Havening, clinical hypnotherapy, PTSD & the primal brain

In our modern world, which at times, if not often, can be busy, stressful, and overwhelming, do you ever feel like you are not in control?

• Do you ever wish that you could just relax?
• Do you ever wish that you could just switch off?
• Do you feel controlled by your past, negative experiences?
• Are you suffering from trauma or PTSD?

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to rest, be calm, and take a moment?

As a clinical hypnotherapist, I see many clients who come to me with similar questions and asks. 

Our primal brains, for very good reasons historically, often take us to a heightened sense of alertness, stress, and fight or flight mode. However, this is often counterproductive and can even be harmful to our health in the present day. It is important for us to be able to rest, replenish, and relax.

The good news is that we have the power and the tools to be able to rewire our primal brains so that we are running them, and not the other way round!

Welcome, Havening!

Havening is a transformative tool which can help people heal and remove unconscious blocks, as well as old, emotional wounds, extreme trauma, and self-sabotaging beliefs.

Havening is a psycho-sensory, therapeutic approach developed by Dr. Steven Ruden and Dr. Ronald Ruden.

It uses touch and eye movements to treat PTSD and trauma. It reduces anxiety and stress associated with extreme negative memories and intense grief. It creates new neural pathways in the brain, removing the old pathways associated with emotional distress, replacing them with more positive and helpful rewiring in the brain.

The technique also boosts the production of serotonin in your brain. This, in turn, helps you relax and detach from an upsetting memory or experience.

The release of serotonin has a soothing effect that helps relieve mental health symptoms and keep painful memories from troubling you further.

Havening uses neuroplasticity to rewire your brain (just like a computer!).
It targets your nervous system to ease the past pain, and enables you to tap into your full potential, and thus take charge of your future and where you want to go from here!

Havening comes from the word Haven - meaning creating a safe space for yourself.
And that is exactly how it feels when you experience the havening technique.

Impacting upon our internal world, the power of Havening then ripples out to all aspects and areas of one's life, enabling you to gain your strength back, and to take your power back, to live the life you were meant to be living.

Past, painful, and traumatic experiences do change our brains and neural pathways.
In the past, it was believed that our brains and neural pathways were changed permanently forever. And that PTSD and past, painful memories were irreversible.
However, through clinical hypnotherapy, and now through Havening, it has been shown that we can change our brains and heal from PTSD and past trauma.

In the brain, and in the part of the brain called the amygdala, past trauma and memories are stored and are also held in the body. And are often lived out in our behaviour patterns and the lives that we lead.

The amygdala is a complex structure of cells nestled in the middle of the brain, adjacent to the hippocampus (which is associated with memory formation). It is part of the limbic system and plays a key role in processing emotions and emotional reactions.

Through research and trials, Dr. Ruden was able to map out the functions in the brain surrounding trauma. And was able to develop the Havening technique to transform past trauma and to rewire the brain.

Havening works by creating delta waves in the brain, which alters the neurochemistry of the brain, which in turn deletes the neural pathways holding the trauma, allowing them to be rewritten.

We all have five different types of brainwaves:

• Gamma
• Beta
• Alpha
• Theta
• Delta

Each brainwave has a distinct purpose and helps us behave, think, move and process. Although they channel automatically, it is our own ability to modulate between them that determines how well we cope with pressure, rational and irrational thoughts, task management and more.

If our physiology, diet or environment causes an overproduction or underproduction of a certain brainwave, it can alter the balance of our bodies and induce many negative effects such as insomnia, anger, stress, learning difficulties or anxiety. This is why it is important to optimise our brains for a better wave balance, rather than aim to increase or decrease a particular one.

Once rewired, the way that the memories are encoded within the brain means that the factual component of the memory remains completely intact and accurate. Whilst at the same time, the emotional component is rewritten so that the memory is still there and accessible - but it no longer has the emotional intensity that it once did.

When the amygdala is running our brain, we have no or little control over our emotions, reactions, and actions. But once rewired, we are in charge, we are running our brain, we are running the show, and we make wiser, better decisions, for the moment, and for our future self too.

If you are interested in finding out more about Havening then please contact a qualified clinical hypnotherapist with training and experience in Havening too.

We are always happy to help!