Introduction

Become a Certified Havening Practitioner is a professional qualification enabling you to work with clients who may be vulnerable, as a result of their trauma and mental ill health. The requirements for certification are therefore based on achieving a level of practice that is both safe and effective. There is a great deal of theoretical knowledge to learn and also many skills to develop.

In my view, students mostly learn through the experience of working with clients, enhanced by professional coaching and feedback. The two-day Havening Training is merely a brief introduction to the science and the techniques, and is eclipsed by the level of knowledge and skills developed during the certification process. Students must submit 30 written case histories (one per client session) and two videos of client sessions. To give students the best possible start, I have expanded my training course to five days to allow much more in-depth learning and practice.

My process of mentoring

On average, I devote about 12 to 15 hours per student in coaching and feedback. Doing the case histories is not a ‘tick-box’ process, it’s an essential process of developing your skills and knowledge. So that I can give more through, context-sensitive feedback, I ask my students to use an expanded Case History template.

When I process case histories I give detailed feedback on every element of practice by editing the case history and adding comments and questions in every section of the document. I give specific feedback and praise for things done well, and offer opportunities for students to improve their practice. When reviewing videos, I provide a precise written timeline with observations about the client and the practitioner. Very often, I see students doing work that is inspiring, beautiful and powerful, and I learn a lot from my students and their creative approaches.

With my medical background I am able to add extra dimensions to the teaching of the science, and the physiology of client change. More than 350 Havening students and practitioners have enrolled in my online Havening Science program and the feedback is great.

Supporting my students

It surprises me how many mental health professionals – sometimes experienced counsellors, therapists and psychologists who become Havening students – struggle with low self-confidence, sensitivity to feedback, and anxiety about submitting written case histories. In some students there is a major block to submitting the case histories even though I have seen them practice beautifully on the training course and I know them to be capable individuals.

When there is a significant block, I offer one-on-one mentoring sessions via Zoom and I sometimes do Havening for students to remove the blocks, and increase their self-confidence.

Requirements for certification

By the time the student is ready for Certification, these are the requirements I want to see demonstrated in the case histories and videos:

  1. Careful client assessment including the degree of vulnerability or resilience and making appropriate judgments about safe scope of practice
  2. A thorough client history using the science to guide the history-taking, accurately finding encoding moments, and developing a theory about the major trauma themes in the client’s life. Connecting current life difficulties and symptoms to the nature of the client’s trauma.
  3. Thoroughly understanding the principles and application of EMLI (many students apply this wrongly)
  4. Physical safety with clients, appropriate informed consent, safe and effective touch, keeping yourself comfortable
  5. Creative use of ‘distractions’ during Event Havening and drawing on the client’s resources
  6. Demonstrating your ability to observe the client, to document all the elements of CASE, to interpret the underlying physiology, and to notice how these change during the session.
  7. To show your decision-making in working with clients and why you choose techniques
  8. To describe your application of all the main Havening techniques, in sufficient details so that I can coach you on all the skills and nuances of practice
  9. To demonstrate how you use client observations and a careful debrief for objective assessment that traumatic events are thoroughly de-potentiated
  10. To trouble-shoot problems in the different techniques, to be adaptable and flexible, and to learn from these difficulties
  11. To demonstrate your understanding of client’s core beliefs, how these relate to specific trauma, and to notice how they are revealed during Transpirational Havening.
  12. To demonstrate your use of Iffirmations and Affirmations to skilful strengthen the client’s core beliefs (many students mistakenly jump to affirmations). To show that you can calibrate the client’s beliefs and adjust your process accordingly.
  13. To show how you integrate the different techniques, for instance you might do a sequence of Event Havening, Transpirational Havening, then work on self-beliefs.
  14. To make sure that you can have each client safely contained by the end of a session.
  15. To demonstrate an understanding of dissociation, how it plays out in the client presentation, the history-taking, the gradual unfolding of trauma, and how it influences the Havening techniques
  16. To work with complexity and to show how processes of healing unfold over a number of sessions with one client
  17. To demonstrate your self-awareness and self-reflection, how this shapes your learning journey, your choice of clients, and maintaining safety for yourself and your clients
  18. To safely debrief and support clients
  19. To demonstrate the ability to write clear, well-structured case histories.

My expectation of students will change a lot during the process of Certification. In the beginning, I expect simple case histories showing competent practice in the basic techniques. As students gain in experience, I expect to see them gradually learning all of the elements listed above. My encouragement and feedback will develop appropriately.

The self-reflection questions at the end of the case history are very important:

  • What did I learn about the client?
  • What did I learn about Havening?
  • What should be done next?

For instance, in answering ‘What should be done next’ I expect students to show growing understanding of the trauma themes in the client’s life, the unfolding trauma, the events that are being uncovered, the vulnerability or resilience of the client, their core beliefs, and the pacing of the work. In other words, I want students to demonstrate that they have a working theory about the client, and the level and complexity of their trauma.

In addition, I welcome students’ creativity, intuition, the use of metaphor and other aspects of working with clients.

I love the work of mentoring students and witnessing the amazing work they do with clients. I have trained and certified nearly forty students and I have many others in the pipeline, about to graduate. As the most senior practitioner and trainer in New Zealand – working full time in Havening – I am thrilled to see our growing national network of Haveners.

What my students say about my mentoring

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