consider using approaches such as PACE.