Overcome Fears and Phobias
“From not being able to look at planes in the sky or go to an airport with out a panic attack, during my last session with Warren last night, I was able to walk into the airport like I hadnt a care in the world.. felt so relaxed and at ease. am flying on Fri and am actually looking forward to it. Never ever thought i would say those words. “ Simone
Intellectually, you know the plane isn’t going to crash. In your head, you know that nothing will harm you when you leave your house. You know that spider does not want to bite you. But when you think of flying on a plane or seeing a spider, your heart pounds, your hands shake, and your breath becomes laboured. You may feel faint. The fear may not be rational, but it’s real. And you’re terrified. You’ll do whatever you need to avoid the situation, person, animal or thing.
That’s when your phobia interferes with your life. It changes your actions, behavior and thoughts. Whatever your fear is, it’s holding you back from experiencing all life has to offer.
Hypnotherapy is probably the single, most effective treatment for overcoming fears and phobias. This is because the phobic response is created at the subconscious level, even though it is experienced consciously.
What is a phobia?
Phobias seem to be an expression of a natural defense mechanism within humans. Our genetic code is programmed with primal fears, such as the fear of animals, insects, heights, being trapped in small enclosed spaces, falling, avoiding pain, etc. These primal fears or phobias are an expression of our sympathetic nervous system or the fight-or-flight response survival mechanism in our brains.
We have the ability to learn certain things very quickly. A baby usually learns the first time that touching something orange and glowing will hurt. The infant does not need to be taught any theory about fire. From the first time she touches a flame, she will automatically feel something, like fear or aversion, whenever she comes near a flame. In fact, she will find as she grows older that she can’t touch a flame even if she wants to. She will have a strong physical aversion.
Fear is an important survival mechanism. It helps us respond physically even before we recognize the danger.
When something frightens a person, a whole range of uncomfortable body chemistry is triggered. Every time that same item (the cause of the phobia) is encountered, the same uncomfortable feelings return. All of this happens on a subconscious level. Over time, the phobia grows stronger, and we may even forget the original cause of the fear.
How does hypnosis help someone overcome phobias?
We have found that most phobias, even those that have lasted an entire lifetime, can be overcome in a few sessions. Most phobias are initiated as part of a “one time learning” process. That is, some single event initiated the phobia, and it is stored in the subconscious mind where it repeats like an endless tape. Using hypnosis, we can use this natural learning process to unlearn the phobia, often just as quickly as it was created.
We are only born with two fears:
a) a fear of sudden loud noises
b) a fear of falling.
All other fears are learned. They are learned from past experiences in our lives.
For example, maybe a young child saw her mother screaming when confronted with a spider. Or maybe the child had a spider thrown at her. Or maybe the child was being bullied and the bully happened to wear a t-shirt with a spider on it. In all of these cases the spider became associated with a fearful experience. The child then associated feelings of fear when they thought about a spider. And each time the child would say to themselves “I don’t like spiders” they would be reinforcing their fear.
Some phobias are more complex. A fear of flying, for example, may be a fear of being out of control, or a fear of being high up, or a fear of being in an enclosed place, or a combination of all of these.
Furthermore, the cause of the phobia may have had nothing to do with object of the phobia.
I use hypnotherapy to help you overcome all kinds of fears and phobias, from fear of flying to fear of public speaking.
Simple phobias respond well to NLP and can often be helped in just one or two sessions. More complex phobias may take a little longer.
Hypnotherapy helps to alleviate phobias and fears by guiding the client through relaxation and visualisation techniques in order to aid desensitisation. You are taught to learn new habits and eventually retrain your brain to detach the object or the situation from the emotional response.
I will provide you with the tools to remove the fear permanently. Sometimes the approach involves getting to the root of the fear so you can understand and eliminate it. In other situations, they can help you break the stimulus-response pattern that’s been set up so that what used to frighten you just doesn’t anymore.
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