fears and phobia

Phobias & Fears

A phobia can be defined as, “A persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.”

A phobia and the feelings that accompany it can be so intense that even the thought of the feared object or situation can bring about severe distress or even a panic attack. As a result, normal everyday activities can be compromised and this often leads to feelings of hopelessness, embarrassment and failure.

In the UK alone, it is estimated that around 10 million people can be affected by a phobia(s) and it doesn’t matter if they are male or female, old or young. That is nearly 1/6 of the whole country (based on figures 2013). So if you are reading this and you have a phobia, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Many of us develop fears or phobias as children and we just grow out of them but for many, these fears never leave us and as we get older, they increase in their intensity.

Simple phobias may develop following a traumatic event, by learning the phobia from someone else or they may even be inherited. Many people have a fear of dogs because they saw their parent being afraid of the dog up the road as they passed it on the way to school each morning. A child may have been playing outside and accidentally fell into a spider’s web, thus resulting in a phobia of spiders.

fears and phobiasFear keeps us safe from danger and allows us to either run away or stay and deal with it. However, if a fearful situation proves to be too traumatic for us to cope with, our subconscious tells us repeatedly that it is not safe and we need to run. Unfortunately, our subconscious keeps telling us to run, each and every time we are presented with the feared object or situation. Eventually this response just gets totally out of proportion and the phobia is born.

NOW HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS… We have learned fear and phobias from our own experiences and hypnosis works to “unlearn” them. I will help you to take control of your fear or phobia and teach you some techniques which will enable you to get your life back. I often use a combination of NLP with hypnotherapy for phobias as this has a remarkable effect on releasing blocked energy and negative thought patterns.

These are some of the phobias that I have dealt with recently:

– Spiders Leaving the house (agoraphobia)

– Enclosed spaces (claustrophobia)

– Snakes

– Driving (on motorways and over 40mph)

– Dentists

– Flying

– Going to school

So whatever it is that you are afraid of, nothing is too small, large, embarrassing or crazy.  As an experienced therapist, and I’ve probably dealt with it before!