Transforming mental health care through people power

Transforming Mental Health Care Through People Power

Project 2023-02-27 20:23:04 +1300

Introduction

Our mental health services are in crisis and demand is escalating. We urgently need new therapies and new ways of proving what works, and what doesn't.

This project introduces a breakthrough therapy called Havening Techniques, based on the neuroscience of how trauma is stored in the brain, and how it can be rapidly erased. Pioneering counsellors, psychologists and doctors in New Zealand are saying that clients can rapidly heal themselves of conditions like anxiety, depression, and traumatic memories (view their compelling testimony here).

We believe that many people could be easily relieved of their mental health problems, instead of having a lifetime of difficulties. The burden of demand on the acute mental health services could be greatly reduced. We can train new Havening Practitioners quickly. What we need is public funding directed to training and funding the new services.

How can we persuade mainstream health services to adopt this new therapy?

The people seeking care should be given the power to say what therapies really work and what should be funded.

This project uses an innovative app to directly measure the changes in the lives of the people we are trying to help. All future Havening clients can use the app for free. We can gather anonymous data from thousands of participants and quickly accumulate the evidence in support of Havening. We believe that if Havening is adopted widely, it could transform mental health care in NZ.

A survey of Havening clients (79 respondents) showed that 87% would be willing to use a secure app to track their improvements in mental wellbeing.

Two of the team are doctors who have given up their medical careers to work as Havening practitioners full time. That's how much we believe in the potential of Havening.

Why is this project important?

While poverty, stress and lifestyle factors have an impact on mental health, the most significant underlying cause of mental distress is emotional trauma. Adverse childhood events (ACE) dramatically increase the lifetime risk of smoking, alcoholism, chronic lung disease, depression, suicide, violence, broken marriages, autoimmune diseases and many other conditions. Traumatic events in adult life add to the burden.  Unfortunately, many mental health therapies only treat symptoms, not underlying causes.

Havening Techniques erase the traces of trauma in the brain. Clients no longer have the triggers that cause negative feelings, inescapable stress, overeating, addictions and many physical complaints. When the underlying trauma is healed, then conditions like depression and anxiety can simply melt away. Clients are left resilient and much more able to deal with life stresses. Havening has many applications in chronic physical illness because the underlying cause is inescapable stress caused by trauma.

Havening also represents a paradigm shift. Instead of the medical model where the doctor treats the passive patient (who is made powerless), Havening is activating an innate healing mechanism. The people seeking help are healing themselves, through the guidance of a practitioner. The work complements the social model, which empowers the client to access and use their strengths. This is simple, kind, gentle, deeply compassionate medicine.

What will the project fund?

At this stage, we are just asking for pledges of support. No money will be collected unless we reach our target by 10th May, and the project is assured.

When fully funded, we will work with the team at Quantified Citizen to design, build, test and launch the app for the study. Free training will be provided to Havening Practitioners who wish to enroll their clients in the study. The team will provide technical support for the duration of the project. A secure online portal will give us access to the anonymous data for analysis. We have a signed Letter of Intention with an agreed budget. Remaining funds will support the work done by the NZ team, in planning, developing and running the app and the project. All the work so far has been gifted. Data collection will be supported for six months.

We believe that the collected data will prove that Havening is a highly effective therapy to address mental health problems. We can be certain of the outcomes because we are measuring real-life benefits in a wide variety of people with different mental health struggles. We can use this data to advocate for public funding for Havening training and practice.

The data can be formally analysed by an independent researcher and published in peer review scientific journals. We can apply for research grants to support this independent analysis. Previous studies using the Quantified Citizen platform have been published in Nature Scientific Reports (publication 1, publication 2).

If we raise more than our target, we will extend the period of the study and further develop the app. An exciting possibility is to fund a version of the app within kaupapa Maori, partnering with Maori mental health researchers to develop an appropriate set of outcome measures.

An innovative way of measuring outcomes

Havening can work very rapidly, in some instances transforming a client in a single session, for instance by erasing a horrible trauma such as a sexual assault. In other cases there is a step-by-step improvement in outcomes. This project allows us to track these real-life changes in individual clients by gathering data through the use of the Quantified Citizen App. Clients enrol in the app and give daily feedback on their symptoms and level of wellbeing. We can also measure physiological changes in those who use wearable devices like Apple Watch or Fitbit, and administer standardised measures for anxiety, depression, mood, and mental wellbeing. These changes in outcomes can be correlated with the timing of the Havening therapy.

People with mental health struggles can be vulnerable and we want to keep everyone safe. Interaction with the app is completely anonymous and there is no record of name, email, phone number or other personal identifiers. However, we can analyse the combined data to show the average change in outcomes, related to the use of Havening.

The funds raised will allow us to design and launch our own version of the app, which will be listed on the Quantifiable Citizen website and available on app stores. The project team will choose the mental health assessments, outcomes measures, and client prompts to get the best outcome data. We can access the combined data through a secure online portal and analyse it for results.

Why this method may be better than clinical research trials

Historically, the only therapies approved for funding in the public health service are those deemed to be 'evidence-based', relying on data from clinical trails. The problem is that research results may not correlate well with real-life outcomes in individual people. Typically, the research protocols and outcome measures are defined by doctors, not the patients. They are structured to get a 'result' for the researchers, which may not correlate with real-life benefit in patients. Many of the trials are funded by pharmaceutical corporations, who have a profit motive. There is widespread evidence that pharmaceutical corporations have corrupted trial data, hidden negative trial results, and concealed evidence of harm.

One of the commonest treatments for mental health is an antidepressant drug. Doctors prescribe this medication believing it will help their patients, based on summaries of research evidence. We are not against antidepressants, which may be lifesaving in some patients. However, we want to ensure that a widely prescribed treatment is actually effective.

Research investigators suspected that the evidence was biased because many of the clinical trails of antidepressants were never published (those that showed no benefit, or actual harm). So investigators obtained the raw data on every single trial of antidepressants notified to the US Food and Drug Adminstration between 1979 and 2016 - there were 232. Their systematic review published in 2021 in the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) shockingly showed that only 15% of patient received a benefit significantly greater than placebo. (Placebo is a fake pill, containing no active ingredient. In a randomised, controlled trial, half the patients get a real pill containing the medication, half get an identical fake pill. The outcomes of the two groups are compared. If the medication doesn't work, both groups will get the same result).

While 6 out of 7 patients may not get significant benefit from the antidepressant medication, many will be harmed by serious side effects and/or withdrawal effects. Furthermore, clinical trails of antidepressants typically measure outcomes over a limited time period, such as eight week. However, there is evidence that longterm outcomes for depression are made worse by taking antidepressants.

Given the lack of benefit and evidence of potential harm, it's concerning that antidepressant prescriptions in young people in NZ have increased 40% in the last decade.

We share this data simply to illustrate the flaws in relying on clinical research trials - and that applies to many other medical treatments. We say, the only way to substantially improve our mental health services is to routinely measure the outcomes, in real life, in the people we are trying to help. We think this should be a gold standard for any mental health treatment.

Using an app, we can rapidly accumulate evidence from large number of participants and obtain robust outcome data in much less time than conventional clinical trials. The biggest project running on the Quantified Citizen platform has over 20,000 enrolled subjects.

The team behind this project

We have a high-powered team of mental health professionals and doctors who will help with the study design and oversee the project.

	The project Director is Dr Robin Youngson. He is a former anaesthetic specialist and health leader now working full time as a trauma therapist using Havening Techniques. He is a Certified Havening Practitioner and Trainer. Robin has been an advisor to the NZ Government and the WHO on healthcare quality and patient safety. He is internationally renowned for his leadership on compassionate healthcare. In 2016, the NZ Medical Association gave Dr Youngson their highest award, "for outstanding contribution to the health of New Zealand".
	Lenna Brindley-Richards is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working in the NZ public health services. She is also a Certified Havening Practitioner and enthusiastic advocate for Havening.
	Dr Kamaia Pere is a medical doctor and Certified Havening Practitioner in Northland. She is excited about the potential of Havening to address the trauma of colonisation.
	Robby van Dijk is an Alcohol (and other) Drug AOD Practitioner in Northland, and a Certified Havening Practitioner, using Havening to accelerate the relief from addiction.
	Clare Barnett is a nurse and midwife with a Masters in Counselling. She is the Mindcare Counselling and Training Director, and a Certified Havening Practitioner. Havening is becoming her first line approach for many clients.
	NIcola Hensley is a counsellor, mental health, abuse and trauma, and a Havening Trainee. She is amazed at the changes she sees in clients with Havening.
	Chloe Waretini is a Certified Havening Practitioner, social innovator, and project leader of a very successful fundraising campaign on PlegdeMe.

What organisation is running the project?

The project will be coordinated by the Neuroscience of Healing Clinic, directed by Dr Youngson. Dr Youngson has personally trained all the project team members, in Havening practice. He has conducted his own research into Havening outcomes, for instance this study of 30 mothers with PTSD as a result of severe childbirth trauma. He found that 80% of clients were relieved of their symptoms of PTSD with just one session of Havening.

Dr Youngson began his career as an engineer, before starting medicine, and he has good knowledge of online systems and data analysis. He also has extensive national and international networks in the healthcare world, which can support this project.

Learn more about Havening Techniques

Havening Techniques were developed by a medical doctor and PhD researcher in the USA, Dr Ronald Ruden. He has uncovered the detailed neuro-anatomy and molecular mechanisms that allow trauma to be stored in a part of the brain called the Amygdala. In the course of his research, he found that the molecular mechanism in the nerve cells could be set in reverse, to completely erase a trauma within 15 to 20 minutes. He describes all these findings, and the Havening techniques in the Science Direct journal. Havening is a 'psycho-sensory' technique that uses highly specific forms of touch to alter brain waves and trigger the healing mechanism in the Amygdala.

For a vivid demonstration of the power of Havening, see this brief video of a client being rapidly relieved of the trauma of an armed hold-up.

A number of small research trials of Havening are already published. The researchers speak of the many barriers they faced in trying to advance this research within the mainstream clinical research system.

This study (2020) showed that one session of Havening was sufficient to relieve the signs of Type D personality, which is associated with high risk of mental illness and chronic physical disease. The study also demonstrated sigificant and prolonged reductions in cortisol (stress hormone) and blood pressure after Havening.

This study (2022) confirmed that Havening Touch led to a reduction of emotional distress linked to a traumatic event, greater than placebo. It also showed associated changes in brain waves.

This study (2015) showed a reduction in anxiety and depression after a single session of Havening.

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