What is a fear?
Fear is a rationalised and justified emotion that comes in response to a threatening situation. Almost all of us experience fear at some point in our lives. It is very common to feel a little anxious the evening before a long flight or feel a little dizzy when looking down from a great height. Of course, trying to overcome fear that exists in our mind is not easy. However, it is important to understand that fear is a normal human emotion triggered by threatening conditions. For most of us, these feelings are temporary and manageable. It’s when the fear interferes with daily life that it can become a problem.
What is phobia?
A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that describes an excessive and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation. Phobias involve intense fear surrounding an object or situation that really poses little or no real danger. They are different from common fears in that the associated anxiety is so strong it interferes with daily life and the ability to function normally. For those living with phobias, there are a few who find their strange and bizarre phobias quite fascinating. However, for the majority this unease becomes a persistent and all-consuming anxiety with the power to feel unbearable, turn into overwhelming panic or perhaps life-threatening. As a result, people suffering from phobias may go to extreme lengths to avoid encountering or experiencing what they fear.
Cause of phobias
Fears and Phobias may emerge during childhood, pop-up randomly in adulthood or even occur as a result of a traumatic event involving the object of fear. For example frequent causes of phobias include:
- Traumatic experience involving object of fear
- Experiencing a panic attack in specific situation or around an object
- Witnessing someone else being harmed by specific activity or object
- Hearing a tragic story involving a specific activity or object
- Learned behaviour which stems from a family member experiencing the same phobia
Phobia symptoms
Symptoms of phobias are similar to those of a panic attack. When faced with the specific object, activity, or situation that is the subject of intense fear, an individual with a phobia may exhibit the following symptoms:
- Uncontrollable feelings of anxiety,
- dread, and panic
- Rapid heart rate
- Difficulty breathing
- Sweating
- Trembling, shaking
- Abdominal discomfort
- Tightening of the chest and feelings of choking
- Nausea and dizziness
- Hot or cold flashes
- An overwhelming desire to escape
How I can help
I can help you release your fears and phobias by using specific desensitisation techniques from Hypnosis, IEMT, NLP and mental imagery work. To begin the process, we first deal with any initial negative memories of events that may have occurred in your past and caused the fear or phobia. Only then do we move onto the hypnosis techniques. Once hypnosis is induced, together we visualise in the mind’s eye scenarios that would normally be frightening along with safe and secure images so that you can gradually begin to feel safe. Of course we do not go straight to the most threatening space but this is done in a calm and relaxed manner to overcome your personal feelings around the phobia so that it no longer affects you. Depending on how severe your fear or phobia is, this usually only takes around 4-6 sessions of therapy.
Common examples of Fears & Phobias
- Fear of small confined spaces
- Fear of the outdoors / open spaces
- Fear of blood
- Fear of vaccinations
- Fear of dogs /animals
What my clients say
I recently went to Priti for a dog phobia which I had been struggling with ever since I can remember and I am now 20 years old. I must admit I was a little sceptical about the whole process of hypnotherapy because of all of the parodies and entertainment shows which are in the media these days, but all it took was one session with Priti and I realised how wrong I had been. I had a totally of 4 sessions and I can honestly say my life has been changed, for the better in so many says
