Chapter Two – Safety First!

Introduction
We have included this chapter at the beginning of this manual because feeling safe in your recovery should ALWAYS come first. Whether you are working on Step One or Step Twenty-one, you need a framework of physical and emotional safety in order to progress in your recovery, because child abuse atits core is about being and feeling unsafe. People can change only from aposition of safety. If you don't feel safe, then you won't progress in your recovery. You want a strong foundation upon which to build your new self, and safety is thecore of that foundation.

Safety is something that you want to incorporate seamlessly into your daily life, something you approach with the same dedication as you would a spiritual or moral practice. Safety is something that you must consider no matter where you are at home, with friends and lovers, at work or play and especially at ASC Ameetings. Recovery entails facing horrible memories, painful feelings, powerful bodily sensations and potentially self-destructive impulses and behaviors. To withstand these reactions, you need to feel safe and strong as much of the time as possible.

There are several steps involved in evaluating your current level of safety
before you proceed with creating a plan for your recovery. The remainder of this section will focus on helping you assess your strengths and weaker points so that you can move through the ASCA program from as strong a place as possible.

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© 2007 THE MORRIS CENTER, Revised 11/06