Hypnotherapy for fears and phobias
A phobia is an uncontrollable fear, a fear than can be debilitating and disabling. But to be afraid of something is one thing, to have a phobia is quite another.
Fear is good, important and necessary. It is a very normal, human emotion that we experience when confronted with real danger. It is a natural “fight or flight” instinct, which makes us prepare to run away from that danger, or stick it out and fight it out. It’s our brain’s way of protecting us. A phobia, on the other hand, is an irrational fear to a situation or stimulus that poses very little or no danger.
Phobias vary in severity among individuals. Some sufferers avoid the subject of their phobia and suffer only relatively mild anxiety over that fear. Others suffer fully-fledged panic attacks with all the associated disabling symptoms. Most individuals understand that they are suffering from an irrational fear, but are powerless to override their initial panic reaction.
Throughout our life we learn to be afraid of certain things and situations. It is fear that protects us from fire, snakes, sharks, and situations that can harm us. We are right to be afraid of snakes—many of them are venomous and even if they don’t kill us, we know that at best we will feel pain. Similarly we know that if we fall from a great height, the chances are we will break a leg or possibly die. So in these situations we are right to feel fear, because it protects us.
Most people don’t particularly like spiders or snakes, but they don’t suffer from a major phobia.
How can you manage your phobia?
The simple answer is, not very well. Trying to stop feeling fear / panic is like trying to stop blinking. You can try, but eventually the unthinking, subconscious part of the mind will override your attempts and that emotional and physiological response will take over automatically once again. Some people will try distraction techniques. Some attempt to avoid certain “triggers” to prevent the phobia occurring. Others may use direct hypnosis suggestion to suppress it. But unfortunately, none of these methods resolve what caused it in the first place, and so eventually the phobia will just keep on coming back, and the anticipation of fear will never go away.
Why, Why, Why?
The most effective way to cure your phobia completely and permanently, is to resolve what’s causing it; if there is no longer any cause, there can be no effect.
So why do you have your phobia? You have probably puzzled over this many times before. Looked for reasons, triggers behind it. Perhaps you know why; your mum, sister, or other family member has it too. Or maybe you panicked once in that situation, which triggered off a fear it would happen again. But knowing this doesn’t make the phobia go away. Or maybe you can’t think of any reasons to explain it. But that doesn’t mean there is no cause, because for something to exist it has to have been created. It has to have come from somewhere.
Beneath all the triggers and confirmation there is a single, root cause stored away in the subconscious mind. It’s something you can’t think of. Something small, easily forgotten, easily overlooked. It’s like that bit of grit in your eye. Once you find it, it can be hard to believe that something so small could have caused so much trouble.
It can take years for our problems, conditions and symptoms to get a good hold over us. Something that starts out as a minor irritation gets worse and worse until it causes us so much suffering that we eventually seek help to put it right.
How can I cure my phobia?
The only way to cure a phobia is to find - and then correct - the cause
Curative hypnotherapy is distinguished from all other forms of hypnotherapy primarily by its use of logic. The therapist approaches each person without theories or preconceptions – except for one – that the answer to your phobia lies only within your own subconscious mind. With Curative Hypnotherapy there is no need to suppress or manage your phobia. By resolving and correcting the cause, your fear, anticipation of fear and all related symptoms will automatically fade away, until eventually your phobia is nothing but a vague and distant memory.
Which phobias can curative hypnotherapy treat?
Curative hypnotherapy can treat a phobia of absolutely anything, whether it has been assigned a label or not. Below is a list of some commonly known phobias, but this is by no means exhaustive. To see a complete list, click here. If your phobia is not listed below or on the comprehensive list, this does not matter. Please contact the City Hypnotherapy Centre to discuss your specific phobia.
Commonly treated phobias
- Phobia of animals (cats, dogs, etc)
- Phobia of spiders
- Phobia of pigeons
- Social Phobia
- Vomit phobia
- Phobia of heights
- Phobia of confined spaces
- Blood/Injury phobia
- Driving phobia Flying phobia
- Phobia of tubes/trains
- Commitment phobia
- Phobia of intimacy
- Phobia of sex
- Phobia of buttons
- Phobia of thunder and lightning
- Phobia of hospitals
- Phobia of darkness