Why was the human givens approach developed?
If you could read a potted history of psychotherapy you would see an evolution of break-neck speed from the birth of the field to the chaotic situation of today, where we have at least 650 models of counselling and psychotherapy. Although many of these offer some effective techniques and useful insights, overall we have an uncoordinated disarray of theories, terminology and methods, which causes confusion among both health professionals and those in need of help.
Mature sciences like chemistry, physics and engineering are built on a broad common ground of understanding. Despite the wealth of psychological and neuroscientific knowledge available to us, this is currently lacking in psychotherapy. It was to address this lack that the human givens overarching idea was first proposed.
Psychologists Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell, co-founders of the human givens approach, looked to the fundamental principles of what it means to be human to develop a simple, robust, scientifically up-to-date, coordinated and agreed bio-psycho-social model of healthy human functioning: a shared language and a practical framework upon which to build an effective, integrative approach to emotional health which truly understands us as human beings with human needs.
Explore our articles and interviews
Why we dream in metaphor
The expectation fulfilment theory of dreaming put forward by Joe Griffin is, to date, the best explanation for why we dream and why we forget our dreams...
Blue sky vision
There’s no mystery in the news that the 20th January is labelled
Book Review – The Attention Merchants: how our time and attention are gathered and sold
Ivan Tyrrell reviews "The Attention Merchants: how our time and attention are gathered and sold" by Tim Wu (Atlantic Books, £20.00)
Don’t Worry, Be Happy… and Overcome Anxiety
Do you think of yourself as an anxious person? This can lead you to think that anxiety is your lot; that there is damn all you can do about it. Well, that isn’t true at all and you are confining yourself to a limiting box if you continue to believe that...
How biohistory affects human nature
Jim Penman tells Ivan Tyrrell how biology drives our social history, explaining temperament change within cultures and the rise and fall of civilisations.
Why people with schizophrenia so often use illicit drugs
USE of illicit drugs is common in schizophrenia, with a recent meta-analysis showing that as many as one in four patients had ‘cannabis use disorder’.
Knowledge beyond words: confusion and ethics
In 2002 BACP published new ethical guidelines. Before publication, Ivan Tyrrell questioned the main author of the guidelines, Tim Bond, about what they actually mean.
Human givens: the evidence so far
In this 2009 article, Bill Andrews describes the practice-based evidence that has emerged from studies of the human givens approach to date and explains why the future looks positive.
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BBC Somerset Radio Interview
Charlie Taylor interviews Judith Desbonne and Tiffany Osborne about the human givens approach to therapy and its many benefits.
2020 Conference Programme announced
This year's 2-day conference promises to be another cracking event with some fascinating new insights, a wealth of practical content to expand your professional knowledge and inspirational illustrations of how widely the HG approach is spreading.