The safe place may look similar to a time-out, but it feels so much different.

With time-outs, you may say, “do you need a time-out,” and force them in the room for a set amount of time.

With the safe place perspective, you may say, “do you need help calming down?” with the intention of using the safe space as a tool to help them calm down.

Instead of saying “I'm going to put you on timeout,” you may say, “I'm sorry. This is hard. Let's take a break."

So your child takes a break, they calm down their body and then return back to what they were doing. Instead this time, they have regulated their emotions and you're able to teach them in a green arrow moment. Instead of a time-out with the goal to wallow in your feelings, try the safe space where the goal is to develop emotional self-regulation.

Read More