Havening Techniques

Havening Techniques® are a scientifically-based therapy that effectively treats traumas, anxiety, and phobias, while promoting brain changes that enhance overall well-being and resilience. This psycho-sensory therapy involves touch-based techniques that produce electro-chemical responses, resulting in healing and positive changes in the mind.

Our past experiences can create unwanted responses and emotions when faced with similar situations. These experiences can range from significant traumatic events, causing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to seemingly insignificant incidents that elicit an exaggerated emotional response due to how our brain stored them.

The mammalian brain lacks the ability to rationalize what should be traumatic, leading it to store past experiences in a way that triggers primitive emotions like anger, anxiety, or fear whenever they are recalled. This emotional response can occur even if the experiences seem inconsequential when objectively considered.

Havening Techniques® offer a solution by correcting the way these memories are stored in our brain, eliminating their emotional impact and improving or eliminating associated symptoms.

To understand how Havening works in eradicating traumas, it's helpful to grasp how traumatic memories are formed.

Traumatic events, regardless of their significance at the time, consist of specific elements that cause the event to be encoded as a trauma in our brain.

A traumatic memory is often characterized by high emotional intensity and the perception of being unable to escape the threatening situation. This lack of escape can be both literal, such as in cases of violence, entrapment, or war zones, and figurative, where we feel unable to control or remove ourselves from the situation due to overwhelming consequences. Examples like job loss, relationship threats, or parental abandonment can evoke similar trauma responses, just as real as a literal traumatic event like a car accident.

Another important factor in encoding traumatic experiences is our emotional state at the time of the event, influenced by previous experiences, temperament, and current stress sensitivity. As a result, these memories become permanently encoded in the amygdala, the brain's fight or flight region, leading to subsequent recollection or new events triggering intense emotional responses, as if reliving the initial experience.

In summary, Havening Techniques® provide a scientific therapy that effectively treats traumas, anxiety, and phobias. By correcting the way traumatic memories are stored in the brain, Havening brings relief and healing, enabling individuals to experience positive changes in their overall well-being and resilience.

Who created Havening Techniques?

Havening Technique was developed by US neuroscientist and Harvard Graduate Dr Ronald Ruden. He explored the concept in his 2010 book ‘When the Past is Always Present’. He also collaborated with his twin Dr. Steven Ruden for over ten years in the development of the Havening Techniques.
However, this psychosensory technique received its biggest publicity boost when Paul McKenna – a celebrity hypnotist – became a firm believer in its value. Paul McKenna drew substantial media attention when he began offering workshops and therapy sessions in Havening. The problem with this is, Havening was then often assumed to be a form of hypnotism. Which is not correct.

More information here.

What are the Havening Techniques?

Here is a fabulous video to help you understand.

The Havening Techniques are a healing modality that is designed to help individuals overcome problems that are the consequence of traumatic encoding. The Havening Techniques belong to a larger group of methods called psychosensory therapies, which use sensory input to alter thought, mood, and behavior.

The Havening Techniques are a system comprised of protocols and methods that uses touch as a therapeutic tool, which we call Havening Touch®. The Havening Techniques have three (3) distinct applications—the first is for emotional disturbances and encoded psychological trauma; the second is for wellness, stress management, and peak performance; and the third is a self-help tool.

Therefore, The Havening Techniques can be used within a psychotherapeutic setting with professional mental health care clinicians who have been fully trained and certified in The Havening Techniques. The Havening Techniques can also be used as a self-help technique and shared with family members and friends if trained by a certified practitioner.

What if my client or I feel uncomfortable about touching?
Havening Touch involves a simple touch of the hands, upper arm, and face. Even though a trusted practitioner may be performing Havening Touch, it is essential as part of the informed consent process that permission be obtained for this aspect of the session. There are certain circumstances where the practitioner or the client may not wish to touch or be touched. This is not a problem, as the client can self-apply Havening Touch. These techniques are demonstrated in the videos.

What next?
Consider booking a complimentary call with Annmarie to discuss How Havening can assist you. It is a no obligation call and have your questions answered.

The Havening Techniques – more formally known as Amygdala Depotentiation – is a psychosensory therapy which is designed to change the brain to de-traumatize the memory and remove its negative effects from both our psyche and body including deep rooted anxiety, rumination, and severe, instinctive negative responses.