Renée van der Vloodt

The Human Givens approach is the first school of psychotherapy to have emerged from the UK. It was introduced just ten years ago and is now taught as an M.A., having been recognised for its practicality and efficacy. This makes it cost effective too.

Human beings are born with physical and emotional needs, as well as with the resources to get their needs met. If our needs and resources (our human ‘givens’) are in balance, our lives will be productive and meaningful.

Needs and resources

Needs include autonomy, control; being part of a community. We also need to feel safe, to be connected to others and to have a sense of status; to give and receive attention.

Our resources include memory, analytical and analogous thinking, empathy, emotions and our ability to dream.

If our needs and resources are not met and in balance, the result is stress, anxiety, anger or depression.

Effective therapy

Our effective therapy puts you back in touch with your resources and helps use these to get your needs met. People are taught to recognise patterns of thought and behaviour and to break through cycles which stop them meeting their goals. If the problems result from trauma, clients are helped to reintegrate and contextualise these memories so that they no longer intrude and stop people leading fulfilling lives.

We integrate skills and principles from a variety of sources including: cognitive and behavioural therapy, NLP, interpersonal therapy, guided imagery, EFT, relaxation techniques; the need for metaphor.

The approach is entirely research based, integrating the latest findings from neuroscience and recognised existing psychological understanding. This means we work with the whole person – body and mind.