Emotional Processing

Trauma’s Contribution To Depression And The Role Of Havening

John Nolan
20th April 2025

For many individuals with long-term depression, unresolved trauma can play a significant role by creating entrenched negative patterns. Addressing these past traumas and reducing their emotional impact can free individuals to build new habits and ways of being that support a return to a normal life. The Havening technique is a powerful tool that uses touch and distraction to depotentiate the emotional content of traumatic memories at a neurological level, allowing these memories to be recalled without the same level of distress. This can be a crucial step in breaking free from the past and moving towards a more positive future.

How to Stop Anxiety’s Grip31st May 2025
Stopping the disabling effects of anxiety, while acknowledging its natural presence, is achievable through various self-help methods and, when needed, professional support. Key self-help strategies include employing physiological techniques like deep breathing and relaxation to calm the body, and engaging in exercise. Mental approaches involve using mindfulness to manage focus, questioning anxious thoughts, and employing distraction. Behaviourally, actively facing fears through methods like graded exposure and stopping avoidance behaviours are crucial. Lifestyle changes, such as improving sleep and diet and reducing stressors, contribute to resilience. Tracking anxiety patterns through journaling and focusing on progress and strengths also aids in the process. For severe, complex, or persistent anxiety that doesn't improve with self-help, seeking professional help from qualified practitioners is a valuable and courageous step towards regaining control and significantly stopping anxiety's negative impact on life.
Choosing the Right Path with Havening for Anxiety30th May 2025
Understanding when and how to use Havening for anxiety involves considering the nature of the anxiety and the goals of intervention. Havening is described as a method that can depotentiate traumatically encoded experiences in the amygdala. The amygdala is a brain region involved in processing emotional… Read More »Choosing the Right Path with Havening for Anxiety
Amygdala-Based Anxiety28th May 2025
Amygdala-based anxiety originates in the amygdala, an ancient brain structure focused on protection. It operates rapidly and without conscious awareness, triggering the physical stress response and causing symptoms that can feel sudden and illogical. It is often driven by emotional memories and learned associations, which may not be consciously accessible. It can be distinguished from cortex-based anxiety by its typically unexplained nature, the onset of physical symptoms as a primary sign, and the reduced ability to use logic during intense episodes.
The Amygdala and Anxiety27th May 2025
The recommended approach to begin rewiring the brain to reduce anxiety is to first focus on calming the amygdala using relaxation, sleep, and exercise to reduce sympathetic nervous system activation. Then, identify triggers interfering with life goals and use exposure exercises to modify the amygdala's response. Practice is essential, as the amygdala learns through experience; some anxiety during exposure is necessary for new connections to form.
Finding Freedom and a Fulfilling Life with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy26th May 2025
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for anxiety is an approach that shifts the focus from trying to eliminate or control anxiety symptoms to living a full and meaningful life with anxiety present. It helps you identify how your attempts to avoid uncomfortable internal experiences (thoughts, feelings, sensations) may be limiting your life. Through acceptance, mindfulness, cognitive defusion, clarifying your values, and committing to value-guided action, ACT helps you build psychological flexibility. The goal is to drop the unworkable struggle against anxiety and instead take action that matters to you, allowing your experiences to be as they are.