Phobias & Fear
A phobia is a
persistent, irrational fear of, and desire to avoid, a particular
object or situation. You are not born with a phobia – it is a learnt
response.
Phobias can
exist in the lives of people who may be otherwise reasonably well
adjusted. Sufferers often recognise their fears to be unrealistic,
but still feel unable to confront them.
People with
phobias can experience a fear so intense and debilitating that it
begins to affect the way they live their lives. Confronted with the
phobic situation they experience the classic symptoms of panic
attacks such as sweating, trembling, feeling faint and may even feel
as though they are dying.
Causes of phobias
To complicate
the situation further, people may have a phobia about one thing when
the underlying fear relates to something entirely different.
Typically an anxiety builds up and the person attaches it to
something in their environment. For example the person who dislikes
their job may develop a fear of buses, as the bus is the only means
they have of getting to work.
The Benefits of
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is used to identify the
cause of a phobia which is rooted in the clients past. In hypnosis
the phobic is asked to gently imagine themselves face to face with
fear itself. They are then asked to notice how weak the fear appears
and told that they feel completely at ease in its presence.
What can hypnotherapy offer over and above other
approaches?
There are many different techniques now available to
the phobic to help them to manage their fear: conventional
psychological therapy; exposure treatment; gestalt therapy;
transactional analysis; psycho synthesis; NLP; counselling; time
line therapy and EMDR to name but a few.
Conventional therapy is very time-consuming though as
it can take several sessions simply to teach relaxation techniques
before the phobia is ever tackled.
Hypnotherapy affords the client the following:
• the opportunity to achieve a deep state of
relaxation very quickly
• imagery is enhanced in hypnosis
However, the main advantage hypnotherapy provides
over the above approaches lies in its potential to access and
communicate with the subconscious mind, from where the irrational
thoughts emerge.
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