Psychotherapy
Insights to enhance emotional well-being
Insights to enhance emotional well-being
The human givens framework offers an organising idea derived from the latest scientific understandings from neurobiology and psychology, ancient wisdom and original new insights. It is a bio-psycho-social model of psychotherapy. Disseminated and taught since 1997 and initially focused on the treatment of mental distress, this new school of psychology and psychotherapy is rapidly being recognised as a profoundly important shift in our understanding of human functioning.
Human Givens psychotherapy has been called “the missing heart of positive psychology” and many now refer to it as “enhanced CBT”. The startling success produced by the efficacy, adaptability and practical nature of these new ideas, is borne out by the speed at which this model is moving into new areas, ranging from psychotherapy, education and social work to international diplomatic relations and the corporate world of business.
It is such needs and tools together that make up the human givens, nature's genetic endowment to humanity. Over enormous stretches of time, they underwent continuous refinement as they drove our evolution on. They are best thought of as inbuilt patterns — biological templates — that continually interact with one another and (in undamaged people) seek their natural fulfilment in the world in ways that allow us to survive, live together as many-faceted individuals in a great variety of different social groupings, and flourish. It is the way those needs are met, and the way we use the resources that nature has given us, that determine the physical, mental and moral health of an individual. As such, the human givens are the benchmark position to which we must all refer — in education, mental and physical health and the way we organise and run our lives.
Along with physical and emotional needs nature gave us guidance systems to help us meet them. We call these 'resources'. The resources nature gave us to help us meet our needs include: