Phobias

Phobias

A phobia is an irrational fear of something. You can have a phobia about anything you have ever come across in your life, whether real, on TV or an image or imagined. The reaction to the object, thing or situation is of intense panic and feelings that you are about to come to some serious harm.

The top phobias I tend to see are public speaking, heights, small spaces, spiders, wasps and bees, needles, driving related, flying, social phobia, fear of getting cancer and fear of being trapped. We tend to acquire phobias by having an unpleasant experience with the situation or object, associating the thing or object with an unpleasant experience or watching a parent or relative react to their phobia.

Phobias are mostly made up of conditioned responses, so need to be treated with a behavioural psychological approach. They are all treated by hypnotic exposure, i.e. imagining coming into to contact with the triggers, then very gently and gradually after hypnosis testing the reduction of anxiety by repeating this in real life. This is not as scary because you have already been treated with the hypnotherapy. There can be some cognitive restructuring involved as we develop beliefs and faulty narratives around the phobias. These are identified, challenged then changed using hypnosis.

How we can help:

• Free you from the shackles of phobia fear
• Create new ways of thinking and feeling about certain areas of your life for a healthier, more positive you
• Reduces stress levels significantly