Havening

Havening, is an alternative therapy developed by Ronald Ruden^[1][2] sharing roots with other pseudoscientific therapies. The name 'Havening' is derived from the word 'haven' and means to put in a safe place.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Havening claims to help reduce fear, anger, pathological guilt, shame and a host of other negative emotions.^[10][11][12]

Havening Techniques

Havening Techniques typically start by prompting a client to bring to their awareness a difficult experience or emotion and measure it using a Subjective units of distress scale by rating the emotional intensity from 0- 10. At this point, Havening Touch is applied wherein a client or their therapist gently and rhythmically strokes the clients shoulders and arms while leading them through pleasant psychological distraction techniques such as getting them to imagine walking on a beach while counting down from 20 to 1. This process is typically repeated till the SUD is zero or further decrements no longer follow a round of Havening. If an SUD of zero is reached, the client is debriefed about what remains in recalled memory.^[3][4]

Havening Touch

Havening Touch involves using gentle touch such as rhythmically stroking the shoulders and arms. It is claimed that gentle touch generates delta waves in the brain similar to those present in deep sleep. Its therapeutic power derives from evolutionary biology, where such waves may be a signal to a newborn baby that they have not been abandoned and are safe.^[1][3]

Kings College Study

In a study conducted by the Academic Department of Military Mental Health at Kings College London with twenty-seven participants, a single-session of Havening proved efficacious in reducing self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety and impaired occupational functioning.^[4][13]

History & Development

Techniques of Havening arose from treatments such as Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, Thought Field Therapy (described by the American Psychological Association as "lack(ing) a scientific basis."^[14]) and Emotional Freedom Techniques (which has been shown to have no effect beyond placebo^[15]).^[1][16]

References