The first thing I did with EMDR was to establish a "safe place". For me, it was an imagined place, around a campfire, stars above, warm from fire but cool out, horses eating hay quietly, smell of horse and fire and coffee. Then we'd reinforce it with EMDR. We did a lot of this. I came up with another imagined safe place, a bear cave with triplet cubs and us all piled together with the Mama bear guarding the entrance.

I thought that "safe place" was always the first step with EMDR. T2 described it as the place I would go if things got too weird doing the EMDR work, or just with us talking. I used it a lot. Like at the end of every session. Several times a week. For several years. I haven't had to go there recently. I just realized that!