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.

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Are you ok? Don’t miss signs of depression.

Would you know if someone you care about has depression? Most people probably think that they would, but it isn’t necessarily as obvious as you might expect. Indeed, until some simple screening questionnaires were introduced for GPs to use, half of them were missing the diagnosis in patients that came to consult them.
The carrot and the stick

Mark Evans describes how working imaginatively with rewards and punishments has helped his clients achieve very swift change
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...
Dublin City FM Radio Interview

Listen to Brian Greene’s interview with Sue Saunders (Human Givens College tutor and Educational Director) as they discuss the HG approach to treating mental illness, human givens counselling and our training events.
Case study - They came in the night

How a modified version of the rewind technique helped heal the emotional wounds of a family subjected to savage violence in a country torn by civil war.
"What was that you said again?" - a new look at psychosis

Ivan Tyrrell and Richard Bentall discuss patient-centred new approaches to the understanding and treatment of psychotic illness..
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'.
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.