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New insights and understandings

The holistic human givens approach has generated, through the research of its co-founders and others, new insights and findings which are consistent with the latest neuroscientific research (as well as findings from other disciplines), and have major implications for making not only psychotherapy and counselling more effective, but also education and psychological interventions in general.

These are covered at length on the HG Diploma course and individually on other HG College's, online courses and UK-based training days and are fully referenced in our many publications.

They include:

  • Helps us to identify why a person is experiencing their current difficulties and what can be done about it
  • A new view of the unconscious mind – the APET™ model – which is compatible with neuroscience, clinical experience and experiment, and which shows how the brain works through ‘pattern matching’. This supersedes cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) because it is more true to the reality of brain functioning
  • A new insight into trauma and, therefore, how best to treat it
  • An holistic understanding of the evolutionary origins and function of human dreaming, which has huge implications for our emotional health
  • The crucial link between thinking styles and fluctuations in emotional arousal
  • An holistic, integrated theory for why depression develops and is maintained
  • A new explanation for addiction and why withdrawal symptoms occur
  • The discovery of ‘molar memories’ which generate and maintain some instances of compulsive behaviour (such as sexual compulsions, anorexia and bulimia)
  • An understanding of why the use of metaphor is so powerful as a form of treatment
  • A comprehensive understanding of the placebo and ‘nocebo’ effects
  • A psychobiological explanation of clinical hypnosis, why it works and what mechanisms are common to all forms of hypnotic induction
  • A new, empowering understanding of the potential cause of autism
  • A new insight into what psychosis is
  • Caetextia: a new definition of autistic and Asperger's behaviour
  • A more comprehensive understanding of the importance of the REM (rapid eye movement) state in generating reality and accessing intuitive knowledge
  • A new understanding of the nature of consciousness.

Explore our articles and interviews

Search our archive

  • The Century of the Self

    Ivan Tyrrell explores with Adam Curtis how Freudian ideas are flourishing in business and politics today and insidiously influence all of our lives.

  • From self-harm to self-belief

    Emily Gajewski describes how the human givens approach has provided a practical focus for working with women struggling to cope with everyday life

  • Why abstractions confuse people

    Most people think ethics is concerned with truth, justice, equality, loyalty, fairness, values, principles, morals, etc. All these words in italics are abstractions. They are content free. They contain no sensory information. Such words used to be called 'reifications' in philosophy and are now more commonly called 'nominalisations'.

  • The wrong write stuff?

    Denise Winn looks at the research on whether writing about traumatic experiences enhances physical and psychological health.

  • Mind Sculpture: "This trembling web"

    Joe Griffin talks with Professor Ian Robertson about the role of experience in the sculpting of our brains, and why certain types of counselling may do harm.

  • A life in service

    Andrew Jones describes how the human givens approach has transformed his effectiveness in his demanding role as a chaplain in the Royal Air Force.

  • A much-changed practice

    GP Mona Mahfouz shows how dramatically the human givens approach has altered the way she works

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