Approach: Human Givens

Human givens psychotherapy or simply Human givens is a way of treating depression which emerged from research into sleep and especially the rapid eye movements of dream sleep. It theorises that excessive worrying while awake stimulates excessive REM sleep which deprives the individual of the refreshment of the mind brought about by so-called slow-wave sleep. It sees worry as a misuse of the imagination. It uses a number of techniques to get the subject to use their imagination in a healthier way which then restores a healthier sleep pattern and lifts the depression. The technique was developed by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell in the early 1990s from observations in sleep research.

The theory has been further extended to given a plausible possible cause of schizophrenia.

Human givens is part of the broader positive psychology movement.