This group is for those who want to follow my series entitled The Safe Place. The Safe Place started back in 2000 when I was talking online with a friend, Kathy. We met online through a support group for people with anxiety, depression and other mental . . .

This group is for those who want to follow my series entitled The Safe Place. The Safe Place started back in 2000 when I was talking online with a friend, Kathy. We met online through a support group for people with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

Kathy and I became quite close, and she would call me when she was panicking. Her panic attacks were brought on as a result of horrendous memories of her father from her childhood. I had taken a few classes in Psychology and been through therapy myself, so I knew the important thing to do was to get her out of those thoughts and memories.

I knew in getting her out of the panic attack, I also needed to bring her into the moment, distract her senses from the panic, to things more pleasant and real. This is where The Safe place was born.

The rules were simple:

1. I was always with Kathy.
2. No Daddy or any mean people could possibly be in The Safe Place.

It worked so well, by the end of most of the conversations (along with the help of medication too) Kathy was asleep). Sometimes our conversations were long. Sometimes they were short. We always enjoyed them though.

At the time, I was dating my husband, Jeff, online ' he was in California and I was in North Carolina (but that is another story!). Sometimes I would have Kathy on the phone and Jeff on the headset. We'd get so relaxed we would all be ready to sleep by the time we were done.

Over the years Kathy and I slowly conversed less and less. I'm not sure where she is today or how she is doing, but I hope she is okay. I have often thought of her fondly. I love her and miss her friendship. As much as I helped her, she helped me too! She is one strong lady, let me tell you!

When I issued a challenge to my group, Poetically Incorrect, called sensual spring ' where you describe spring using all five senses ' I suddenly thought of The Safe Place again. I have often thought of writing about it, and perhaps making a book that would help people like Kathy and me. Then Moya Goatley started a group called fiftyworders where you write pieces of exactly 50 words. I decided it was time.

I have received encouraging comments from first my attempts at The Safe Place, and do plan to continue writing additional segments. If you would like to keep up with these segments, join The Safe Place group. This group is solely a showcase for The Safe Place series, to make it easy for readers to keep up with additions to the series.

Thank you for your support!
Monica Kennedy