Harvard psychologist Dr. Cortney S. Warren says that autonomy and trust are key to emotional safety.

Dr. Cortney S. Warren is a board-certified psychologist and received her clinical training at Harvard Medical School. She has written nearly 50 scientific journal articles. According to her, emotionally secure people are empowered, confident and comfortable in their own skin. This sense of personal assurance makes them better able to handle conflict, mainly because they don’t seek external validation. But it takes a lot of work to get there. Here are the phrases that emotionally secure people use more than average.