Wellness Calendar: Tuesday 26 August

Havening
Havening was created by Ronald Ruden to help people find a safe place from the effects of PTSD and phobias and to allow the brain to process traumas, in aid of recovery.
This example of a havening technique involves doing three actions in one go. (i) Picture and hold the image of a safe space, such as a park, a field, a beach, a room or a staircase, where you will be able to visualise yourself taking 20 paces at a time. (ii) Fold your arms to your chest so that your left hand can gently rub up and down your right arm (from shoulder to elbow), your right hand doing the same on the left arm. (iii) With every visual step we take, we will move our eyes from a far-left position to a far-right position and back again.
Once you have understood these actions, you are now ready to recall a historic event that you find distressing. When you do this, allow yourself to feel the emotions of this distress. Now switch your mind’s eye to your own chosen safe space and walk 20 paces while your hands massage your arms and your eyes move from left to right. If it helps to count the 20 paces out loud, fine; if it helps to concentrate on the image of your feet as they walk, also fine.
Having achieved 20 paces in your safe space, find another secure location in your mind’s eye and do the same actions again. You can repeat these three combined actions as many times as you want, although, hopefully, the intensity of the distressing episode you brought up at the beginning of the exercise will have significantly reduced in intensity within three cycles of this technique. If you found that it helped you, perhaps there are other memories in your life that you may wish to deal with in this way, when you feel ready to do so.