Human givens (psychotherapy)

Human givens is a form of psychotherapy, or a process of health care meant to promote a healthy mind and emotions through discussions with a therapist. Human givens therapy is based on the belief that all people have inborn needs, both physical and emotional, that must be met and balanced for a person to achieve happiness or fulfillment. If these needs go unmet, the person may experience a wide range of mental or emotional disorders and distress.

Background

Psychotherapy, also known as individual therapy, is a process in mental and emotional health care in which a patient meets and speaks with a therapist. Through discussions, the patient and therapist seek to improve the patient’s life and bring positive changes, often relating to particularly challenging situations such as stress, depression, or trauma. Successful psychotherapy can increase patient well-being and self-esteem and help patients develop self-awareness and personal growth. It can also help patients find answers to troubling questions and meet important personal objectives.

The idea of psychotherapy may be traced back to ancient times, with its roots “psycho-” and “-therapy” originating in the Greek terms for “soul” and “healing.” In early civilizations, however, few people had accurate understandings of mental and emotional health. For example, some believed that mental health problems were caused by supernatural forces or personal weaknesses, or people with mental illnesses needed to be segregated or institutionalized. Such harmful views of mental health care lasted, in many cases, well into the eighteenth century and beyond.

In the late nineteenth century, researchers and reformers began to discover the flaws in these traditional beliefs and approaches. Philosophers and psychologists discovered new, previously unimagined faculties of the mind and began unlocking some of its most puzzling secrets. The modern form of psychotherapy began to develop thanks to the innovations of researchers such as Wilhelm Wundt, as well as the techniques of therapists such as Sigmund Freud, who popularized the idea of improving mental health through discussion.

New schools of thought in psychology, including psychoanalysis, humanism, cognitivism, and behaviorism, emerged in the coming generations, greatly affecting mental health care and giving patients many new options for treatment. These techniques continued to evolve into the twenty-first century, with an increasing focus on patient-centered discussions and the fostering of coping abilities and personal development.

Overview

By the late twentieth century, psychotherapy had become a huge field of treatment with a wide variety of different branches and forms of treatment. Therapists and researchers Ivan Tyrrell and Joe Griffin took interest in this great variety of techniques and theories and sought to learn which principles they held in common. The researchers founded the European Therapy Studies Institute (ETSI) in 1992, with the goal of studying the types of psychotherapy, finding their most commonly successful approaches, and combining them into a unified new model.

In the 1990s, Tyrrell and Griffin began publishing a research journal as well as teaching young therapists about their developing theories. Some of their main findings became popularized by 1997 under the term “human givens.” Tyrrell and Griffin adopted this term as the name of their journal, later publications, as well as the Human Givens Institute (HGI). Although Tyrrell and Griffin are commonly considered the founders of the human givens movement, Griffin has stated that their findings were developed by numerous contributors throughout history and belong to humanity.

According to human givens theorists, all people are born with genetically programmed knowledge. This knowledge manifests itself in feelings of need, both physical and emotional. These needs, and the ways that people work to satisfy them, are the “givens” referred to in the term “human givens”—in other words, they unquestionably exist and are always present, and must be addressed and accommodated for a person’s health and fulfillment.

According to human givens proponents, people are born with a wide variety of important needs. Some of these needs are physical, including the life-sustaining basics such as food, water, shelter, and air. People may also have needs for physical exercise and stimulation of their senses. In addition to these bodily needs, humans also have a variety of psychological needs that help to enrich their mind and spirit. Some of these are a sense of purpose, a role within society, community togetherness, security, control over oneself, and emotional intimacy with others. These needs are primarily focused on connecting people with their own feelings, each other, and their natural surroundings.

Over time, these driving feelings of desire have inspired people to create great works and have propelled humanity to its unparalleled success. However, one drawback of this innate feeling is that, if a person’s fundamental needs go unmet, that person may experience many negative effects. Lack of any human givens can result in mental illnesses such as depression, anger, and anxiety, along with other feelings of distress. People who experience these negative states may suffer and act out in ways that hurt themselves or others, thus highlighting the importance of fulfilling human needs.

People usually seek human givens therapy if they are experiencing emotional distress or mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, anger, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or bereavement. The person believes that the root of the distress or disorder may be in the lack of one or more human givens.

The person meets with a therapist and discusses the situation and concerns. Then, the therapist analyzes the problem areas, trying to determine which givens may not have been satisfied. By identifying some unfulfilled desire, the therapist may help guide the patient to not only address the immediate problems at hand but also the underlying lacking that may be causing or contributing to them. Proponents of this therapy believe it is an efficient, effective approach to solving personal problems, as well as building self-awareness and skills for improving one’s life.

Bibliography

“About the Human Givens Approach.” Human Givens Institute, www.hgi.org.uk/human-givens/about-human-givens-approach. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

Griffin, Joe, and Ivan Tyrrell. Human Givens: The New Approach to Emotional Health and Clear Thinking. Human Givens Publishing, 2004.

“History of the HG Approach.” Human Givens Institute, www.hgi.org.uk/human-givens/history-hg-approach. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

“Human Givens (HG).” Good Therapy, 17 Apr. 2019, www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/human-givens. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

Human Givens Services Ltd., www.humangivens.com/human-givens/. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

“Human Givens Therapy.” Psychology Today, www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/human-givens-therapy. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

“Individual Therapy (Psychotherapy).” Good Therapy, 13 Feb. 2018, www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/modes/individual-therapy. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

Tyrrell, Ivan, and Joe Griffin. “What are the ‘Human Givens’?” Human Givens Institute, www.hgi.org.uk/human-givens/introduction/what-are-human-givens. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

Winn, Denise. "How We Know That Human Givens Therapy Works." Psychology Today, 16 June 2023, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/helping-humanity-thrive/202306/how-we-know-that-human-givens-therapy-works. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.