9 Emotional Needs for Mental Health - Human Givens Counselling
Emotional Needs for Mental Health
In order to maintain good mental health, humans need to maintain nine emotional needs, according to the Human Givens approach to psychology, counselling and psychotherapy.
In this article, we'll be looking at those nine emotional needs.
If you want to complete the Human Givens Emotional Needs Assessment, visit our Health Assessment Page and select the form.
Maintaining your mental health
Before we consider each need, we should discuss how you can benefit from this information.
Human Givens therapy would use the nine emotional needs, to score a person's mental health, using a scale of one to seven for each emotional need.
The numbers do not all need to be seven, as that would be unrealistic.
Numbers around 4 to 5 normally suggest things are OK.
But really, we are looking for consistency across the different needs.
If some of the scores are very different, it suggests there might be an opportunity for improvement.
Activities Before Health
We ofter hear people say that, as soon as they feel better, they will do so many amazing things.
The brain doesn't always work like that.
In reality, as soon as you start doing things, whether amazing or just enjoyable, you'll start to feel better.
What are the nine Emotional Needs
So, now we know how to use the Human Givens Emotional Needs, let's see what they are:
- Security - Safe territory and an environment which allows us to develop fully
- Attention - (To give and receive it) — a form of nutrition
- Autonomy - Having volition to make responsible choices
- Community - Feeling part of a wider community
- Privacy - Opportunity to reflect and consolidate experience
- Meaning & Purpose – Which come from being stretched in what we do and think
- Intimacy - To know that at least one other person accepts us totally for who we are, “warts 'n' all”
- Status - Sense of status within social groupings
- Achievement & Competence - Sense of competence and achievement
What is your Human Givens Emotional Needs Score?
Use the nine emotional needs listed about, to assess your emotional needs.
Then consider ways to improve your scores, and change your behaviours.
When we change our behaviours, we change our feelings, and when we change our feelings we change our thoughts!
You can assess your emotional needs scores over time, to monitor how your emotional needs scores and mental health are doing.
If you want to complete the Human Givens Emotional Needs Assessment, visit our Health Assessment Page and select the form.
For help with your emotional needs, visit a therapist trained in Human Givens therapy.
About the author
This article was written by Keith Dewey, a therapist based in Reigate, Surrey, who has extensively trained in Humans Givens therapy, and has written for the Human Givens therapist magazine.
Visit Keith Dewey's profile or Keith Dewey's therapy-near-me webpage or Keith's therapy business
