Safe place to Return
where psychology meets astrophysics
Do we need fear to do brilliant work?
This year I sat at Starmus again, one of the biggest science festivals in the world, and listened to brilliant people talk about exploration, creativity and discovery. I kept waiting for one word. Nobody said it: safety.
I'm a psychologist. For more than twenty years I've watched people try to be creative, patient, open and brave while their nervous system quietly told them they were not safe. It doesn't work. A nervous system that feels unsafe narrows. It protects. It stops being curious.
Fear itself isn't the problem. Astronauts feel fear. Scientists feel fear. The problem is fear with nothing holding it. Astronauts leave Earth because mission control is holding the line. A child explores the playground because a parent is on the bench. Planets travel safely because gravity holds their orbit.
We don't explore without fear. We explore because something holds us.
This project and podcast is about that hidden law. Every month I take one idea from the science of the nervous system and attachment, one image from the universe, and one real story from the therapy room, and put them side by side.
Podcast
Episode 1: Do we need fear to do brilliant work?
October 2026 · 19 min
At a science festival, astronauts were asked about the scariest moment of their mission. Ivana heard a different question: when you were afraid, what held you?
Three stories, one answer: Apollo 13's way home, a four-year-old Jane Goodall hiding in a henhouse, and a three-year-old girl alone in a hospital bed.
In this episode
- Why an orbit is a fall that never ends, and what that says about secure relationships
- What research shows about fear, safety and creativity
- What Jane Goodall's mother did after four hours of fear
- Two small things you can try this week
Listen to the full episode | Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
This episode is also available in Slovak → link na slovenskú epizódu #18
New book coming soon!
Eighty-five percent of the universe is something we cannot see. We know it's there only by how it bends everything around it. Fear is the same. When we don't feel safe, an old defensive self goes invisible — and quietly bends how we love, how we ask for help, how we rest, how we play. Dark Matter is my attempt, after more than twenty years of research and practice, to map that invisible mass. Where attachment meets astrophysics.
Out September 2027 · in English and Slovak.
Nová kniha už čoskoro!
Osemdesiatpäť percent vesmíru tvorí niečo, čo nevidíme. Vieme o tom len preto, že to ohýba všetko navôkol. Strach funguje rovnako. Keď sa necítime bezpečne, staré obranné "ja" stíchne a zneviditeľní sa — a potichu ohýba každú ďalšiu časť nás: ako milujeme, ako prosíme o pomoc, ako sa hráme, ako odpočívame. Temná hmota je môj pokus — po viac než dvadsiatich rokoch výskumu a praxe — zmapovať túto neviditeľnú masu. Spája teóriu vzťahovej väzby a astrofyziku do jedného jazyka: dosť presného pre odborníkov, dosť ľudského pre každého, kto sa niekedy pristihol, že sa chráni aj tam, kde už niet pred čím.
Vyjde v septembri 2027, v slovenčine aj angličtine.
About me
I'm a psychologist and attachment‑based therapist. For over twenty years I've studied how we learn to feel safe — and what happens when that safety is missing. I turn that research into books, programmes and my podcast A Safe Place to Return, where I bring psychology together with astrophysics. I work under the #radípsychologička® brand and I'm the founder of the Polyvagal Academy in Slovakia. I believe real help is where science meets human understanding.
— Dr. Ivana Čergeťová
Som psychologička a vzťahová terapeutka. Vyše dvadsať rokov skúmam, ako sa učíme cítiť bezpečne — a čo sa deje, keď to bezpečie chýba. Svoj výskum prekladám do kníh, programov a podcastu A Safe Place to Return, kde spájam psychológiu s astrofyzikou. Pôsobím pod značkou #radípsychologička® a som zakladateľkou Polyvagálnej akadémie na Slovensku. Verím, že skutočná pomoc je spojenie vedy a ľudského porozumenia.
— PhDr. Ivana Čergeťová, PhD.
