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A Phobia is an irrational fear of something - this basically means your response to the actual threat is irrational, you rationally know its highly unlikely that you will die from being near your fear, however you body doesn't seem to register this and you start to panic even at the thought that you might be exposed to that thing. It is a learned behaviour, either from a parent or someone close to you growing up, or through a traumatic experience relating to the thing you now fear.
As a young child we only have two fears - loud noises and falling, everything else that we become afraid of is consciously and unconsciously learnt. If a parent is frightened of spiders the child will think why are they scared, this must be dangerous, I trust my parents so I will do what they do - thus a learnt response, because we don't question that message it becomes hardwired in the brain, spiders are a threat. Over time, the message can become reinforced and repeated exposure is likely to compound the fear and make it worse.
Are all phobias the same - the short answer is no, not exactly.
The key difference is a 'simple' phobia is where you fear a dog, you hear a bark nearby and you panic, start looking for the source of the bark, you see the dog on a lead on the other side of the road, you feel a little safer now you have located the dog and can see it's restrained, you keep one eye on the offending dog until you are sure it's firmly out of attacking distance and you relax and carry on your walk. Until of course you see another dog and the cycle repeats.
A simple phobia tends to be about one specific thing, so flying, however it can be a specific type of thing so small spaces - this is a little more complicated as its harder to define, how small is small. But generally its only that one fear related to that one specific cause, you aren't likely to experience panic if you don't perceive the situation to meet that criteria. The way that these are treated however might be slightly different due to the associations and what has created that fear, some people find they can go into a small room say but not a lift, this makes it slightly more complicated to treat.
A 'complex' phobia on the other hand is where there are many triggers that can create the sense of panic, social anxiety is a good example of this. This leads to avoidance of many things in life, it can cause huge upset in day to day life and interferes with the way you live your life on a bigger scale. It is much harder to avoid the triggers and so you have an overwhelming sense of anxiety regardless of what you are doing, the anticipation of something happening is often much worse than the thing you are avoiding.
If you are troubled by a specific phobia then it can really negatively effect your life. Hypnotherapy is an excellent way of coping with and reducing specific phobias.
Some examples of types of phobias that can be treated in just three sessions of hypnotherapy are:
If the phobia is limited to one thing then it can be removed in just three simple sessions.
The rewind part is a process where you would imagine a situation that causes you to feel fear, whether imagined or a real life experience. The therapist will ask you to imagine as vividly as you can the details of the situation, however you will be doing this in a calm and relaxed state - a trance state, and the visualisation will involve you imagining yourself watching it happening on a screen. This allows you to remove any sense of real threat and to process the thoughts in a non-emotive way. Over time the brain will start to re-process this and create a new and appropriate response as a frame of reference for future situations.
For more complicated phobias that have developed through experiences we will possibly still rewind the moment of fear however it may take more than three sessions to re-learn and rewire your belief system around this.
"For most of my life, I've had a phobia that has ruined so many holidays, visits to cities and has left me panicking and very upset .I reached out to Emma and she has very kindly offered to help me. Not only did Emma reassure me not to be embarrassed by this, she also knew how I could tackle this fear and find calm. In three sessions, I have learned so much about my brain and how it has processed these episodes of fear. Solution based hypnotherapy has meant that I have been able to pinpoint the moment where this stemmed from and have been able to replace those thoughts with more calming ones. The three sessions I've had have helped me relax and think about the ways I can enjoy life without being so afraid.
Thank you so much Emma and can highly recommend."
For complex phobias such as social anxiety or emetophobia there will be many ways in which this effects your life so we will need to have a minimum of 6 sessions to make an impact on this, however amazing results can be achieved using visualisation, reframing, best hopes, relaxation, hypnosis suggestion. Many of my clients have gone on to do things they never thought possible.
Emetophobia Client:
I went from hiding in my bedroom if one of the kids got sick, or panicking if they woke up in the middle of the night with tummy ache, to feeling calm and in control. I have dealt with things that I would usually had my partner deal with and not had the dreaded hours of worry afterwards. No more clock watching to see if I will get poorly, no more excessive cleaning or symptom checking. I am free to live my life now and enjoy my time with the kids without always worrying they might get sick.
Agoraphobia Client:
I had convinced myself that I was happy in my own company, I choose a job where I could always work from home remotely with clients, I used to exercise at home, most of my friends were via social media. I could order most of my shopping online. I just about managed to drive to starbucks drivethru for a coffee. Now I am free to drive long distances, meet up with people in real life, go to events, join an exercise class, even go on holiday in another country - I haven't got on a plane yet but I am feeling more and more confident every day and hope that I will be able to do this in the future. It has changed my life.
I have been a hypnotherapist since 2021 when I retrained, this was down the amazing results I had achieved through hypnotherapy. I have used hypnotherapy to cure my fear of flying - I used to panic on a short flight to Dublin and lose many nights sleep in the run up to the flight, it ruined my holidays and eventually I decided I had to do something about it. in 2023 I went to Mexico on holiday, my first flight in 4 years and I was amazed at how relaxed I felt, the airport was a breeze no panic or worrying thoughts, the plane was 9 hours but other than the expected boredom and lack of room there was nothing at all that bothered me. I have also used hypnotherapy to help my fear of having blood taken, I have always been a bit scared of this but it was having a cannula during childbirth that left me really scared to the point I dread going to the doctor in case they want to take blood. I had hypnotherapy as I wanted to overcome this fear and now I can actually watch them doing the procedure - not that I would recommend that!
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