Naturally healing the mind with the ‘human givens’

The human givens approach is a relatively new form of psychology and psychotherapy derived from the latest scientific understandings from neurobiology and psychology combined with ancient wisdom and original new insights.

Disseminated and taught since 1997, and initially focused on the treatment of mental distress, it is rapidly being recognised as a profoundly important shift in our understanding of human functioning and has been called “the missing heart of positive psychology”.

But what are the human givens?

We are all born with innate knowledge programmed into us from our genes. Throughout life we experience this knowledge as feelings of physical and emotional need.

These feelings evolved over millions of years and, whatever our cultural background, are our common biological inheritance. It is because they are incorporated into our biology at conception that we call them ‘human givens’.

Our ‘given physical needs’:

• We need air to breathe, water, nutritious food and sufficient sleep.
• We also need the freedom to stimulate our senses and exercise our muscles.
• We instinctively seek sufficient and secure shelter where we can grow and reproduce ourselves and bring up our young.

Our ‘given emotional needs’:

If our emotional needs are not met, we become distressed and suffer anxiety, anger, depression etc.

Emotional needs include:

• Security — safe territory and an environment which allows us to develop fully
• Attention (to give and receive it) — a form of nutrition
• Sense of autonomy and control — having volition to make responsible choices
• Being emotionally connected to others
• Feeling part of a wider community
• Friendship, intimacy — to know that at least one other person accepts us totally for who we are, “warts ‘n’ all”
• Privacy — opportunity to reflect and consolidate experience
• Sense of status within social groupings
• Sense of competence and achievement
• Meaning and purpose — which come from being stretched in what we do and think.

The system nature gave us to meet these needs is known as ‘resources’:

• The ability to develop complex long term memory
• The ability to build rapport, empathise and connect with others
• Imagination
• Emotions and instincts
• A conscious, rational mind
• The ability to ‘know’ — that is, understand the world unconsciously
• An observing self
• A dreaming brain

It is such needs and tools together that make up the human givens.

It is the way those needs are met, and the way we use the resources that nature has given us, that determine the physical, mental and moral health of an individual. When too many innate physical and emotional needs are not being met in the environment, or when our resources are used incorrectly, unwittingly or otherwise, we suffer considerable distress. And so do those around us.

Using these principles, human givens therapists have seen considerable success in treating people with a wide range of mental health problems such as:
anxiety
depression
trauma
anger management
addictive behaviour
various medical conditions — psoriasis, eczema, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain and migraine all have an emotional component. Stressful events often trigger an outbreak because emotions affect health - and vice versa.
Relationship problems

To find a therapist in your area visit www.hgi.org.uk

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