Summary: a novel nurturing touch-based therapy called havening can help reduce distress and improve recovery for those who suffered traumatic experiences.
Source: nottingham trent university
researchers at nottingham trent university (ntu) have explored an innovative psychological therapy known as havening, which incorporates nurturing touch to help people recover from traumatic experiences. Participants who reported experiencing a moderately distressing thought or event, at least a month prior to the study, took part in online psychological testing and a face-to-face therapeutic session. The individuals were randomly allocated to a session which either did or did not include havening touch. Led by an experienced havening therapist, participants began each session by thinking about their distressing event or memory before carrying out four cycles of activities, such as naming animals beginning with specific letters, singing a childhood song, thinking about photos of happy images, and imagining watching a tennis match.
Havening works by changing part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is the part of the brain that processes and initiates the fight or flight response. During a traumatic event,receptors on the surface of the amygdala are encoded or potentiated. The process of havening de-potentiates these receptors de-linking the emotional charge or feeling from the memory.
What happens in a Havening session?
For those receiving the havening touch, the practitioner also administered a gentle sweeping touch to either the participant’s face, upper arms and shoulders, or palms during the activities. Before, after and during the session, participants reported their mood state and had a brain scan using electroencephalography - electrodes placed around the head that measure the brain’s electrical activity. In general, improvement was seen in negative mood states after the session, compared to just before. Moreover, those who completed a follow-up psychometric test two weeks later also reported better psychological health.
Greater reduction in self-reported distress about the troublesome thought or event was observed during the session that contained havening touch than the session that did not.
Havening techniques ® havening is a fast, effective and accessible psycho-sensory therapy that uses the simple application of soothing touch to generate delta brain waves. As a neuroscientific mind body technique it offers the possibility of de-linking and re-framing past trauma or adverse circumstances as well as building greater resilience, strength and resourcefulness. Sessions are totally client centred, truly collaborative and gently guided whilst being led by your own inner knowing and awareness. Using imagination, creativity and language it helps awaken the brightest and fullest potential of each individual and strengthen and inspire self leadership. What if we align more fully in the present, releasing and integrating the past? after experiencing havening herself jo realised how profound and quick change could be and went on to train and add this complementary and versatile technique to her practice.
The application of havening touch®, which creates delta brain waves can be applied by self touch (more popular now due to covid 19 & online sessions called self havening by many) or traditionally applied by myself (a certified havening techniques® practitioner), during the firing of neuro pathways linked to specific memories, events this activates chemical reactions from the old laid neuro pathway from our past, this in turn creates the necessary conditions in the brain for depotentiation to occur within a therapy setting (deleting the receptors so the pathway is not fired and connected) the result of removing the receptors means that stimulus received via our senses that would normally continue to trigger the upsetting emotions and physical response from a trauma based memory or event are cut.
When Havening is successful, this change is permanent.
(ht) havening techniques®️ frequently asked questions better living through neuroscience "havening techniques engages our inherent biological system to permanently heal, strengthen and empower our minds and bodies. " ronald a. Ruden m. D. ,ph. D. The havening techniques (ht) have been developed by the ronald a. Ruden m. D. ,ph. D. And along with his brother steven j. Ruden, d. D. S. , icf/acc. (ht) are powerful tools that can be used to alleviate the consequences of traumatic or stressful events. Havening or delta techniques™ is a method which is designed to change the brain to de-traumatize the memory and remove its negative effects from both our psyche and body.
With what kind of issues can i contact a counsellor? counselling and therapy can help with a lot of issues. From common issues such as addiction, anger management, anxiety, grief, burnout, depression, low self esteem, ptsd, relationship problems, stress and trauma to any of the many other issues we see daily in our practice. Can i get online counselling? yes, a lot of our counsellors also offer online counselling and online therapy, also during the covid-19 pandemic. I'm a counsellor/therapist myself. Can i join therapycounselling. Org? if you are a qualified counsellor, therapist, psychologist or life coach in the uk, most likely you can join our network.
All of my transformational work with clients is based upon the power of the unconscious mind. It is difficult if not impossible to access the deeper layers of our thinking if we are stressed. This is where havening can be helpful, as it can be seamlessly integrated into other techniques such as meditation, hypnosis, reconnective healing and heartmath. It is particularly helpful with ptsd (post traumatic stress disorder). If a picture is worth 1,000 words then the filmed live demonstration below must be worth 1 million words perhaps.
The havening process is simple. By stroking the face, arms and hands, massive amounts of serotonin are released into the body. Using a combination of images and sound, the working memory (auditory loop & visual sketchpad) become disrupted. This combination actually removes the traumatic neural pathway from the brain. The memory that something bad has happened is still there, but it doesn’t emote with you anymore. Quite literally, the road to anxiety is removed and a new emotional response is generated. This can sometimes take mere minutes.