Fears and Phobias

The initial cause of phobias can be traced back to an experience where a biological response has become associated with a particular trigger or stimulus, usually as a result of some emotionally changing event. When you are re-presented with the trigger, for example, seeing a spider, the associated response is triggered, most commonly resulting in feelings of anxiety, fear and panic.

The most complete and effective way to eliminate or reduce the phobia is to break the association between the stimulus and the response.

Attempting to deal with a phobia at a conscious level is often totally ineffective. This is because phobias happen automatically below the level of conscious awareness. In fact, most people are aware of the cause, or trigger of their phobia, and no matter how much they attempt to consciously control and rationalise it, they still experience them.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) techniques used with hypnotherapy can be extremely effective at treating phobias whether its a fear of flying, phobia of dogs, public speaking, enclosed spaces crowds, snakes etc.., because they deal directly with the subconscious mind. Most phobias can be treated in just a few sessions, and in some cases a single session may be all that is required.

As humans we are born with only two fears, which are loud noises and falling. any other fear we have is a learned fear. Thearapy involves unlearning this learned fear so that the change is permanent.

Clients are amazed at how quickly a phobia they have had for such a long time can be changed in such a short period of time. Most phobias can be dealt with in a single session, although certain fears/phobias may require additional work because of their complex structure.