Phobias & Fears
Feelings of fear are very common but when that fear becomes irrational and stops us from enjoying life and doing the things we want to do then it becomes a phobia.
It is estimated that around 10 million British adults live with some kind of phobia in their life, with flying, spiders, public speaking and heights being in the top 5.
Phobias are stored in our hippocampus, the part of our brain that holds all our primitive behavioural patterns and responses. This part of our brain doesn't know the difference between imagination and reality so, the response we get is the same as if we were in a real life threatening situation.
Hypnotherapy is very effective in treating phobias and it works surprisingly quickly. There are two types of phobias, specific phobias and non-specific phobias. Specific phobias are where every other part of a persons life is normal. People with a specific phobia have just one particular thing that creates a phobic response, e.g spiders or flying. These types of phobias can usually be treated in just 4 sessions.
Session one
Initial consultation. This is where we have the opportunity to discuss your phobia. I will then explain why we create phobias, how our brains work and how we can remove them from our hippocampus.
session two
We will have a lovely relaxation session using trance to reduce any anxiety or stress you may have so that you are in the best possible place to overcome your phobia. (If you have a lot of stress or anxiety in your life it may be best to have a couple more of these sessions. We will discuss this and make a plan at the consultation).
session three
In a safe and controlled hypnotic state we will do a rewind session. This is where we will focus on an event or thought around your phobia and remove the phobia out of your hippocampus.
session four
The final session will be the reframe. We will work together on building a new template of how you want things to be, how you would like to react around your previous phobic trigger. This template will then replace the old template in your hippocampus.
Non-specific phobias are where the phobic response has crept further into a persons life, e.g agoraphobia or emetophobia. These types of phobias will require more sessions. We will discuss this and make a plan at the consultation.