Havening Techniques

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · Ronald A. Ruden, Steven Ruden · 2005

What it is

Havening is described by its developers as a psychosensory technique: a set of tools that pairs gentle applied touch (to the upper arms, palms and face, given by a practitioner or by the client to themselves) with attention-occupying distraction tasks while a distressing memory or feeling is…

Format

• Havening is a toolset rather than a phased therapy. The sources describe a learning and delivery sequence plus a within-session cycle.
• Phases of a course of work:

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Training sequence (as one Havening trainer's case-study booklet sets it out): Havening Touch first (taught so that the client likes it and can use it), then Amplify Havening (a dry run of Event Havening), Hopeful and Informational Havening (questioning, exploring, generating ideas), Affirmational Havening (building new perspectives and predictions), Event Havening (aimed at depotentiating an encoded event), Outcome…
• Phase 2, preparation: explain the method and its evidence status, obtain consent to touch or agree a hands-off (self-Havening) format, teach Havening Touch and Self-Havening as regulation skills, and practise a dry run (Amplify Havening).
• Version followed: Havening Techniques® as developed by Ronald A. Ruden MD PhD with Steven Ruden and taught and certified by the Havening Techniques organisation (havening.org, marks owned by Ronald Ruden); the facilitated session sequence is the one documented in the single-session study by Thandi, Tom, Gould, McKenna and Greenberg (2015). The organisation's own Primer, Procedural Guide and Protocol Sheets are the…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status (one line): preliminary only; small single-session studies (uncontrolled in 2015; a touch vs no-touch comparison in 2022) report reduced distress, Havening practitioners themselves describe the supporting evidence as largely theoretical and anecdotal and call for more empirical…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• as for all types: consent, arousal level, dissociation.
• drifting back into an unprocessed traumatic memory (switch to Event Havening).
• discomfort with any element (touch, eye movements, humming) that needs adapting before trauma work.
• never touch during panic without consent agreed earlier; some clients in panic feel trapped by touch.
• high arousal when addressing a perpetrator (go back to Event Havening); grief that needs time rather than rapid resolution.

Problems the guide addresses

• Overwhelm, abreaction or flashback during activation
• Dissociation
• Touch-related problems
• Stuck: rating does not fall
• Too-rapid improvement or avoidance
• Resistance or scepticism
• Non-adherence to self-Havening
• Memory, legal and false-memory risks
• Risk, medical and medication issues
• Children and young people

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.