The Havening Technique
FEATURE
JANIE WHITTEMORE
In May 2014, I went to a weekend seminar in London with Richard Bandler and Paul Mckenna, called, ‘Get The Life You Want’. I was excited about hearing Bandler explain Neuro‑Linguistic Programming (NLP) and how it can help people. However, there is one thing I remember most about the whole weekend. I took out a notebook and started to write. He saw me and suddenly yelled loudly at me, “No notes!” All two thousand people heard, stopped and looked at me. Immediately, I was transported back to my first day of
smells and the emotions connected to it. These sensory
senior school. As a first-year student I was in the front
inputs can be transduced into electrochemical responses
row in assembly, when the headmistress suddenly
which become encoded in specific areas in the brain.
shouted from the stage, “You! You there! What are you
Years later, we may not even know why we feel the
looking at? Come and see me after.” Her finger pointed
way we do about certain things – going out, speaking
straight at me. My eyes had been wandering during
in public, crowds, open spaces, flying, water...
prayers. The shame and humiliation of being singled out in front of all those people bore a burning hole in my heart and brain. There was no
Events experienced as children – which may even seem insignificant to an adult – can create ‘trauma’ that stays with us. Scientists have found
escaping the 800 pairs of eyes that
that whether we are conscious
were, at that moment, trained
of it or not, a trauma is encoded
on me. I could not run away.
in the amygdala, the part of
When Bandler yelled at
the brain that stores emotion.
me that day, more than thirty years later, the exact same feelings flooded my being – shame, flushing, sweating, increased heart rate, pounding in
The Healing Touch Back at the same seminar, long after I had put my notebook away and my pulse
the ears, a sense of rising panic, nausea… This is the
rate was back to normal, Paul McKenna took a spot
flight, fight or freeze system, a primal physiological
to demonstrate a new therapy he was excited about.
response to feeling threatened. In those who have
Remembered as a TV hypnotherapist, Mckenna is
already experienced some ‘trauma’, a trigger can set off
now a respected behavioural scientist, broadcaster
a repeat of the emotions felt at that earlier experience.
and author of many self-help books. McKenna asked
Electrochemical Responses
for an audience member who would like to get rid of an unpleasant memory or trauma. A haunted-
The brain takes a ‘snapshot’ of a whole situation when
looking Italian woman volunteered herself. She quietly
it is perceived as dangerous; all the sights, sounds,
explained she did not wish to share many details, but
72 The Henge Magazine
