Havening Techniques

A science-informed approach to calming the nervous system, releasing emotional patterns, and building resilience

Havening Techniques® are gentle, evidence-based therapeutic techniques designed to help reduce the emotional intensity linked to trauma, anxiety, phobias and chronic stress. They work by combining therapeutic touch with focused attention in a way that helps the brain and nervous system process experience differently.

Developed by Dr Ron and Dr Steven Ruden, Havening grew out of a desire to understand why some experiences leave such a lasting emotional imprint, and what could help shift that pattern more gently and effectively.  They’ve since become a powerful tool for reducing our stress response and encoding of anxiety, beliefs and unhelpful emotional patterns. They’re equally valuable for installing and increasing calm, focus, and in building emotional resilience.

There are different forms of Havening, and the way it is used depends on what we’re working with. Whether we’re aiming to de-link a past emotional response, reduce daily stress, or reinforce a new way of thinking or feeling, the method is tailored to support that outcome.

What Are Havening Techniques?

Havening is a type of Psychosensory Therapy, which simply means it uses sensory input, like gentle touch, to create a neurological response.

Touch is typically applied to the arms, hands, or face. It can be done by the practitioner, yourself or people close to you.  This therapeutic touch sets off what can be most easily described as a natural but increased electro-chemical chain reaction throughout your body. In response, the brain produces a wave of calming neurochemistry (including serotonin and GABA), and shifts into a deeply restful, delta-wave state. This is similar to what we experience during restorative sleep. This has a calming effect throughout your brain and nervous system, and gives you a sense of safety.

In this altered receptive state, the brain becomes more open to rewiring unhelpful responses through delinking the emotional content of traumatic memories with the rest of the experience. Havening creates the conditions for emotional change by working with the brain and body, not against them.

You may still remember the event or belief, but it no longer carries the same emotional charge. The panic, fear, or shame that once felt automatic can fade, or in some cases, disappear completely.

The Science Behind It

When an event is experienced as traumatic or overwhelming, the brain stores that memory in a heightened, emotionally “charged” way, usually in the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for detecting threat.

Even after the event has passed, the brain can keep reacting as though the threat is still present.  Reminders that feel even vaguely similar can trigger the same intense emotional response, regardless of whether it’s logical or wanted.  

Havening helps by removing the “potentiated” receptors that keep that memory wired to an overactive emotional response. This process is called depotentiation and it’s effect is that the charge is reduced, so the memory or trigger no longer hits with the same intensity.

After Havening, the memory may still be there, but the emotional intensity is not. It becomes a memory like any other, one that no longer disrupts the present.

You can view the full list of published Havening research studies here.

Where havening came from

Havening was developed by Dr. Ronald Ruden  a medical doctor with a strong interest in neuroscience and trauma , together with his brother Dr. Steven Ruden, Havening was born out of over a decade of research. The method took shape after Dr. Ruden witnessed a colleague receive a different form of psychosensory therapy for a phobia, with unexpectedly powerful results. Driven by curiosity and scientific rigour, the Rudens explored how traumatic memories are encoded in the brain, and how those emotional responses could be safely and permanently transformed.

Their research laid the foundations for methods now used internationally by therapists, doctors, and coaches alike.