We are born with 2 basic fears – the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears are learned either from experience or from what we see, hear, learn from our environment and people within it – siblings, peers, parents, teachers etc. Who isn’t scared of something that a sibling or friend has told us to be afraid of? Ghosts? Monsters under the bed? Witches? Haunted houses? Stepping on the cracks in the pavement?

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But fear is essential for our survival. It is appropriate to be afraid of fire if it is out of control, water if we cannot swim, heights if there is a risk of us falling, unexpected noises in the night or anything else that puts our safety at risk. If we were totally fearless, we would probably not survive long. However, being too fearful can make life a challenge as we will stay within our comfort zone and never enjoy the rewards of being adventurous.

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Fear can hold us back from reaching our full potential if it is out of control and/or unfounded and this is where hypnotherapy and NLP comes in – to help the client take back control and move past the fear.

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Whether the fear is of something physical; fear of flying, fear of driving, fear of exams, fear of needles or blood or emotional; fear of failure, fear of success, fear of abandonment, we can help by reprogramming the subconscious mind to let go of the fear, permanently.

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Fear is often the sign of a very vivid imagination which, together with a subconscious mind that doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined, triggers of the basic survival ‘fight or flight’ response to give the person the resources to escape the threat.

This is where the brilliance of hypnotherapy steps in by inviting clients into their subconscious mind where healing, insights, spiritual gifts and amazingly resourceful states exist. When a client is in the midst of a fear response and their physical symptoms are occurring on a grand scale, hypnotherapy creates an environment to enable the client to examine how they actually feel, the severity and frequency of their fear responses, explore other options, create coping mechanisms and take back control or their reactions and life.

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Using regression techniques, the therapist can take a client back to the age where they first encountered the situation that triggered the fear but lacked the ability to rationalise and respond in an appropriate way. By creating an environment where they can feel safe, loved, protected and reassured, the client can rewrite history, formulate a different and preferable story and response, enabling the client to heal and move on.

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Symptoms of an adrenaline/fear response include the following:

• Palpitations

• Sweating Trembling or shaking

• Shortness of breath or smothering

• Feelings of choking

• Chest pain or discomfort

• Nausea or abdominal distress

• Feeling dizzy, light-headed, faint, unsteady

• Chills or heat sensations

• Feelings of unreality or being disassociated

• Fear of losing control or ‘going crazy’

• Fear of dying

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PHOBIAS

  

A phobia is an irrational fear of something that to many others is just a normal part of life.  It is not an illness.  It is not a mental disorder.  Nor is it a lack of will-power, or 'moral fibre', or determination.  A phobia can make one's life miserable, cause embarrassment and undermine self-confidence and self-esteem.

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For example:  It is a good idea to be wary of dogs.  Unless you know a dog 100%, they can be unpredictable.  It is good to teach children to be cautious, especially with dogs they do not know.  But if that 'fear' is so crippling, that someone won't ever go to a park or a beach or even leave their house for fear of seeing a dog, that is a phobia.

 

Most phobics and many therapists tend to be fixated on discovering why they have the condition.  But what happens when you do get to the cause of the phobia? You still feel phobic.  You know that it's to do with some childhood incident but you still feel phobic.  Because understanding the cause does nothing to alleviate the gut response. 

 

It's a bit like getting a thorn in your finger while gardening.  You could spend a lot of time figuring out which rose bush causes it and which branch and at precisely which moment, but it makes a lot more sense to first get the thorn out of your finger so that it stops hurting and doesn’t become infected!

 

Someone who is phobic will often agree that it's a silly response but they cannot seem to avoid it.  They are quite aware that, while there may be some rational basis for their fear, it is largely irrational.

 

Take the example of a phobia of snakes.  If you live in the United Kingdom there is a slight possibility that you may be out in the countryside on a warm summer's day and you may possibly come across one of the increasingly rare adders and you just might not see it and it might be so unaware of your very silent approach that it doesn't quietly slip away and you might possibly be walking about without wearing shoes and you might possibly step on it and get bitten.  None of that is likely but it is just possible.  And therefore, a UK resident has some reason to be fearful of snakes.

 

Yet, while the likelihood of being bitten by an adder in the UK is very small, someone who is afraid of snakes can be so fearful that they cannot even pass a pet shop, just in case there may be snakes on display in the window.  They may even have to leave the room if snakes are featured on the television or be unable to look at picture of snakes in a magazine.

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There are three main types of phobia:

Agoraphobia: fear of places where escape might not be easy or where help might not be readily available if something bad happens.

Social phobia: fear of encounters with other people.

Specific phobias: fear of a particular thing or situation, such as snakes, public speaking, heights or the sight of blood.

 

Here is a list of 28 phobias and their definitions – there are many more!

 

• Ablutophobia: Fear of washing or bathing

• Acrophobia: Fear of heights

• Agoraphobia: Fear of open spaces, crowds or leaving a safe place

• Ailurophobia: Fear of cats

• Alektorophobia: Fear of chickens

• Anthropophobia: Fear of people

• Anuptaphobia: Fear of staying single

• Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders

• Atychiphobia: Fear of failure

• Autophobia: Fear of oneself or of being alone

• Aviophobia: Fear of flying

• Caligynephobia: Fear of beautiful women

• Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns

• Cynophobia: Fear of dogs

• Gamophobia: Fear of marriage

• Ichthyophobia: Fear of fish

• Melanophobia: Fear of the color black

• Mysophobia: Fear of germs or dirt

• Nyctophobia: Fear of the dark or of night

• Ophidiophobia/Herpetophobia: Fear of snakes

• Ornithophobia: Fear of birds

• Phasmophobia/Spectrophobia: Fear of ghosts

• Philophobia: Fear of being in love

• Photophobia: Fear of light

• Pupaphobia: Fear of puppets

• Pyrophobia: Fear of fire

• Thanatophobia or Thantophobia: Fear of death or dying

• Xanthophobia: Fear of the colour yellow

 

If you or someone you care about is experiencing any form of phobia which is negatively impacting their life, then call today so that you can show them that there is a solution and this will be the first step towards enabling them to experience a wonderful sense of freedom from the unwelcome and crippling symptoms of unwarranted fears and phobias, once and for all.