Therapist Thoughts: Therapeutic Safety, Trust Built One Leap at a Time

Sometimes in session, I feel it, the moment a client jumps.

They are taking a risk. They say "the thing". “I don’t feel like a good partner, and I’m afraid that’s my fault.” Or, “I hate my body sometimes.” Or, “I can’t handle pretending anymore”. It might sound like, “I don’t think I’m enough for the people I love,” or, “I feel like a burden.” Whatever the words, it’s the leap of saying the unsaid that takes the most courage. They speak the fear/shame or the memory or the desire they’ve never said out loud. They might even brace or avoid the conversation after bringing it up.

And in that moment, my job isn’t to analyze or fix.
It’s to catch them with presence, with care, with words that remind them: you’re not too much, and you’re not alone.
And the leap? It’s one of the most courageous acts one can take.
This is what therapeutic safety really is.

Not just insight.
Not just strategies.
But trust earned moment by moment, until someone dares to let go of the edge and see if someone will still be there.
They jump and I catch.