Global interest in becoming HG-qualified

Katherine Vilnrotter is one of the increasing numbers of people flying to the UK from as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, India, Europe, United Arab Emirates and the USA to become a fully qualified human givens practitioner.

She tells us why – and how the human givens approach is going down with her fellow American clients.

Eight years ago I was sexually assaulted by a group of men whilst volunteering in a rural Latin American community. Given my own experience of overcoming trauma thanks to HG therapy, and having experienced other types of talk therapy immediately after the devastating event, I knew that I needed to learn more about the human givens approach.

Almost immediately after experiencing the transformative effects of the rewind (described in detail here) I started studying HG and four and a half years later I qualified as a human givens practitioner. I am now practicing in a wellness centre called Syntropy in Portland, Maine, in the United States.

The response to the HG approach has been overwhelmingly positive!  I work with all ages, including children as young as six, and across the board everyone gets it.  I love the fact that the framework and approach of Human Givens is just as accessible to a six year old as it is to a grown adult, and equally profound.

One common thread that I have noticed is the response to the explanation of basic neuroscience regarding how the brain processes information, and how that process changes with emotional arousal.

After the brief explanation, usually prompted by the client mentioning an experience where they felt out of control in some way or at the mercy of their emotions, there is generally a response such as… “YES! THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I FELT!!!” Hearing that they are experiencing this BECAUSE their brain is working properly, and trying to keep them safe, is generally such a relief for the people I work with.

I love working with children and young adults of all ages. The Human Givens principles and techniques have been helpful when working with small children dealing with bullying – not only to help them gain perspective about why the bully might be acting out, but to rehearse feeling and acting in more positive and constructive ways when difficult situations arise.

With children especially, I like to use a metaphor of ‘needs buckets’ that are hanging from a long stick that we balance across our shoulders.  In the metaphor, we have to fill these buckets with “things” (emotional nutrition) from our environment. If they are not filled in a balanced way, we would be more likely to fall over as we try to carry the long stick of buckets! This is something that is easy for kids to visualize and relate to (and sometimes even makes them laugh!).

I have worked with people dealing with a wide range of symptoms from eating disorders, to full blown PTSD, to wanting to perform better at work. For many of them, there is a root of some degree of ‘trauma’.  However, having been a survivor of ‘trauma’ myself, I do not like the word. I do not like the baggage filled with misconceptions and judgements that comes with it. I prefer to talk about these difficult experiences as ‘unprocessed information’ instead of using the T-word. I find this to be comforting to the people I work with. Using the Rewind Technique once a root is found has been very effective with this diverse group of people experiencing a wide range of symptoms.

The Human Givens approach is slowly gaining acceptance in the US as a mainstream form of psychotherapy. I am constantly exploring other ways to increase awareness of the Human Givens principles here in my community beyond one-on-one therapy sessions.

I look forward to sharing these with you all once they take more tangible roots here.

We thank Katherine very much for sharing her deeply traumatic experience with us, and congratulate her on her work as an HG practitioner.