Defining Safe Space: An intention versus a declaration
The phrase this is a safe space resonates across therapy offices, yoga studios, support groups, classrooms, and workplaces. It can be heard anywhere humans are receiving care.
Labeling a space should be viewed as an intention rather than a declaration.
Psychological Safety: The Absence of Interpersonal Fear
The ability to access internal safety and manage interpersonal fear and manage interpersonal fear largely depends on both system and personal factors.
System considerations include actions that defy the expectation of safety and violate trust including unsafe staffing, limited resources, lack of mentorship, absence of supportive mental health resources such as debriefing and structural racism.
Less discussed, personal considerations involve pre-existing and childhood trauma. Many nursing students may have been exposed to trauma prior to nursing school. Nursing students have a higher baseline of childhood trauma (ACES) versus the general population. Over 40% of nursing students versus 12.5-13.3% of the general population have an ACES of 4 (of 10) or more.(Clark et al., 2021)
Mutuality
The term safe aims to encourage openness, suggesting that facilitators can handle whatever is shared without judgment. Yet, this phrase overlooks the perspective of the person sharing. It's the individual, not the facilitator, who should determine the safety of a space. Declaring a space as safe without the sharer's consent can undermine mutuality, presuming authority over experience.
Genuine safe spaces emerge only when the vulnerable party feels and claims safety.
Speaking Up
In national surveys of approximately 450,000 healthcare professionals, only 49% felt free to question the actions of those with greater authority and 65% felt afraid to ask questions when something did not seem right (AHRQ, 2016).
When psychological safety is low, healthcare professionals may remain silent, speak circuitously, circumvent difficult colleagues to complete tasks, or prematurely escalate concerns through a hospital/educational reporting system rather than attempting to address them directly (O’Donovan & McAuliffe, 2020). Healthcare learners lacking speaking up skills may suffer moral distress and adverse career effects (Pauly et al., 2012; Rathert & May, 2007).
When the ability to speak up decreases, healthcare professionals experience moral distress, adverse career outcomes and Cumulative Care Taking Trauma.
By preemptively labeling spaces as safe, we risk invalidating personal experiences and choices. The right to deem a space safe rests solely with the individual.
Language
As facilitators and leaders, we can work to create psychological safety through trauma-informed practices, trauma-responsive and inclusive language, validation, empathy, heart coherence, deep intentional listening, story theory, appreciative inquiry and most importantly, consistency.
Education Resources
For additional resources on how to begin using trauma-responsive language with the intention of creating psychologically safe spaces, click here.
Download the Debriefing in Daily Work and Trauma Informed Checklist from Debriefing the Front Lines, Inc. Resource Library. No code is need, 100% discount auto applied.
Mental Health Support Resources
A space and its safety, are for you to define. If you are in need of support, choose your space from this resource list.
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