havening techniques®

You have the power to heal in the palms of your hands

What is Havening?

The Havening Techniques®, also called Havening, is a powerful somatic technique that uses gentle touch to calm your amygdala and empower your journey towards deep healing, lasting stress relief and overall emotional well being.

Developed by Dr. Ronald Ruden and Dr. Steven Ruden, Havening utilizes the power of neuroplasticity to help you move beyond the traumas and wounds of your past, find more peace and relaxation in the present moment, and ultimately reclaim control over your future by helping you tap into your full potential.

And, it does all this in a body centered way that effectively alters your brain chemistry and rewires the old neural pathways that have been keeping you stressed, stuck and spinning.

Watch my video: Havening explained!

How does Havening work?

Havening touch has been shown to create Delta waves in deep parts of our brains.

According to Dr. Ron Ruden, these Delta waves create neurochemical changes that can effectively calm and soothe our amygdala. When our amygdala is soothed in this way, our cortisol levels decrease, the happiness chemicals in our brains increase (I’m talking about dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin), and the neural pathways that keep us spinning in trauma, emotional reactivity, hypervigillance and stress can be rewritten.

Havening and Trauma

Dr. Ron Ruden also discovered that when the amygdala is down regulated using Havening touch, it can quickly and permanently shift the neural circuits in our brains that have held onto old traumas.

The traumatically encoded memories (the sticky trauma memories that can cause us to have flashbacks, be continuously hypervigillant and create emotional dysregulation) can be re-encoded. This means that the neural pathways that encoded the traumatic memories can be shifted in such a way that our factual memory of the past remains totally intact, but the emotional memory and the nervous system hypervigilance that cause so much chaos and lasting suffering can be totally rewritten.

This is an incredible way to free ourselves from the pains and traumatic experiences of the past. I’ve witnessed this process with dozens of trauma survivors and it’s astonishing how far reaching rewiring that emotional memory is in their lives.

Havening uses

Havening isn’t just for those who’ve experienced severe trauma; it’s for anyone seeking emotional freedom, stress reduction and personal growth.

The word “Havening” comes from the word “haven” which means to create a safe space, and that’s exactly what it feels like to me when I do Havening with myself and with my clients. This wonderful modality creates enough inner safety and nervous system regulation that it facilitates our ability to make deep and lasting changes to our internal world - which then ripple out to all areas of our lives.

So, not only can it re-encode old traumatic memories, but it can be used as a powerful nervous system regulation tool and it can really help those of us who have high stress levels and experience a lot of anxiety and overwhelm. It’s great for those of us who feel lost, adrift and disconnected from our true selves. And when utilized in certain ways, it’s amazingly effective for increasing self-awareness, self-compassion, doing inner child work, healing from past wounds and reconnecting with your authentic self.

How to do Self-Havening

For as powerful as it is, doing Havening is actually incredibly simple. (I walk you through exactly how to do it in the video above if you want a video guide.)

You can do Havening on yourself (also known as Self-Havening) as an incredibly effective self-care technique.

(Note: If you want to unravel deeply held wounds, emotional triggers and/or past traumas, then I highly recommend you work directly with a Certified Havening Practitioner - like me - who can guide you in specific and safe ways on your journey towards trauma resolution.)

Because Havening actually works to down regulate the stress and trauma centers of your brain and nervous system, it’s truly some of the best self-care you can do!

To do self-havening, simply do Havening touch for 5-7 minutes. Havening touch is done on the 3 parts of your body that have been shown to increase Delta wave production the most:

• rubbing the palms of your hands,

• stroking downwards on your arms from shoulder to elbow

• and anywhere on your face, cheeks or forehead

Do self-havening like this:

Do the Havening touch for 5-7 minutes and you will begin to feel less stressed and more centered incredibly quickly!

Here are the latest self-havening exercises featured on my podcast:

Browse all podcast episodes with Havening exercises!

Whether you just want some effective stress relief or you’re looking for a deep and powerful way to release the wounds of the past and rewire your nervous system, Havening Techniques® can support your journey!

Be sure to check out more of my Havening resources so that you can Haven your way to a better, more beautiful life.

Havening Techniques playlist on YouTube

Somatic Healing Meditations Podcast (full of guided Havening exercises!)

Here are some resources that take a deeper look at the science behind Havening techniques:

• Harnessing Electroceuticals to Treat Disorders Arising From Traumatic Stress: Theoretical Considerations Using A Psychosensory Model by Dr. Ronald Ruden

• Psychosensory Therapies: An Introduction by Dr. Ronald Ruden

• Study about Delta waves and touch by Dr. Melvin Harper

• See www.havening.org for more

Havening Techniques® is a registered trade mark of Ronald Ruden, 15 East 91st Street, New York. www.havening.org