Safety Dance
Most of us have at least one person we consider a safe space—someone we turn to when we are falling apart at the seams and need comfort more than answers. Confiding in that person can feel like releasing a breath we’ve been holding for as long as the troubles we’ve carried. Sometimes all we need is a morbid joke, a steady presence, or a simple, imperfect truth like, “That sounds rough—and you’re making it look easy.” These small offerings remind us that we don’t have to move through life alone.
Yet there are seasons when life asks for more than comfort—it asks for endurance, strength, and growth. In those moments our idea of safety often needs to expand. The spaces that once felt enough may begin to feel too small for the complexity of what we are facing. Many clients share that safe spaces are difficult to embrace when relationships have been unreliable, communication feels confusing, or the belief runs deep that no one can be trusted—or that they should be able to handle everything on their own. And more often than not, there is real evidence behind those beliefs: experiences of disappointment, misunderstanding, or harm that taught the nervous system to stay guarded.
As counselors, our role is to listen with both mind and heart, offering guidance grounded in genuine compassion and in the clinical knowledge that supports your unique needs. We pay attention to how symptoms show up in your body, your relationships, and your daily life, and how past experiences shape the way you protect yourself today. The therapeutic relationship is both intimate and structured—held within ethical boundaries that create reliability and safety. Within that container, healing becomes not just possible, but sustainable.
Relationship development can feel daunting, especially for those whose bodies have learned to respond to stress with withdrawal, hyper-independence, or mistrust. Avoidance often makes sense when connection has felt unsafe before. At Ubuntu, our counselors help you gently unlearn these protective patterns. We support you in staying with hard feelings rather than pushing them away, finding language for experiences that once felt unspeakable, and discerning who in your life can truly meet you with care.
Because healing is not only a cognitive process—it is also a nervous system experience—we integrate approaches that honor the whole person. Counseling, EMDR, body-based therapies, yoga, Reiki, massage, and energy work all offer different doorways back to safety within yourself. As your sense of inner safety grows, the possibility of trusting others grows with it. And one step at a time, sometimes bravely and sometimes with resistance, you will begin to assimilate what works for you. It is not about perfection or constant comfort; it is about learning, slowly and bravely, how to trust again—your feelings, your body, and the people who show up consistently.
And not all paths are listed above, but your path is attainable and it becomes a dance similar to what I’ve been singing while writing this, “Safety Dance”.Hold tight to your dog(s), cat(s), favorite cashier who doesn’t need to know anything about you to make your day, places that make you feel peace both in nature or in atmosphere, the shows that make you feel heard or seen…..don’t leave those friends behind.