ABSTRACT
Several facilitators indicated emotional safety starts with the cultivation of physical safety and the feeling of “containment” within the room. Fostering an environment of validation, according to many facilitators, increased the client’s feeling of emotional safety which led them to feel less marginalized, less isolated, and more willing to connect with others in the group. Literature on AVH groups does extensively explore how cultivating elements related to emotional safety such as validation, “containment,” and respect in AVH groups can lead to increases in clients’ overall functioning. The facilitators, who mentioned flexibility, believed incorporating the element into their groups leads to outcomes such as increased sharing of ideas amongst group members, allowing for different points of view, and providing an emotionally corrective experience for group members. Some facilitators also believed moving at a pace comfortable to the clients was important because the original experiences that led to psychosis-related experiences occurred because clients felt emotionally flooded.
