Free, self-paced mini course
Keeping Yourself Safe While You Heal
A private, practical guide to safety planning, digital care and support while healing.
A clear path, without pressure.
Build a flexible safety plan around trusted people, devices, documents, places and professional support.
This course is designed for people healing in circumstances where another person, a living situation or a trauma response may affect safety. Across seven modules, you will build an understanding of the pattern, practise one skill at a time and create a plan that can survive ordinary life. You can complete it in one sitting, but spacing the modules across several days usually creates more opportunity to practise.
The material is psychology-informed education rather than therapy, diagnosis or individual medical advice. Evidence can identify promising approaches; it cannot tell us exactly what one person needs. Keep what is useful, adapt what is not and involve qualified support when the problem is persistent, severe, complex or connected with safety.
Start with choice and privacy
placing control with the learner and considering whether this device and moment are safe
Open module →Module 2Recognise risk without self-blame
noticing patterns of control, intimidation, escalation and isolation while locating responsibility correctly
Open module →Module 3Build a people-and-places map
identifying trusted contacts, professional services and locations that increase options
Open module →Module 4Plan communication safely
using code words, check-ins and realistic expectations without exposing the plan
Open module →Module 5Think about digital safety
reviewing shared passwords, location services, cloud accounts and device access without making abrupt unsafe changes
Open module →Module 6Prepare essentials without a rigid script
considering documents, medication, money, transport, dependants and pets in a context-sensitive way
Open module →Module 7Support recovery and review
protecting sleep, medical care, emotional support and ongoing review after a change or crisis
Open module →Turn the course into one small plan.
Choose one idea to remember, one practice to repeat and one situation in which to use it. Then name the sign that would tell you to seek more support. A tiny plan you can recall is more useful than a long plan that disappears under pressure.
The clearest idea or skill from the course.
A small repetition you can try within 48 hours.
A person, service or professional you could involve.
Evidence and further reading
These sources informed the course framework and safety boundaries. Findings are described cautiously because study populations, interventions and outcomes vary.
- NHS: Getting help for domestic violence and abuse
- Women’s Aid: Making a safety plan
- NHS: Every Mind Matters
- NICE: Common mental health problems