Using Hypnotherapy to Treat Fears and Phobias
Fears and Phobias Whatever your particular fear, or phobia, this page will go some way to explain how phobias are created, and perhaps more importantly, how hypnosis and hypnotherapy can help. If your particular fear or phobia isn't mentioned on this page, don't worry, it's just that they can't all be listed. Simply contact us for further details. Phobias are extremely common and are experienced by approximately 11% of the population at some time in their lives. Two very common phobias are SOCIAL PHOBIA (social anxiety: a fear of being judged negatively in social situations) and EMETOPHOBIA (a fear of vomit/vomiting). Fears A fear is an unpleasant reaction we feel when confronted with real danger. It is an essential 'fight or flight' instinct, which makes us prepare to either run away from that danger, or stick around and fight it out. Phobias A phobia on the other hand (while still a very strong and unpleasant reaction), is an irrational fear which has been 'symbolically attached' to an object, or situation, which causes little or no real danger. There will usually be strong avoidance behavior connected with the phobia, which will run alongside intense feelings of anxiety, loss of control and panic. Sometimes, confrontation with the phobia, can even lead to fainting, but this is usually only associated with blood, injury, or needle-type phobias. Specific phobias Specific phobias can be categorised into five main types:
Complex phobias As well as the specific phobias, there are also the complex phobias of social phobia / social anxiety, and agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces). These are also very distressing and debilitating and impact many areas of a person’s life. What causes phobias? Phobias are often caused in childhood, where the child experiences a real fear, but the mind manages to detach (or repress) the feeling of terror, from the situation that caused it. This leaves the mind with a strong fear, and nothing to attach it to. The mind doesn't like it this way, and will therefore, symbolically attach this fear, to a real object or situation that it does know about, be it a spider, an enclosed space, a lift... whatever it may find. From then on, whenever the person comes into contact with the symbolic object or situation (say, a spider), they feel the fear that the subconscious mind has coupled it with and they have a 'phobia'. Sometimes, however, phobias can develop after experiencing something. The initial sensitizing event, or triggering incident, may vary from witnessing, for example, an accident, visiting the dentist's office, or even just hearing about terrible disasters. Or, a child may model the behavior of their role model who has a phobia, and as a result, this can cause the child to become phobic as well. The child would quickly have picked up on someone else’s fear, absorbed and formed a learned behavior pattern, and thus developed a conditioned response. Common phobias. Some very common phobias are:
Would Hypnotherapy be beneficial for your fear / phobia? To gauge the degree to which your fear is affecting your life, ask yourself the following:
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are likely to have a phobia and may consider hypnotherapy to remove it quickly and effectively so that it no longer intrudes into your life. Fears and Phobias CAN Be Helped! Why Hypnoanalysis is so successful at treating phobias Phobias are generally created in a person’s mind in childhood (though the symptoms may not appear for many years). The phobic response is caused by the sufferer bottling up some strong emotions. The only way to resolve the phobia - is to release the bottled up emotions that are causing it. These bottled up emotions are stored the person’s subconscious mind so the sufferer has no conscious awareness of them. In our formative years (with only a child’s resourcefulness) bottling the emotions up was the best plan of action for dealing with difficult strong emotion. It was done by our subconscious mind so we weren't overwhelmed by the emotions, and could get on with growing up. However, now that you are grown up you do have the resourcefulness of an adult and can easily face and resolve those emotions that were too much for the child. Your subconscious mind wants you to do this and will do everything in its power to encourage you to resolve the internal conflict (emotion) - including giving you the symptom! It's as if that symptom is a signal telling you that there's something inside you ready to be resolved. Most other types of therapy cannot gain access to these 'locked away' emotions and experiences, whereas Pure Hypno-Analysis can. The process of Hypnoanalysis requires a strong bond of trust and rapport being created between the therapist, and the client. Over a period of about eight sessions, we slowly and effortlessly link thoughts and memories back through time (using a process of 'free association') until we come to the bottled up emotions. When we release these emotions, the excessive fear is resolved forever. Come Along For a Chat To find out more about it, you can come along and meet with me in my clinic in Rathfarnham for an initial consultation, and we can have a chat about the problems you're having. It's free of charge and very informal. Success, joy and wellbeing to you! Ailish McGrath
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| Ailish McGrath's Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy clinic is easily accessed by the following bus routes or local areas: 15B bus, Dublin 16, Dublin 14, Rathmines, Rathgar, Ranelagh, Templeogue, tallaght, Firhouse, Terenure, Dundrum, Sandyford, Belfield, M50 |
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"A persons mind stretched to a new idea can never return it its original dimensions" (Oliver Wendall Holmes) |
