Fears and Phobias

What is an irrational fear or phobia?

An irrational fear is often referred to as a phobia. An irrational fear / phobia is literally a fear without good reason, or a fear of something that is unlikely to happen. People with phobias often experience unwanted responses to animals, objects, insects, actions or places.

This physical response is known as a stress response; some often describe this reaction as being “paralysed with fear” or “having butterflies in my stomach”.

Phobias are often regarded as an irrational response. “Why am I reacting like this when I know it can’t hurt me?” is something most hypnotherapists hear from their clients who come to see them for the treatment of phobias.

Phobias are far more common than many people realise. It is estimated that more than 11% of the population have irrational fears.

Generally, people cope / tolerate with phobias, and only seek help from a hypnotherapist when it prevents them doing something they want to do, or when they know a situation will force them to face it. It is possible to unconsciously passing on phobias to children.

People often say to a hypnotherapist, “you’re my last resort” or “my final hope”. The most common phobias seen by hypnotherapists are:

• Fear of needles

• Fear dentists

• Fear of water

• Fear of flying

• Fear of heights

• Claustrophobia

• Fear of sickness (often linked to social phobias)

• Fear of insects

• Fear of Pregnancy

One of the hardest fears to resolve is a fear of clowns. But even for this, hypnotherapy has been widely successful.

How do people get phobias?

An irrational fear of something is a learned behaviour. Sometimes learned from a parent or a respected friend or relative.

Fear is part of the body’s natural defence system: often phobias are exaggerated fears of evolutionary memories; imprints on our brains that help protect us through caution, making us innately awareness of something that could harm us. E.g. we know there are poisonous spiders in the world that can kill or hurt us, so we have an awareness of that on a primal level. However, the house spider in the UK is completely harmless. A person with a phobia is unable to make this differentiation and will fear the harmless house spider.

As a small child we learn about fears from our parents, as they teach us (consciously and unconsciously) how to interpret the world around us. If a child observes a parent being frightened of a spider, their instinctive response (and the message hardwired to your brain) is that this is a threat and can do them harm.

How do you treat phobias?

Generally, the solution is to see that phobia in a ‘different context’.

Using hypnosis this can be done relatively quickly as the unconscious is able to process information more effectively without the interference of the critical mind. This is a known as ‘desensitisation’.

Often phobias can be treated in just one or two sessions. However, there is no guarantee as change depends on the individual’s willingness to embrace it. Most therapists will therefore give you a realistic expectation of how long treatment may last.

Different approaches to treating phobias are utilised depending on whether the client knows then the phobia first started, how they view the phobia and how receptive they are to change.

What will a session be like?

As a clinical hypnotherapist, I would generally evaluate the intensity of the phobia and then use a combination of techniques to help the client resolve it, gradually building up their confidence and their ability to stay calm when confronted with your phobia.

Although difficult to believe, in some instances after just one session the client may be able to hold a spider in a transparent container on their lap, maybe even hold it or see one across the floor in front of them, when previously they may have run screaming from the room.