Can hypnotherapy help with fears and phobias?
A phobia is an irrational fear without good reason or fear that something may happen causing us harm. Why does the brain create a phobia? To protect us – it’s either learnt or a response to situation when we already have limited mental capacity. Phobias can cause different physical reactions as the mind is unable to differentiate between real and imagined, leading you to believe you’re in an actual life-threatening situation. You will either run, freeze with fear or hide- this is commonly called a stress response. It creates an unwanted response to a animal, object or actions or places.
Generally, people can enjoy their life and will avoid anything that trigger the stress response and usually seek help when there is a negative impact. Phobias are more common than you may think and the most common ones are:
- Acrophobia – fear of heights
- Aerophobia – fear of flying
- Aichmophobia – fear of needles
- Arachnophobia – fear of spiders
- Hemophobia – fear of blood
- Mottephobia – fear of moths
- Ophidiophobia – fear of snakes
How are Phobias Created?
Phobias are created usually owing to exposure to trauma (ie being bitten by a dog or witnessing it) or seeing a reaction by a loved during our formative years (ie seeing our parent panic at the sight of a spider). Once the experience has occurred, we create a negative bias telling us that it presents a threat. We continue to reinforce this belief and making the fear worse.
The answer to the leading question is yes, Hypnotherapy can help with fears and phobias. Hypnosis phobia research has shown that Hypnotherapy can reduce fear arousal. We have had many clients here at mindAbility who have been able to overcome their fear and phobias quickly – regardless of the length they have suffered. During your appointment, we access the phobia template and remove emotional response to it using several calming techniques. The memory is then reprogrammed so you can fly away for that family holiday or sit in the garden without the fear of insects. This can be achieved in just 4 sessions (provided there are not factors activating you stress response).
