Phobias severely impact 1 in 10 people and can take on many forms. In fact it can take almost any form. There are more common phobias such as Archnophobia (spiders), Trypanophobia (needles), or Glossophobia (public speaking). However, it doesn’t matter whether it is common or more unusual, there is no such thing as a “silly” phobia. For that person it is very real and debilitating. Regardless of what the phobia is it still impacts the brain in the same way.
Phobias are usually formed either through a personal trauma, learnt response or witnessed trauma, which triggers a fight or flight response which creates a pattern match in the brain. The brain then refers back to this pattern match as to how it needs to respond when experiencing the phobic trigger in the future. And the more stressed and anxious we are the more the phobic response will take over.
With Solution Focused Hypnotherapy we have two approaches available.
For Specific Phobias (e.g. spiders, needles, etc) we use a relatively short treatment programme. This process works by reducing stress and anxiety then removing the phobic pattern match and replacing it with a normalised response, and has been developed from a proven and effective NLP technique. This typically takes 4 sessions (including the Initial Consultation).
For Non-Specific Phobias (e.g. enclosed spaces, heights etc.) because it is harder to pin point an exact thing to focus on (how high is too high?) it is more a case of ensuring our stress and anxiety levels are under control so that our rational, intellectual mind is in control. For this we recommend between 8 and 12 sessions.
If you are unclear which category applies to you we can discuss this during the Initial Consultation.
If there is a particularly intense trauma surrounding the phobia the shorter process may not be appropriate. Similarly if the phobia is linked to OCD it may require a longer treatment programme.