Havening Techniques are a psychosensory therapy that uses touch to promote healing and well-being. They are based on neuroscience and aim to alleviate stress, anxiety, and trauma by altering the way the brain processes information.
Here’s a breakdown of what Havening Techniques are and what they’re used for:
- The Core Principle: Havening works by using touch, attention, and positive visualisation to interrupt the neural pathways associated with negative emotions and form new, positive ones. By stimulating certain parts of the skin, Havening can induce the release of delta waves in the brain, which are associated with relaxation and sleep.
- Touch: Touch is a key component of Havening. It can involve gently stroking your forehead, temples, upper arms or palms. The specific touch used can be a recurring contact that you find relaxing and pleasant.
- Attention: While applying the Havening touch, you focus on the specific issue, feeling, or memory that you want to work on. This allows you to access and process your emotions.
- Positive Visualisation and Affirmations: You reinforce the process by using positive affirmations or visualisations, such as “I am safe and protected” or “I am capable and strong”.
- What Havening is Used For:
- Trauma Relief: Havening can be used to depotentiate or reduce the emotional charge of past traumatic memories. It targets the neurons that hold the traumatic experience active in the brain, allowing the brain to release these experiences.
- Stress and Anxiety Reduction: The techniques are effective in relieving stress and anxiety, and promoting relaxation and inner peace. It can help with general anxiety, or specific anxieties, such as exam nerves. Havening can be used to reduce baseline stress by decreasing the stress stored in your body.
- Emotional Regulation: Havening aids in understanding and accepting your emotions, thoughts, and beliefs.
- Improving Relationships: By developing communication skills, empathy, and emotional intelligence, Havening can lead to stronger and more rewarding relationships.
- Boosting the Immune System: It can help to strengthen your immune system and promote physical health.
- Enhancing Creativity and Self-Awareness: Havening can increase self-awareness, creativity, and overall well-being.
- State Management Havening can be used for state management to get rid of negative feelings, such as exam nerves or anxiety before an interview.
- Clearing Emotional Blocks: Havening can help to release negative emotions such as guilt and shame.
- Types of Havening: There are different types of Havening techniques, each with a specific application:
- Event Havening: Used for specific events.
- Transpirational Havening: Used to diffuse chronic emotional states.
- Affirmational Havening: Used to increase psychological well-being and resilience.
- Outcome Havening: Used to alter the outcome of a recalled event.
- Hopeful Havening: To provide positive words of encouragement at the end of a session.
- Role Havening: Where the practitioner takes on the role of an important individual involved in a trauma.
- Iffirmational Havening: To move individuals along a path to acceptance that change is possible.
- Self-Havening: Havening can be done by yourself (Self-Havening), or with a practitioner (Facilitated Havening), or a combination of both. Self-Havening can be useful for acute emotional and physical states.
- Integration with Other Modalities: Havening can be integrated with other therapeutic approaches. It can enhance the effectiveness of other therapies.
- Touch and Boundaries: Havening can be done without the need to touch a client; they can do all the touch for themselves. If a practitioner facilitates the touch, the process is permission-based and respectful, with clients making choices and being in charge of the process.
- Benefits of Havening: It’s a quick, effective, and long-lasting way to deal with negative feelings.
In essence, Havening Techniques provide a powerful way to tap into the brain’s natural ability to heal and promote positive changes in your emotional and physical well-being. By combining gentle touch with focused attention and positive visualisation, you can reduce the impact of negative experiences and build resilience.