Fears and Phobias

Hypnotherapy for fears and phobias

A fear or phobia is generally described as a powerful but ultimately irrational fear of an insect, object, person, situation or animal. You may believe that because the emotional effects of a phobia are so intense that you simply have to “live with it”...... but you don’t. One of the commonest reasons that people have hypnotherapy is for overcoming fears or phobias. Some issues may only need a single session to resolve, others may take longer; each case is treated individually.

People may have made jokes about your phobia in the past or called you daft, however I realise that no matter what may be causing your fear, the actual sensation of fear itself is very real and distressing. So contact me today and arrange your free initial telephone consultation – find out how hypnotherapy could help you rid yourself of your unwanted fears - if you want to do it then you can.

Hypnosis can be used to help deal with common phobias such as fear of flying or fear of spiders, and works to help you develop new behaviour patterns i.e. a calm and measured reaction rather than panicking and becoming more stressed.

More deep rooted phobias, for example severe social phobias or agoraphobia, can be immensely upsetting and affect your whole life; in these cases it is often best to go back and see how the issues surrounding the onset of the phobia affected you and work to deal with them. In some cases you could be seriously affected, both by the phobia itself (& accompanying symptoms) and/or by efforts to stay away from or hide it. For example, a fear of flying (Aerophobia) may result in you being unable to travel and missing out on family holidays.

Hypnotherapy for fears and phobias in Benfleet Essex

Hypnotherapy for fears and phobias in Benfleet Essex

The uncontrollable fear associated with your phobia may produce intense physical or emotional reactions in you, such as sweating, shaking, nausea, blushing, anxiety and extreme panic (heart palpitations, tightness in your chest area, extreme sweating, trembling or even feeling faint). These effects may cause you to go out of your way to avoid the cause of your phobia at any cost, which can be have a negative affect on all areas of your life.

Phobias can often be rooted in your misunderstanding of events or situations when you were a small child; at an age when you didn’t have all the rational mental comprehension and information to understand the meaning of a parent standing on a stool screaming at a small insect for example. As a child you would simply make an unconscious decision that that insect must be dangerous.

If you are living with a fear or phobia, and want to take back control of your life, then hypnosis could help you to change your way of thinking; talking about your fears and understanding where they have come from, using relaxation and visualisation techniques, and implanting positive suggestions to counter the negative behaviour patterns behind the fear.

Some of the commonest phobias may include:

dentists - Odontophobia or Dentophobia
spiders – Arachnophobia
heights - Acrophobia
needles or pointed objects - Aichmophobia
flying – Aerophobia
public speaking - Glossophobia
strangers - Xenophobia
confined or enclosed spaces - Claustrophobia
water - Hydrophobia
blood – Hemophobia/ Hematophobia
death or dead things – Necrophobia
cancer - Carcinophobia
blushing - Erythrophobia
germs – Mysophobia

The list of phobias is endless, from garlic (Alliumphobia) to amnesia (Amnesiphobia), from birds (Ornithophobia) or horses (Hippophobia) to belly buttons (Omphalophobia) or being touched (Haphephobia), from clowns (Coulrophobia) to thunder & lightning/storms (Brontophobia) and many more.

Book a free, no obligation initial telephone consultation and come along and talk to me about how hypnotherapy could help you rid yourself of your unwanted fears - if you want to do it then you can.

Social Anxiety

(Fear of social situations or social phobia)

Another common area people have a problem with is “social phobia”, this can include fear of:

speaking in public (giving talks, wedding speeches etc)
speaking on the telephone
meeting new people or visiting unknown places
going into crowded public places (pubs, clubs, restaurants etc)
eating or drinking in a public place
being looked at (this could be walking down the street, in the supermarket or anywhere)
using public toilets (Paruresis or bashful bladder syndrome)
undressing in public (for example in changing rooms)

If you suffer from social anxiety you may fear how others are seeing you (what are they thinking about you?) or feel that people are watching what you are doing (maybe you are doing something wrong?). You may often find yourself employing avoidance tactics to get out of the situation you are uncomfortable with. However evading the issue will often only tend to make it worse & it certainly won’t make the underlying issue go away.

So why not deal with it? If you are motivated to take back control of your life then hypnotherapy could help you to deal with your social anxiety.

Contact Pathways Hypnotherapy in Benfleet to arrange your free, no obligation initial telephone consultation. We can have a friendly, informal chat about how your social anxiety is affecting you and how hypnosis could help.