Sleep and dreaming

You will find lots of information about the importance of sleep and the connection between dreaming and mental health on this website, see:

HG College - Free online courses

Human Givens College - Free online courses

HG College
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Why do we dream?

Joe Griffin reviews past theories and recent research findings (all of which add further evidence in support of his ground-breaking theory) as he tells the riveting story of how he solved the mystery of our dreams...
Dreaming, daydreaming and creativity

Ivan Tyrrell's fascinating talk from the HG Diploma course throws new light on our evolution as he explains the crucial role of the REM state and much more...

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Definition of dreaming

An imaginary perceptual experience that occurs primarily in REM sleep. Dreams act out our unexpressed emotional expectations (positive and negative) through the medium of metaphor. Dreaming reduces stress and preserves the integrity of our emotional responses. Excessive and intensive dreaming has been linked to clinical depression. Dream phenomena occurring while patients are awake have been linked to schizophrenia.

More information about why we dream can be found in the book Why we dream: the definitive answer (listed opposite)

> Click here to explore a website dedicated to why we dream

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Emma Charlton describes how the human givens approach provides the framework for the fertility support group she co-facilitates in Bristol.

Emma Charlton describes how the human givens approach provides the framework for the fertility support group she co-facilitates in Bristol.
Giving hope in troubled times

Carol Harper considers how the Human Givens approach can help us to manage expectations, adapt to our new reality and develop resilience
The Trickster: Medicine's forgotten character

Therapy in all its forms can be confusingly capricious and unpredictable. We should not try to deny this, but learn to accept it, says Larry Dossey MD.
PTSD: why some techniques for treating it work so fast

In this article, Joe Griffin suggests that techniques which can yield immediate success, may share an underlying mechanism.
Working with psychosis — once a week

Emily Gajewski describes how, as a therapist in private practice, she helped a client overcome the psychotic delusions that were keeping her trapped.
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’.
My First Year as a Human Givens Therapist

Sally Nillson reflects on her first year in private practice.
Inside our ethics committee

In the first of what will become an annual feature, Ian Thomson, deputy chair of the HGI’s Registration and Professional Standards Committee (RPSC), shares learning points from cases presented within the past year for adjudication or advice.