Research papers on the efficacy of human givens therapy

All information regarding published and ongoing research can be found at:

Research findings | Human Givens

 

Here are the links to individual pieces of research you may find interesting:

• Burdett H and Greenberg N. ‘Service evaluation of a Human Givens Therapy service for veterans’. Occupational Medicine, 23 May 2019:

https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqz045

 

 

• In 2011 The British Psychological Society’sleading peer-reviewed journal, Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice published a 12-month evaluation of the Human Givens approach in primary care at a general medical practice which showed that more than three out of four patients were either symptom-free or reliably changed as a result of HG therapy.

This was accomplished in an average of only 3.6 sessions; this is significantly better than the recovery rate published for the UK government’s flagship IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) programme, which uses therapists trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

The official citation for the research is: Andrews, W., Twigg, E., Minami, T. and Johnson, G. (11 February 2011) ‘Piloting a practice research network: A 12-month evaluation of the Human Givens approach in primary care at a general medical practice.’ Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.

You can view the abstract and paper at the permanent URL:
doi:10.1111/j.2044-8341.2010.02004

 

 

• In 2012 the Human Givens Foundation (HGF) commissioned Bill Andrews to analyse and write up the patient outcome data gathered by human givens therapists and submitted by them to the HGI’s Practice Research Network (HGIPRN).

The resulting substantial paper based on five years’ worth of data from thousands of real-life cases by over 70 therapists working in a wide range of settings was published by the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Mental Health Review in 2013.

This larger study reinforces the findings from a pilot study (published by the British Psychological Society) as to the effectiveness of the HG approach in the relief of emotional distress and marks another important step in gaining wider acceptance and awareness of the human givens approach.

The abstract and article can be accessed via the following link:
Mental Health Review

The permanent URL link is: doi 10.1108/MHRJ-04-2013-0011

Its official citation is: Andrews, W. P., Wislocki, A. P., Short, F., Chow, D., Minami, T. (2013) “A 5-year evaluation of the Human Givens therapy using a Practice Research Network”, Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 18 Issue: 3

 

 

• In September 2012 the Mental Health Review, published two peer-reviewed academic papers showing the effectiveness of the human givens approach; one involving the treatment of mild to moderate depression and the other to the therapeutic value of the HG Emotional Needs Audit (ENA) tool.

The research work was done by a distinguished team of academics, Dr Anna Tsaroucha, Professor Paul Kingston, Director of the Centre for Ageing and Mental Health, Dr Ian Walton, General Practitioner and Professor Tony Stewart, Professor in Public Health. It was also independently peer reviewed.

The Mental Health Review is an influential, high quality source of information and intelligence for researchers, managers, commissioners, purchasers and practitioners working in the field of mental health, so the content will be noticed. We hope it will also be acted upon, especially since it reveals that huge savings could be made if the human givens approach was more widely adopted.

You can read the original papers on the Mental Health Review website by clicking the following links:

• Assessing the effectiveness of the “human givens” approach in treating depression
• The emotional needs audit (ENA): a report on its reliability and validity

 

 

• In 2017, as part of her PsyD research an experienced clinical psychologist Dr Shona Adams carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluation into the effectiveness of the rewind technique,*  a refined version of which human givens therapists use as part of their therapeutic toolkit. She also conducted an empirical study with 44 participants who each received rewind treatment as part of their HG therapy. Finally, she completed a service evaluation for a single session pilot ‘Trauma clinic’ in the NHS using rewind. The research was published on the University of Leicester’s website under their theses collection for the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, and is currently being submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Reference Citation:

Adams, S. (2017). Human Givens Rewind Treatment for PTSD and Sub-threshold Trauma. University of Leicester, U.K.

Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2381/39978

 

 

• Yvonne Yates and Cathy Atkinson from Manchester University explored the effectiveness of the HG approach in working with teenagers who were reporting poor subjective wellbeing. Their findings were published in ‘Pastoral Care in Education: An International Journal of Personal, Social and Emotional Development’.

This beautifully written paper really conveys a lot of detail about the approach.

You can view the abstract and paper at the permanent URL:
doi: 10.1080/02643944.2010.548395

Copies of the paper can also be obtained by emailing Cathy at: Cathy.Atkinson@manchester.ac.uk

Reference citation:
Yates, Y and Atkinson, C. (2011) Using Human Givens therapy to support the well-being of adolescents: a case example.  Pastoral Care in Education, 29, 1, 35–47.

 

 

• All human givens therapists are encouraged by the College and their professional body, the Human Givens Institute (HGI), to work in an outcome-informed way.  Many use an online portal, Pragmatic Tracker,in order to safely and securely measure their outcomes with their clients at every session.

PTSD Resolution, which only uses HG therapists to treat veterans suffering from serious mental health and other problems, insists that all therapists track their clients’ progress using Pragmatic Tracker.

The result of this is 10 years worth of robust data which clearly shows the positive impact human givens therapy is having with often complex and difficult cases.  Research by King’s College using this data-set has been published – and the data-set can be made available to other researchers or anyone doing a Masters project at university.

Core real life, practice-based data on clinical outcomes in a variety of settings also collected in this way (on well over 3,000 patients submitted by over 70 different therapists) via the HGI’s Research Practice Network (HGIPRN) shows human givens therapy to be reliably effective for the majority of patients and in only a small number of sessions.¹

Since the last publication using this resource, data have accumulated on 1000s more clients and the findings of success from the peer-reviewed studies continue to be replicated. The majority of clients treated by human givens practitioners show considerable improvement in treatment, usually in a small number of sessions (4 or less). The work continues and more published papers are in the pipeline.

 

 

About the HGIPRN

The Human Givens Institute Practice Research Network was created in 2007 to promote the use of outcome measurement and feedback in practice. This had the dual aims of promoting best practice while also building the evidence base for the effectiveness of the approach. The work of the HGIPRN was supported by the Human Givens Foundation.

The first HGIPRN project was the investigation of Human Givens Therapy (HG) in the treatment of clients referred by their General Medical Practitioner for treatment for common mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. Known as the ‘Luton Study’, this study, which was based on 124 clients, was funded by the Human Givens Foundation and has been published. The conclusions were that the HG approach indeed appears to be an effective treatment (read more).

After this initial study HG practitioners working in a range of organisations across the UK, from private practice, NHS services, specialist trauma services, voluntary organisations and many more, participated in gathering evidence on an ongoing basis using Pragmatic Tracker.

The resulting much larger 5-year study¹, which involved 1000s of cases and over 70 HG therapists HG practitioners, reinforced the findings of the pilot study as to the plausibility of the human givens approach in the relief of emotional distress.

 

References

Andrews, W. P., Wislocki, A. P., Short, F., Chow, D., Minami, T. (2013) “A 5-year evaluation of the Human Givens therapy using a Practice Research Network”, Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 18 Issue: 3, 2013, pp 165-176. Read more