Welcome to Jo Burch Counselling and Psychotherapy

Have you found it hard to shake off past traumatic experiences?

Are you suffering with chronic pain which is making life hard to cope with?

Do you need a break from the swirl of thoughts and feelings in your mind and body?

Do you have a phobia holding you back from living life to the full?

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Havening Techniques ® can offer a way of being able to release you from overwhelming pain and distress; the opportunity to be free of the past so you can thrive, not just survive.

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The psychosensory treatment can create a gentle and compassionate way of bringing relief from suffering quickly and effectively, building emotional and mental resilience and boosting physical wellbeing.

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I offer one-to-one sessions in person or online to support you to release past trauma and create a new, more resourceful future. I can also give you the tools to support yourself at home or work in moments of everyday stress, worry or anxiety.

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Havening is a simple and gentle technique that can interrupt and replace the connections in your mind which keep difficult experiences alive.

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It works by breaking the chains in your brain that link uncomfortable feelings and physical sensations to conscious and unconscious memories of the past. It is when these connections become triggered that you may have been left feeling helpless and trapped and lacking in hope that life can be different.

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We can create Havening sessions tailored to your personal experience and to envision a future with your aims and specific goals in mind to give you the chance to have the life you want.

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Havening can help people who experience:

• Phobias such as fear of flying, water, heights and spiders

• Fear of driving or unresolved pain following a car accident

• Sudden loss

• Broken relationships

• Chronic pain and/or fatigue with causes known or undetermined

• Abuse

• Bullying

• Combat, war or emergency situations

• Witnessing frightening events

• Serious injury or illness

• Burnout

• Chronic stress

• Anxiety and depression

• Panic attacks

• A sense of overwhelm

• Fear of abandonment

• Unresolved anger

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Havening – or creating a safe haven - is a psychosensory technique which permanently stops the neurons holding the biological imprint of trauma from being able to trigger unhelpful responses. It has similarities with other psychosensory techniques such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).

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Healing with Havening is literally in your own hands as it uses the sensory input of touch as a key part of its self-soothing effectiveness.

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You make stroking movements over your upper arms, hands and face to trigger delta waves in the brain, waves that are usually mostly active in our deep healing sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The delta waves in turn prompt chemical chain-reactions in the amygdala, a part of our brain which triggers our fear-related behaviour in response to threat or danger.

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This removes specific AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid) receptors from the surface of neurons in the amygdala where the traumatic event is ‘stored’ and unlinks the sensory information encoded – sights, sounds, smell, touch, taste, emotions, thoughts, feelings and pain - when the event happened.

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Havening can be done without words and without having to go into the traumatic story, making it a gentle way of processing difficult experiences. Also, if we don’t have the story behind the pain and distress, we don’t have to go digging for answers.

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As well as releasing you from the grip of the trauma, Havening also increases feelgood neurotransmitters such as GABA, serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine and decreases stress hormones such as cortisol, which is harmful to health if levels are consistently high.