Self-Havening is a self-help technique that uses gentle touch and distraction to reduce stress, anxiety and the impact of traumatic memories. It’s a method designed to be easily learned and applied by individuals for self-care.
Where and How Self-Havening Can Help
- Anywhere, anytime: Self-Havening is a portable technique that can be used in any situation where you feel stressed, anxious, or emotionally triggered. It can help you to manage distress in the moment.
- Everyday situations: It can help with exam nerves, job interviews, and everyday stresses, as well as more intense emotional distress. It can be useful for managing cravings, panic, nightmares, and physical pain.
- Emotional regulation: By using self-havening, you can learn to self-regulate your emotions more effectively, reduce overall stress, and build resilience.
- Trauma relief: Self-Havening is also a way to help process the effects of past trauma.
- Positive change: It can support you to clear the impact of the past and create a more positive future.
How to do Self-Havening
Self-Havening involves simple steps:
- Activate: Bring to mind the distressing event, feeling or situation that is bothering you. If you have a craving or compulsion this is sufficient.
- Rate: Rate your level of distress on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is calm and 10 is extreme distress. This is called a SUD score.
- Touch: Begin the Havening Touch, which involves gently touching your upper arms, face, or hands. You can experiment with which touch is most soothing for you.
- Distract: While applying the touch, focus on a distraction, like visualizing walking up a staircase, counting the steps aloud, or humming a familiar tune.
- Repeat: Continue the touch and distraction for several minutes. Then rate your SUD score again. Repeat this process until your SUD score reaches zero or remains stable.
- Be Patient: If you are unable to get to zero, stop, review what is still bothering you and repeat the process with those issues in mind.
What to Expect
- A sense of calm: You may feel a sense of safety, calm and relaxation as you practice Self-Havening.
- Reduced emotional distress: You may experience a reduction in the intensity of negative emotions associated with stressful experiences or memories.
- Increased clarity: Some people find that Self-Havening helps to clear their mind and promote focus.
- Empowerment: Self-Havening puts the power to manage your emotions in your own hands and provides you with an effective self-care tool.
- Emotional release: You may experience an emotional release through crying or laughter.
Development of Havening and Brain Changes
Havening was developed by Dr. Ronald Ruden and Dr. Steven Ruden. It emerged from an understanding of neuroscience and the impact of touch and emotional memory. It is rooted in the concept of neuroplasticity which is the brain’s ability to form new neural connections.
- Amygdala: The amygdala is the area of the brain that processes emotions, and especially fear. Traumatic memories can get stored in the amygdala, causing it to overreact to present-day situations. Havening Techniques help to depotentiate (remove) receptors on neurons in the amygdala, thereby reducing the intensity of the emotional response. This process is thought to disrupt the pathways laid down in the brain when traumatic events are encoded.
- Delta Waves: Havening touch stimulates the skin, which can induce the release of delta waves in the brain. These waves are associated with relaxation and sleep, and help to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system controls the “rest and digest” response, reducing heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate.
- Neurotransmitters: The release of neurotransmitters like oxytocin, which is associated with bonding and relaxation, is promoted by touch. Havening also appears to decrease the levels of norepinephrine and serotonin.
- Prefrontal Cortex: When you use positive affirmations or visualizations during havening, you stimulate the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for executive function, decision-making, and emotion regulation. This can help suppress negative thought patterns.
- Reward Pathways: Positive visualization during havening can activate the reward centre of the brain, releasing dopamine. This can reinforce positive associations and feelings of well-being.
- Electroceutical: Havening uses delta waves and has been defined as an electroceutical, using the electrical part of the brain. In this approach, it is not necessary to use pharmaceuticals or talk therapy.
Havening can lead to rapid electrochemical change in the brain. Havening is not just about clearing trauma, but also about building resilience and creating positive changes in the brain.
Other Self-Help Tools for Anxiety
In addition to self-havening, there are other self-help tools you can use to manage anxiety:
- Mindfulness can help you to observe your thoughts and feelings without judgment. This can help you get outside of your anxiety, so it becomes something you are experiencing rather than being trapped by it.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to help you accept your thoughts and feelings and to commit to action that is aligned with your values.
- Self-Compassion is about treating yourself with kindness and understanding.
- Physical activity helps to regulate mood, reduces tension and improves sleep.
- Healthy Lifestyle: Eating well, getting enough sleep, and limiting caffeine and alcohol can have a positive impact on your mood.
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques help you reframe anxiety triggers, create anchors and change the way that you behave and feel.
- “As If” technique: Using this NLP technique, you can act as if you already have the state of mind that you want, such as feeling excited rather than stressed.
- Timeline Therapy is a technique used to change your feelings about past events.
These self-help tools and techniques can be used in conjunction with self-havening or on their own.