HG newsletter - March 2024

Join HG co-founders Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell at our in-person conference

You've still got time to book your place for the HGI's in-person Conference on Saturday 20th – Sunday 21st April.  It is taking place at Woodland Grange in Leamington Spa, UK, which is easily accessible by road, rail and air.

This year's exciting programme has been designed to be stimulating and useful, with lots of practical takeaways and learning around the theme of 'Seeing how to see'. The conference is an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded people, and gain invaluable CPD – we're really looking forward to seeing everyone. 

If you can't attend the whole weekend, there are also single-day options. For full details of prices, venues and accommodation at the venue, see  How to book > or call our friendly team at the HG office on 0 44 (0)1323 811662 (9.30am–5.30pm GMT, Mon–Fri)

---

Looking at the bigger picture

Upcoming events

The Conciliators Guild (co-founded by Ivan Tyrrell, John Bell and John Zada) is running a series of short online courses in April on Mass Groupthink and Polarisation in the Digital Age – these will explore Mass Groupthink and look at how we can reduce the extreme reactions to the serious crises humanity is currently facing which lead to misunderstanding, societal fragmentation, poor policy decisions, and conflict – there has never been a more urgent need for better psychological understanding. 

Find out more >

The Rise and Fall of Civilisations – including our own

Ivan Tyrrell, co-founder of the HG approach and director of Human Givens College, has had a lifelong fascination with the cyclic behavioural patterns in history that explain the reasons why empires rise and, inevitably, fall.  On Thursday 18th April, he will be delivering his last public talk, a stimulating analysis of the historical and psychological context of humanity’s current state, to the Sibford Historical Society. He will discuss some of the great thinkers who have looked at these patterns and why it is important now to understand the context – in our unsettling times – of the cycle in this process that we are going through.

It is a local event, open to anyone who is interested. Venue: Sibford Village Hall, Acre Ditch, Burdrop, OX15 5RN. Talk begins: 7.30pm. Admission on the door: £5.00, refreshments afterwards. It is hoped the talk will be filmed.

---

NEW BOOK

Why three Fs?

HG therapist and tutor Rosalind Townsend’s latest book has just been published – her vast experience as a therapist and mental health professional has equipped her with deep knowledge and rich client experience – and the content of this book is a gift to anyone suffering from mental health difficulties and to therapists working with the same. It is full of wisdom that will empower and motivate readers (and their friends) for the rest of their lives. Find out more >

 

---

'Proper Mental' Podcast

Tom Davies, creator of the Proper Mental Podcast, recently interviewed Joe Griffin to discuss the human givens approach. In their warm, insightful discussion Joe talks about what first inspired him to get involved in mental health, the development of HG and his hopes for the approach, as well as why we are all vulnerable to mental health illnesses, what we can do to make sure we stay mentally healthy much more...
Listen here >

​

---

Miriam shares her experience

How can we best prepare the body and mind for medical procedures, so that we feel relaxed and optimistic about the experience?  HG tutor, supervisor and familiy therapist Miriam Chachamu asked herself this question recently as she nervously waited for a complex operation on her broken elbow. "As I waited, I came to realise that I could use my therapeutic skills to prepare my body and mind for the imminent surgery...'  She shares her experience of mentally preparing herself for surgery on her popular YouTube channel in the hope it will help others. "A huge part of my preparation involved guided imagery or meditation. It is a great life skill that anyone can learn, but it requires some practice before it can be used in the way I used it on myself."  Find out how Miriam prepared herself > 

---

New Deprescribing Guidelines

A book worth knowing about

HG practitioners may be very interested to know about a very helpful new guidebook in The Maudsley Prescribing Series:  'Deprescribing Guidelines: Antidepressants, Benzodiazepines, Gabapentinoids and Z-drugs'. 

These drugs are the very ones that are commonly prescribed for depression, anxiety, stress, sleep etc, which carry risks of longer-term dependence and harm, and the book's introductory section contains a lot of valuable information relevant to everyone. It includes the evidence to date about problems that can be experienced when ‘coming off’ antidepressants, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids and Z-drugs, then step-by-step ‘tapering’ options for about 50 specific drugs (fast, moderate and slow schedules that can be tailored to the individual). Its aim is to assist prescribers, patients and others who work with them to learn the difference between ‘relapse’ and ‘withdrawal’ and more safely navigate what has till now been a serious void in understanding.

The guide is written by trainee psychiatrist Mark Horowitz, PhD and psychopharmacologist Professor David Taylor.  Horowitz, a clinical research fellow in the NHS, has himself struggled to come off antidepressants after starting them 15 years ago as a medical student and is currently using the documented methods for his own withdrawal.  You can find out more here >

---

Food for thought

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within”

Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

---