How do i
help you?
I use hypnotherapy for phobias, also
NLP and Thought field therapy, combined these are the most powerful techniques available
today. Therapy for phobias is usually very brief...imagine being rid of your phobia...how
would that feel?
What are phobias and how can hypnosis
help you?
A phobia is an excessive or unreasonable fear of an object,
place or situation. Simple phobias are fears of specific things such as insects, infections,
flying. Agoraphobia is a fear of being in places where one feels "trapped" or
unable to get help, such as in crowds, on a bus, or standing in a queue. A social phobia is
a marked fear of social or performance situations.
Phobias are extremely
common. Sometimes they start in childhood for no apparent reason; sometimes they
emerge after a traumatic event; and sometimes the develop from an attempt to make sense of
an unexpected and intense anxiety or panic (e.g. "I feel fearful, therefore I must be
afraid of something").
When the phobic person actually encounters, or even
anticipates being in the presence of the feared object or situation, s/he experiences
immediate anxiety. The physical symptoms of anxiety may include a racing heart, shortness of
breath, sweating, chest or abdominal discomfort, trembling, etc. and the emotional component
involves an intense fear - of losing control, embarrassing oneself, or passing out.
Commonly people try to escape, and then to avoid the feared situation wherever
possible. This may be fairly easy if the feared object is rarely encountered (e.g. fear of
snakes) and avoidance will not therefore restrict the person's life very much. At other
times (e.g. agoraphobia, social phobia) avoiding the feared situation limits their life
severely. Escape and avoidance also make the feared object/situation more frightening.
With some phobias the person may have specific thoughts which attribute some
threat to the feared situation. This is particularly true for social phobia where there is
often a fear of being negatively evaluated by others, and for agoraphobia when there may be
a fear of collapsing and dying with no one around to help, or of having a panic attack and
making a fool of oneself in front of other people.
With some phobias there may be
accompanying frightening thoughts (this plane might crash; I'm trapped; I must get out).
However with other phobias it is more difficult to identify any specific thoughts which
could be associated with the anxiety (e.g. it is unlikely that a spider phobic is afraid of
making a fool of themselves in front of the spider). With these phobias the cause seems to
be explained more as a conditioned (learned) anxiety response which has become associated
with the feared object.
How to cope with phobias
There are several counseling approaches to helping a phobic person. However, it
may only be necessary to do anything about your phobia if it is severe or is interfering
with your life and distressing you. The approach described here is based on
cognitive behavioral therapy.
There are two components in
treating a phobia effectively: firstly, confronting the feared situation, and secondly,
dealing with any frightening thoughts that are associated with the anxiety. Confronting the
feared situation
It is important to stop avoiding the feared situation; rather it
needs confronting whilst managing the level of anxiety. Because it can be very difficult to
start in the midst of the feared situation, the usual approach is by a graded exposure. This
means drawing up a hierarchy of threatening situations and confronting the least feared
situation first before moving on to the more threatening ones. For example, somebody with a
phobia of spiders might use the following hierarchy: Reading about spiders Looking at and
then touching a photograph of a spider Looking at/touching a plastic model of a spider
Looking at/touching a jar with a small spider in it Picking the spider out of the jar
Picking up a large spider.
If you want to start living and get rid of
your phobia...call us now 0845 3890060 |
