Phobias and fears - Hypnotherapy in Edinburgh

Hypnotherapist in Edinburgh Phobia and Fear Treatment

What Is A Phobia?

Phobias are fears created by traumatic experiences, or moments of high stress. They are attached to specific triggers and only activate when those triggers are hit, but they can feel very extreme in those moments.

The classic and common example is the phobia of flying. One may go to the airport and already feel stressed due to having to rush to pack, or just going to a new place, or never having flown before. The plane takes off, and suddenly there’s a lot of turbulence, which frightens you even further. This last fright is added to the stress you were already feeling, and overwhelms you. In that moment of overwhelm, your brain takes a snapshot of your environment and stores it in your subconscious. The next time you enter into a similar situation, e.g. you go to an airport, you see an advert for air travel on TV, your subconscious sends you a fear response, because it recognises something it perceives as dangerous.

This same phobia or fear response can sometimes come from something we don’t consciously remember, especially if it happened when we were very young. It can also develop over time. Being consistently in the same lightly stressful environment with no resolution can have a cumulative effect, sometimes resulting in phobias developing after weeks, months, even years of constant stress.

How Do I Treat It?

Phobias can often be resolved remarkably quickly using the Rewind technique or Somatic Anchoring. Both can be used to ‘trick’ the brain into believing that the traumatic memory has been resolved, and is therefore safe to move and store in your long term memory. Sometimes it is difficult to even talk about or consciously think about the traumatic event. In that kind of circumstance, one can essentially erase the fear response by creating a really powerful opposite response, such as calm/happiness/contentedness, all based on good memories that you already have, or positive experiences you hope to have in the future. Every client has unique needs, and I work tirelessly to ensure that those needs are met and managed to the best of my ability.

Depending on the clients past experiences, this is generally done within 3-5 sessions, and usually follows the treatment route below:

Initial Consultation:

This is a chance for me to get to know you and understand the problem, as well as explain more about the method and answer any questions you may have.

Session One:

We start gently, addressing any first-session nerves, introducing you to the techniques and methods we will most likely be using and creating confidence as a foundation for future success.

Session Two

We introduce safety tools and treat the root cause of the phobia, as well as continuing to build confidence and a clear vision of a future where that fear has disappeared

Session Three

We remove the actual fear pattern by breaking down the unique way it occurs in your mind and creating a pattern of confidence that your subconscious will be compelled to turn into a new behaviour. As we treated the cause in the previous session, this will mean the old phobia won’t be able to re-assert itself and create the same old pattern again.

Session Four and Five

At this point, most phobias will actually be resolved, and the treatment, for most clients, will be over. However, some cases need a little fine-tuning. This can take the form of preparing for a specific future event, in which, even with a fully resolved phobia, it might be very rational to have some anxiety. For example, someone may want to resolve a fear of flying because they really want to do a parachute jump for charity. Even without the phobia, it is rational to need some mental preparation before doing something like that. Some people might have a secondary fear of ‘what if the phobia comes back?’. However, by sessions four and five, the main bulk of the work is done, so anything extra tends to be far easier to resolve.

During this process, you will go into trance a number of times. You will have full awareness and control of yourself in these moments, and will easily be able to communicate or stop if you feel uncomfortable. I use calming, neutral language and relaxation techniques to help make this process feel restful and rejuvenating, with clients often reporting a ‘refreshed’ feeling after a session is over.