THE FEAR OF PHOBIAS

Phobias are usually considered to be triggered by irrational or unknown factors, and when they are experienced by that person, disturb that person's everyday life. People who have a phobia usually react uncontrollably and intensely to the situation because they do not know what the cause is,which maybe either from a previous conditioned stimuli or repressed action or conflict in them which causes this feeling or reaction to take place . The fear of the unknown causes them to have a phobic reaction.Neurotic individuals have a wide variety of phobias, to name a few: Acrophobia(fear of heights), Agoraphobia(fear of open places) Claustrophobia(fear of closed places),Mysophobia(fear of dirt),etc..., sometimes the phobia has such a grip on the persons thinking that they become a social recluse or socially phobic to their surroundings and create severe anxiety in the person afflicted with this condition. Hypnotherapy is one of the better therapeutic modalities which can help a person get over their phobias or fears, the process used could be circle therapy where the client is made to repeatedly face or confront his phobia in a state of hypnosis until the anxiety or perceived danger of the situation is gradually desensitized, and positive suggestions given to the client to strengthen their self image and get rid of this fear.
Regression Hypnotherapy could also be used as a tool to bring the client to the original point or cause of the fear or phobia and remove this feeling thus negating this negative feeling and the anxiety associated with the phobia. Another form of therapy which could also be very beneficial to eliminate phobias is behavioral or motivational coaching, where the behavioral coach gradually introduces the client to his phobia one step at a time till the client is desensitized to this feeling, for example if a person has a fear or phobia of dogs the behavioral coach first introduces a photo of dogs for the client to see, after a while a stuffed toy dog and as the phobia lessens a live canine is brought some distance from the client , then a bit closer and so on and so forth till the client is totally confident that he or she can touch the animal without evoking the original fear or phobia, and thus the phobia is eliminated. It is important for the hypnotherapist or coach to remember during the intake interview to listen very carefully to what the client is expressing about his symptoms and that no other hidden, secondary or important psychological symptoms such as paranoia, delusional thinking, psychosis that are masked by what the client states as a phobia. In these cases the client is better of refereed to a psychiatrist for further treatment.If the client has a personal physican the therapist could also request the physican to send the therapist a bill of good health before any sort of hypnosis or behavioral coaching is started .