Resources
Things worth a look
A few Havening Techniques® resources I keep coming back to and often point people towards. None of it is homework. If you would rather just come and experience a session, that is fine too.
Watch
Havening Techniques explained!
hello inner light · YouTube
The gentlest place to start. Short, barely any science in it, and more about how Havening feels than how it is meant to work. If you only watch one thing on this page, watch this one.
What is Havening and how does it work?
Tam Johnston · YouTube
A short video introduction, and the clearest explanation of the thinking behind Havening I have found. This is the one for when you want the how and the why of it.
Essential anxiety tips: a key distinction to manage anxiety
Tam Johnston · YouTube
Tam walks through applying the touch to yourself, so this is the one to watch if you want to try it on your own at home. For the bigger things, it is better done alongside a practitioner than by yourself.
Read
A novel theory of trauma offers new treatment possibilities
Dr Robin Youngson · New Zealand Medical Journal, 2025
A New Zealand doctor's account of the theory behind Havening: how traumatic memories may be encoded in the brain, and why that opens up new ways of working with them. Reading the full article needs a free subscription to the journal.
Harnessing electroceuticals to treat disorders arising from traumatic stress
Dr Ronald Ruden · Explore, 2019
From the developer of Havening himself: the theoretical case for how touch-based approaches might change what a traumatic memory does in the brain. The most technical thing on this page, for when you want the deep end.
The Body Keeps the Score
Dr Bessel van der Kolk · 2014
Not about Havening at all, and the book that had the biggest influence on how I think about this work. It is about the way difficult experiences live in the body rather than only in the story we tell about them. Any decent bookshop or library will have it.
One honest note, same as everywhere else on this site: these pieces explore the thinking behind Havening, and that thinking is still being researched. They are worth your time, and they are not proof of what Havening will do for you. I link them as information, not as an endorsement of my practice by their authors.