A Havening practitioner employs various techniques to help clients overcome anxiety, with Havening being a primary tool. Havening Techniques are used to heal amygdala-based disorders, such as panic attacks and phobias. The goal of Havening is to depotentiate the traumatically encoded experiences in the amygdala. This involves targeting the neurons holding the traumatic experience active in the brain, allowing the brain to release these experiences. By creating a safe electrochemical environment, Havening can help to remove the amygdala filter from the psychotherapeutic process, allowing clients to resonate more fully and move to deeper levels more quickly in a safe way.
Here’s how a Havening practitioner might use Havening and other tools and techniques to help someone overcome their anxiety:
- Havening Techniques:
- Event Havening (EH): Used for specific traumatic events or emotionally charged memories, involving the application of Havening touch while recalling the distressing event. This can diminish and vanish the distress and cause the person to feel safe, peaceful, and calm.
- Transpirational Havening: This is used to diffuse chronic emotional states.
- Affirmational Havening (AH): This is used to help people connect with hope and positive action, reinforcing good qualities, often after Event or Transpirational Havening.
- Hopeful Havening (HH): Often used at the end of a session, involves chanting “hopeful” while receiving Havening touch and having the practitioner add words such as ‘I will heal’.
- Outcome Havening: Used to alter the outcome of a recalled event.
- Role Havening: The practitioner takes on the role of an individual that was part of the traumatic event to comfort or inform the client.
- Iffirmational Havening: Used to help a client accept change, it involves repeating “What if…” phrases before open ended affirmations, and then removing the “What if”.
- Self-Havening: Clients are taught to self-apply the Havening touch as a tool for state management.
- Facilitated Havening: The practitioner guides the client through the Havening process and can apply Havening touch.
- Identifying and Addressing Triggers:
- Identifying Patterns: A Havening practitioner will help clients evaluate patterns of avoidance designed to prevent them from thinking or feeling anxious thoughts and emotions.
- Exploring Past Coping Mechanisms: Practitioners review past methods to manage anxiety, assessing their effectiveness and identifying the costs of these strategies, such as how they have interfered with the client’s values. This helps establish “creative hopelessness”, where the client sees that what they have been doing is not working.
- Exploring Avoidance: They will explore how anxiety-related avoidance has become a problem in a client’s life and how it may have narrowed their life.
- Other Therapeutic Techniques:
- Mindfulness: While not used as a control strategy, mindfulness can help clients observe their thoughts and feelings non-judgmentally. This can involve observing rather than reacting to anxiety.
- Defusion: Havening practitioners might employ defusion methods during times of distress to help clients relate to their urges and thoughts from a mindful stance.
- Exposure: Havening practitioners can use exposure exercises to help clients face anxiety-provoking situations. This can include exploring thoughts, anxiety, and body sensations with curiosity.
- Cognitive restructuring: Identifying and challenging biased thinking that may contribute to anxiety
- Building Resilience and Empowerment:
- Empowering Clients: They empower clients with tools they can use to feel safe and secure in between sessions, teaching clients how to self-haven.
- Values-Based Action: Clients may be introduced to value-driven behaviour as an alternative to managing anxiety
- Building Resilience: A Havening practitioner may work to build the resilience of their client to reduce stress and increase access to positive emotions.
- Coaching: They might use coaching to help clients move forward in their lives having released past experiences.
- Creating a Safe Space: The environment created by a Havening practitioner helps the client to feel safe. This includes the use of touch, a supportive tone of voice, and creating an open and non-judgmental space.
How to Decide if a Havening Practitioner is Right for You
Deciding whether to work with a Havening practitioner is a personal choice that involves considering your needs and preferences.
Here are some indicators that might suggest working with a Havening practitioner is a good idea for you:
- Experiencing Amygdala Based Disorders: If you are dealing with conditions like panic attacks, phobias, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Havening is especially effective for trauma-related issues and can provide relief from anxiety.
- Wanting a Fast and Gentle Approach: If you’re looking for a method that is both fast and gentle, Havening may be suitable. The use of touch helps create a sense of safety and calm.
- Preference for Content-Free Therapy: If you prefer not to disclose the details of your traumatic experiences, Havening can work effectively without needing to share the content of the trauma.
- Desire for Empowerment: If you want a tool that you can use independently, self-Havening provides a way to manage stress and anxiety in your daily life.
- Openness to New Approaches: If you are open to exploring new and different therapy methods and are curious about the science behind Havening, this may be right for you.
- Traditional Therapy Has Not Worked: If you have tried other methods to manage anxiety without success, Havening might be helpful.
- Seeking a Holistic Approach: If you are looking for a therapy that addresses not just the psychological aspects of anxiety but also the biological and neurological components, Havening’s focus on neurochemistry may be a good fit.
It is also useful to consider if the Havening practitioner you are considering has training and experience using Havening Techniques. Many Havening practitioners have prior experience in fields such as NLP, hypnotherapy, and various forms of therapy and coaching.
Summary A Havening practitioner uses a range of tools, primarily Havening Techniques, to assist clients in overcoming anxiety. Havening works by targeting the amygdala and depotentiating traumatically encoded experiences. Alongside these techniques, practitioners often employ other tools including mindfulness and cognitive reframing, and also work to build resilience and empower clients. Deciding to work with a Havening practitioner depends on individual preferences and needs. If you are experiencing trauma, phobias, or other amygdala based disorders and are looking for a fast, gentle, content-free way to gain control over your anxiety, Havening may be a good fit. If you have tried other methods of anxiety management without success or are open to exploring newer techniques based in neuroscience then a Havening practitioner may be the right choice.
Tags: Havening, anxiety, therapy, mental health, trauma, resilience, empowerment, self-care, mindfulness, neurobiology, coaching, exposure therapy