Havening ADT (Amygdala Depotentiation Therapy) is a psychosensory and somatic therapy designed to support the brain in releasing the emotional charge associated with traumatic or distressing events.  Developed by neuroscientist Dr. Ronald Ruden, based on his years of research into trauma encodement in the brain, it is applied to help individuals move from a state of threat or overwhelm to a calm, regulated nervous system state where healing takes place.

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When a distressing or traumatic event occurs, the brain’s emotional processing system (the amygdala) can encode the event with a strong emotional and physiological response. These stored responses can later be reactivated by triggers, leading to symptoms like anxiety, panic, hypervigilance, emotional flooding, or shutdown.

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Havening ADT involves a combination of delta wave stimulation, gentle distraction methods, and lateral eye movement, which together engage specific neural processes to promote emotional regulation of the distress response.

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Therapeutic touch is self-applied to the arms, hands, or face.  This touch stimulates the production of delta brain waves, which are associated with calm and restorative states.

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Distraction methods—such as humming, counting, or guided imagery - engage working memory, reducing the brain’s capacity to sustain the distress response.

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Lateral eye movement, similar to the mechanism used in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), further supports neurological processing and helps the brain integrate the memory in a less emotionally charged way.

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These components work together to support:

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