Why I chose Havening?

Back in 2020 whilst on a course, I met a lovely and kind lady online . After getting to know her, I found out that she did something I had never heard of but it sounded really interesting; it was called Havening.

I believe that I have a very strong mind and am able to work a lot of things through, but in 2021 I felt this extremely deep sadness which I just couldn’t shift or work through by myself. It felt very overbearing and I felt very stuck and down. So I signed up for a session of Havening. It was done online, as many things were in that time, and I felt safe and supported to let go lot of so many emotions I had buried away for years. In that 1 session I felt like I had the equivalent of 6 months of talking therapy, but in silence so no one knew what was going through my mind and I didn’t feel vulnerable saying it out loud. Havening was so fast and effective. To be honest, writing it now and knowing everything after doing the course, it still sounds a little bit unbelievable.

During the session, I was asked if I felt the deep sadness in my body and I said I felt it on the side of my neck. At the beginning of the session it was at a distress level of 8/10, but at the end of the session it was 2/10. It was only a few months later that the relevance of the side of my neck and Havening came to me – consistently a couple of times a year I would get a sore throat which would manifest into tonsillitis and the infection would go into my jaw too. After my Havening session, I got a sore throat a couple of months later but for the first time in 6 years it didn’t turn into tonsillitis. I’ve not had tonsillitis since. The one session was so much more effective than I could have imagined. I was shown how to do Self-Havening at home but I personally prefer to be guided through the process when working through anything that comes up so I didn’t practice it again until my practitioner course.

Why did I decide to do the course?

Sometimes I feel like I haven’t quite done enough to help my clients. It’s really hard to explain because it’s more of a gut / intuition feeling rather than being quantifiable. My Gentle Release Therapy (GRT) work is amazing at making my clients feel at ease and to let go of emotions etc they may be holding onto. But there was always more, something deeper that I felt GRT didn’t quite get to. I have read the books like The Body Keeps The Score. I looked into coaching but I felt like it was close, but not close enough. Then I think I saw Paul McKenna on one of the MindValley Facebook adverts, it caught my eye so I looked at the comments and was reminded of it being called Havening. I decided to buy Dr Ruben’s book, The Past is Always Present, to do my own research on it before deciding to become a practitioner.

What is Havening?

The Havening Technique™️ or its scientific name, ‘Amygdala Depotentiation Technique’ (ADT), is a gentle physcho-sensory therapy created by Dr Ronald Ruden MD PhD and co-developer Dr Steven Ruden DDS. It is designed to change the brain to de-traumatise the memory and remove its negative effects from both our psyche and body; it can change your brain chemistry and the neural pathways linked to emotional distress.

By integrating touch into therapeutic work of psychotherapy, the havening techniques™️ help to discharge and alter the way traumas and negative emotions are stored. The touch involves a gliding touch from the centre of the brow bone down to the jaw, from the side of the nose across the cheekbones, crossing the arms to the shoulders and gliding downward to the elbows in a moving hug, and gently rubbing the palms together as if you’re washing your hands.

There are numerous scientific studies done on how the having techniques play a crucial role in regulating brain activity. When the amygdala is overactive, the stress / fear response is heightened, havening touch encourages the release of delta waves, calm and slow, which promotes deep relaxation and reduces mental health symptoms.

The Havening Technique™️ is powerful at the neurochemical level for reducing and removing:

• Past Trauma,
• Phobias,
• Bereavement / Loss,
• Anxiety,
• Stress,
• Panic Attacks,
• PTSD,
• Low Self Esteem,
• Confidence Issues,
• Pathological Emotions (guilt, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, jealousy),
• Depression,
• Relationships,
• Personal Development,
• Life Transitions,
• Unexplained Chronic Pain and
• Stress Related Illness