It’s in8 – powered by human givens

Alec Stansfield and Bindi Gauntlet were among the first to discover human givens training back in 1997 – the approach has been central to their lives ever since.

The most important thing to say about the human givens approach is that it works. It works within different cultures, within different work environments, within different families and for individuals with unique life stories and backgrounds.

The training we received from the co-founders of the approach, Ivan Tyrrell and Joe Griffin, has enabled us to help countless people to reduce stress, overcome varied challenges and live better lives.

We have seen clients turn their lives completely around: from, for example, feeling severely depressed and utterly stuck to actively anticipating return to work; from rape victim to enabled mother; from traumatised soldier to functioning family member. And I have lost count of the number of people we have helped to overcome phobias of every type.

However, what is equally as important to us as the life transformations that we have had the privilege to share, is the perspective that it gives about what it truly means to be human.

For us, embracing the human givens approach has felt like throwing open the windows on a sunny day and letting the light stream in. It has strengthened our relationships, improved our business, empowered our clients and given us a clear sense of meaning and purpose.

Bindi attended her first workshops with Joe Griffin back in 1997 when she was working as a Health Visitor within the NHS. She immediately found the simple ideas extremely practical and effective in her work and after introducing me to the human givens approach, we both decided to take the Human Givens Diploma Course, completing it in December 2003.

Bindi worked as a human givens therapist within the NHS for several years before we took the decision to move to Wiltshire to focus on building up a private practice.

We both completed the Advanced Diploma (Alec in 2006, Bindi in 2007) and were each awarded a Fellowship of the Human Givens Institute for our contributions. In 2008 I qualified as a human givens supervisor and I enjoy supporting other human givens therapists in their work. In 2009 we created a two-day course aimed at helping students of the human givens approach to successfully complete their Part 3 (video submission) HG practitioner qualification. This course ran until 2015.

How we’ve used the HG approach

Since 2004, every part of our business has been driven by the human givens approach. We currently run a small private psychotherapy practice in Trowbridge, Wiltshire where we see clients, couples and families, but for a few years we were a Community Interest Company (a social enterprise) known as “The Wiltshire Human Givens Centre”.

However, in 2012 we decided to focus on developing tools that people could use to improve well-being, reduce stress and learn how to live more fulfilled lives – and our in8 Cards (pronounced ‘innate’) were born. Although many of our customers know about the human givens approach, there is a growing contingent whose first exposure to these powerful ideas comes from using the well-being resources we publish from our website (https://in8.uk.com)

Our customers include business coaches, teachers, mentors, voluntary workers and Carers as well as therapists and trainers. To date, we have sold over 1200 sets of in8 Cards to a worldwide audience. We also run workshops teaching the HG Needs Model of Well-being and sell an online programme which is a video-based version of the in8 Cards.

This is how we describe the benefits of what in8 provides: “in8’s practical tools and support will help you to guide your clients towards improved emotional health and well-being. These tools are clear and simple for you to use and can be easily integrated with your existing approach. They will help your clients choose where to focus their attention in order to achieve guaranteed improvement in their well-being.”

We believe there are many opportunities to take some of the fundamental human givens organising ideas and use them to improve well-being in our communities. And although we are both qualified psychotherapists, we can see that many of these opportunities lie outside the relatively narrow field of psychotherapy. Suffolk Mind, for instance, who have enthusiastically embraced the use of the in8 Cards within their own training programmes, apply the human givens approach in everything they do, to great effect.

The images above show the in8 Cards illustrations being used by the charity “Brass For Africa” (https://www.humangivens.com//www.brassforafrica.org/) to help teenagers in Kampala, Uganda. The cards are now also an integral part of a new course for Doulas (birth partners) which has recently been accredited by DONA (Doulas Of North America).

We’re pleased that in8 is playing its part in helping the human givens approach to go global.

For more information about in8 resources, visit: https://in8.uk.com