Human Givens Psychotherapy
Overcome challenges AND Emotional difficulties – AND learn how to thrive
I work with people using The Human Givens approach to therapy and coaching, which is effective, brief (with an average of 4 – 6 sessions), practical and with personal improvements shown to continue after therapy has ended.
I've worked with the Human Givens therapy approach with tremendous success for many years – and in just a few sessions, we can achieve lasting effects.
By incorporating the most up-to-date insights into how the mind, body and emotions interact, therapy can empower you right from the first session. Emotions that control unhelpful patterns of thought and/or behaviour are released in an efficient way, without needlessly digging into the past. The resulting energy will enable you to access your own resources naturally, so that you can get your needs met and participate more fully with life.
The approach has been disseminated and taught in the UK since 2000 and is rapidly becoming recognised as a profoundly important improvement in our understanding of the way we function as individuals, families, organisations and society as a whole.
How can I help you?
In just a few sessions of coaching or therapy, I can help you overcome debilitating symptoms without unduly dredging up the past. These are the areas in which I can make a real difference:
- Stress, low self-esteem, burnout, sleep problems, chronic fatigue
- Stress relating to the workplace, school or university
- Anxiety, panic attacks, self-harming
- Phobias, including fear of public speaking, childbirth, flying and agoraphobia
- Depression, postnatal depression
- Trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Anger
- Addictive behaviour – such as over-eating, gambling, smoking
- Communication difficulties
- Difficulties between parents and children
- Adapting to life changes: redundancy, loss, divorce
- Managing pain
- Dealing with an artistic, chaotic temperament
- Resilience training
Work together
If you feel that you could be helped by sessions of therapy, please contact me to discuss how it could work. I would be delighted to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
“My successes are snowballing as I am overcoming my anxiety. I am even playing music again for the first time in ten years.”
For a longer read about the human givens approach to therapy...
What are 'human givens'?
The approach itself is a comprehensive new model of the way we function: understanding how the mind makes sense of information and experiences. It is based on established scientific principles with results that have been measured and published in top peer reviewed journals.
The ‘human givens’ encompass both parts of a natural process. They are the physical and emotional needs that evolution has programmed into us and the resources that humans have developed over time to meet those needs. Our innate needs drive us to seek fulfillment through the way that we interact with the environment using those resources nature 'gave' us.
In short, as human beings, we all have core needs that need to be met and, thanks to nature, we all already have the resources nesting in us to fulfill them.
The theory
The underlying theory of the therapy is that if our emotional needs are met in balance, it is not possible to suffer from mental illness. Unmet needs result in symptoms of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), phobias or inappropriate behaviour resulting from anger which in turn feeds into the downward spiral of mental distress. Successful therapy (re)activates people’s own natural resources. It teaches the skills we require to get our needs met in a healthy and balanced way, leading to an upward and outward spiral of growth.
What are our innate human needs?
These are security (stable work and home); connection to others through friendship and joint objectives; belonging to a wider community such as a community or company; status and self-esteem (that comes through learning and the competent application of skills); a sense of autonomy; attention – how to give and receive it - and a need for meaning.
What resources do I have?
Curiosity; long-term memory and learning; imagination (which allows us to focus our attention away from our emotions in order to problem solve more objectively); the ability to understand and extract deeper meaning of situations, using metaphor (intuition through pattern matching); the capacity for empathy; an observing self (to stand back from our emotions); a dreaming brain (which we now know maintains healthy emotional templates); and a rational mind that can be a check on our emotions.
Individuals are only able to reach their potential when needs are matched up in the environment in a balanced way.
Our innate potential is compromised if our resources are neither recognised nor effectively utilised. When they are, the results can be life-changing.
Effective companies will be those which, knowingly or not, work within this needs/resources framework.
