All individuals come into the world with the same basic physical and emotional needs: physical needs such as for air, sustenance, shelter and warmth, and emotional ones such as security, attention, emotional connection to others, feeling in control, having status and a sense that life is meaningful, which comes from being healthily stretched in our lives.

Nature also gives us a range of innate resources to help us meet these needs.

These include: memory, imagination, problem-solving abilities, self-awareness and a range of different thinking styles to use in various situations. These needs and resources are built into our biology and make up the ‘givens’ of human nature. Those trained in the Human Givens approach focus on finding what is preventing a distressed person from getting their innate need met and helping them use their innate resources creatively to get them met.

To do this, we use a variety of up-to-date, proven psychological methods and techniques focused on problem solving and developing new life skills.

The treatment starts out with me finding out about you and the difficulties you are experiencing. More often than not, right from the first session we will also begin using relaxation methods, together with a wide range of other techniques. These exercises work to activate your own natural resources and are key to providing you with immediate relief from psychological stress.

We will also work out some achievable and realistic goals to focus on, starting with small manageable steps and continuing at a pace which suits you. We will work together to set goals that are clear and meaningful to you.

From here on, we activate your natural resources to help you to feel better and take back control of your life.

At each session, we check out what effects the treatment is having for you and, if necessary, work through any unanticipated difficulties. Treatment ends when you’re happy that you’ve made enough progress to continue living a healthy life without regular assistance from me. (Human Givens therapists do not encourage people to become dependent on therapy.)

Everyone’s situation is different, but we aim to take as few sessions as possible and you can fully expect improvements to begin from the first session. People rarely need more than six sessions to make significant progress and lasting improvements, often as few as three or four are necessary.