What People Suffering from Anxiety Need to Know About Havening Therapy

Living with anxiety can feel like walking through life with a boulder chained to your ankle; it slows you down, prevents you from fully enjoying life’s gifts, and it causes mental and physical anguish. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, 18.1 percent of all American adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, and many more remain undiagnosed. In the last decade, public service announcements imploring people to seek help for anxiety and depression have more than quadrupled, as anxiety disorders and depression leave our communities with a crippling hindrance.

Unfortunately, traditional speech-based therapy fails to treat anxiety at its deep roots, and statistics reveal that alternative therapies for treating anxiety have a significantly higher success rate. One of these alternative therapies, havening therapy has gained tremendous popularity due to its effectiveness. In fact, some patients even report noticing results upon receiving their first session. Endorsed by high profile celebrities like Justin Bieber, Jennifer Aniston and Lauren Conrad. Havening therapy has made a significant and positive impact on treating anxiety. When people (regardless of social status or location) work with the best havening therapy counselors at anxiety trauma centers like Serenity Trauma, they are in the best position to treat the root cause of their anxiety and learn how to have positive emotional responses to the traumatic incident that created the source for trauma, and make a full recovery.

What is Havening Therapy?

Havening therapy is a newer type of alternative therapy approach that treats anxiety by amalgamating distraction, eye movements and touch. Havening therapy’s goal is to reduce and eliminate anxiety rooted in negative memories. The therapeutic touch administered by highly trained havening therapists helps to treat the symptoms of anxiety and depression by changing pathways in the brain that are connected to emotional distress. When touched, there is a boost in the production of serotonin in one’s brain, and this helps the patient detach from the upsetting memory. In addition, the release of serotonin has a soothing effect that further helps to eliminate the painful memories that create anxiety. Basically, this approach creates a “haven” for people to recover and heal, hence the name “havening” therapy.

Who Are Good Candidates for Havening Therapy?

In order to determine if havening therapy is right for you, you will need to have an initial consultation with one of our havening therapists, as havening therapy is one of several alternative therapy methods that can be used to treat trauma.

Typically, havening therapy is ideal for people spanning a wide range of traumas and anxiety disorders that include, but are not limited to the following:

• Family trauma
• Addiction trauma
• Survivor guilt PTSD
• Anxiety from a miscarriage
• Family scapegoat PTSD
• PTSD from an illness or invasive surgery
• First responder / combat PTSD
• Anxiety brought on by grief and mourning
• Phobias

When you have a consultation with an intake therapist at Serenity Trauma, the expert will be able to review your symptoms, learn about the traumatic event, and determine if it is the right approach to treating and curing your anxiety. In some cases, havening therapy can be included with another alternative treatment to create a custom approach to treating your trauma based on your unique profile.

If Havening Therapy is Right for Me, What Can I Expect a Session To Be Like?

Havening therapy sessions are very relaxing. If you book havening therapy sessions with Serenity Trauma, your therapists will likely run through these steps (be aware some additional steps may be included, based on your unique needs):

• Determining Distress Levels – Your havening therapists will begin the session by asking what your emotional distress level is, at the time of therapy. A numeric scale system is used to gauge the level, or in some cases verbal descriptions can determine this by using descriptions such as “moderately scared” or “very terrified”.
• Wiping Away Thoughts – Your havening therapist will use a special tactic (to be determined at the time) that will help you wipe away your thoughts while you focus on something positive in order to usher in positive energy and a calming state.
• Tapping Touch – Havening therapists will instruct their clients to tap certain areas of the body (generally the collarbone) as the individual blinks very slowly.
• Counting Down – While talking persists, your havening therapist will instruct you to shut your eyes and, very slowly, countdown starting at 10 or 20. While this is happening, the havening therapists will ask you to visualize yourself doing an action that typically involves moving in sync with the countdown, such as walking down stairs, or removing objects from a table.
• Moving Your Eyes – Your havening therapist will likely have you lay down, cross your arms, and ask you to fix your gaze in several directions. For example, you may be asked to move your eyes in a clockwise motion, and then look side to side. The right eye movements will be established by your havening therapy specialist.
• Sound and Touch – Your havening therapist may ask you to hum while using a gentle touching technique on the forehead or arms. Usually, people are asked to hum tunes they know whether that be “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Gloria” by Laura Branigan.
• Distress Level Recheck – Once again, you will be asked to rate emotional distress levels after going through some of the treatment steps. This will help your havening therapist be able to fine-tune the approach.

Undergoing havening therapy could very well be the most soothing and comforting activity you will have ever experienced. There are no known side effects, and many of our clients report a significant notice in anxiety levels dropping just after their first treatment.

Call Serenity Trauma to Learn if Havening Therapy is Right for You

No matter how traumatic the event was that you survived, you deserve to live a carefree life without anxiety clouding your mind and impacting your body. Call Serenity Trauma today and ask to speak with one of our top-rated havening therapists to learn if this is the right approach for you that treats and cures anxiety symptoms.