Recently I delivered an online workshop to 80 Newly qualified Social Workers entitled ‘Neuroscience of FEAR and How to Let-Go of It’.
During the workshop I provided them super cutting edge training on neuroscience followed by a guided Havening session. The objective to help them feel measurably better and empowered by the end of the session.
Participants were asked to recall an unwanted fear based emotion linked to a recent experience, in their work or personal life and then guided to do Havening Touch along with some distraction. Havening Touch is simple self-soothing touch of hands, arms and face which stimulates the fibres under the surface of the skin and elevates neurochemicals that make us feel good and gives a message to to the nervous system to sends toxic stress chemicals away. This provides a unique opportunity to help release unwanted emotions and tap into feel good emotions.
The objective is to repeat this simple technique in our day to day lives and thereby entraining and tuning the nervous system into a more positive disposition. The neuroscience behind this runs deep but in essence we are breaking the pattern of electrochemical loops that have been involuntarily created as an outcome from negative or traumatic stress.
During the session they were invited to make a mental note of how they felt better and some participants chose to post in the chat their feedback. Here are a selection of the words provide by participants.
Warmth
hope
Relaxed
Warm
Relief
calmness
refreshed
calm
reassurance
hopeful
courageous
Relaxed and calm
very calm
at peace
relaxing
Happy
More relaxed
free
relaxed and moving forward with positive smile
Chilling
In Havening we are seeking measurable change. Each session is an opportunity to transform our emotions from fear-based to flourishing-based. To this participants are invited at the beginning of each session to make a mental note of their subjective experience of distress (SUD) level out of 10 (10 being high level of distress and 0 being no distress at all) upon recalling their unwanted fear based emotion and work/life situation. They then rate how they feel at the end of the session. Some of them used the chat to note down their scores.
4/10 to 2/10
8/10 to 3/10
10/10 to 2/10
8/10 to 5/10
5/10 to 3/10
6/10 to 4/10
8/10 to 2/10
8/10 to 2/10
7/10 to 4/10
7/10 to 2/10
6/10 to 2/10
6/10 to 3/10
You can see that there was significant improvement from high level distress towards zero with roughly half of those who shared and a substantial improvement from high level of distress to relative calm to the remaining.
Here is the feedback about the session of some of the participants:
This has been a very impactful section
It gives a chance to take a minute and be present in the moment
I can't wait to share this with my colleagues - THANK YOU :-)
Thank you Jan, very useful. I have been working in the profession for nearly 10 years but only newly qualified. I wish I knew this before
Think I needed this today, have been feeling very overwhelmed lately
Thank you so much Jan! :) I was not familiar with havening, this really changed my mindset around a difficult situation.
i think this has come along at the right time for the team
Got bad news today about the person i am supporting, and this has been helpful
Talking about "negative rumination" has made me aware of how often I unconsciously process the negative and what I could have or should have done. I will endeavour to set aside time ...
This has been a very impactful section
We hope you will join us at our our next workshop of the same title - we are looking forward to seeing you there on 3rd Feb and you can find out more here .... https://www.turnoveranewleaf.co.uk/neuroscience-of-fear
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