How A Hypnotherapy Treatment For Phobias Works
Phobias are irrational fears which are beyond control and lead to the avoidance of the situation or thing that is feared. Regardless the object that is feared, symptoms of phobias are usually the same: sweating, trembling, racing heart, thumping in the chest, blushing or butterflies in the stomach. It is known that repetition forms the habit. This is why, repeated over and over in the presence of the trigger, phobia symptoms will only get worse in time.
While some cases of phobia are OK to live with, although the phobic person feels uncomfortable in the presence of the trigger, more severe cases can be debilitating. These cases should be treated. The doctor may prescribe the typical hypnotherapy treatment for phobias or direct the patient to a NLP specialist.
An alternative to a hypnotherapy treatment for phobias, a patient could undergo another type of therapy, called systematic desensitization. This means that the phobic person is gradually exposed to the situation that triggers his reaction, until he becomes able to control his behaviour to the point where the phobia is gone. This exposure should be done with maximum care and with the patient’s cooperation, because it can be extremely traumatic. Hypnotherapy does not need to be traumatic.
The purpose of hypnotherapy sessions is to discover the roots of the phobia, the underlying cause that triggered it initially. This could be some trauma the phobic person suffered earlier in life and which he doesn’t consciously remember. It is well-known that our subconscious mind has the power to repress unwanted memories, so we can never remember them without specialized help. This is how our mind protects itself from damage.
In the initial stage of a session of hypnotherapy treatment for phobias, the patient is induced a state of deep relaxation. The hypnotherapist will use special relaxation techniques that may start with the relaxation of each group of muscles and end with a state of calm, well-being and happiness which can be attained in as little as 15 minutes.
While in this state, hidden memories can be brought up to the surface by a process called hypnotic regression. The hypnotherapist will guide the subject during the whole experience and will know when the cause of the phobia was reached. From there, the hypnotherapist will lead the patient to visualize himself in the phobia-triggering situation, but with no feelings of anxiety or fear. New responses to old situations can be acquired during the same hypnotherapy session.
Depending on the severity of the phobia, the patient may go home cured after one single session or he might need to undergo three-four more sessions in order to get rid of his irrational fear for good.
If you suffer from any debilitating phobia, you should definitely seek help. Why endure those fears which make absolutely no sense to others but shorten your life or make it miserable, when you can be fine in as little as two or three hypnosis sessions? Anyway, make sure you choose the hypnotherapist very well, because trust and professionalism are extremely important for the treatment to succeed.
For effective treatment for phobias if you are in the London area, Alex recommends The Heath. For more information visit the site at treatmentsforthemind.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Gleeman
Chris Delaney NLP Life Coach, Hypnotherapist and Career Advisor is available for booking for One to One Private Sessions, Group Training Sessions and Public Speaking Events
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Most hypnotherapists don’t use this method of dredging up the past. Readers should be aware that this is only one kind of hypnotherapy. No-one I know uses it. For most clients there is no ‘hidden cause’. Many therapists now use the brief solution focused therapy, steering away from the traumatic past and looking to a straight forward cure (Fast Phobia Cure) which looks forward to a bright future.
Hi Sarah
I think I have to agree with you here in the main. If a client has no memory of the reason for the phobia, I personally prefer to use a different technique such as the NLP fast phobia cure, rather than regressing the client. I do this because for me, this is a quicker way to cure the phobic.
Some hypnotherapist find the cause and then as said in the article, associate new responses to it, taking away the fear and anxiety. I also have to agree that “The purpose of hypnotherapy sessions is to discover the roots of the phobia, the underlying cause that triggered it initially” isn’t true. Most hypnotherapist I know don’t need to discover the roots of the problem, rather they concentrate on the solutions. The purpose of Hypnotherapy is to use hypnosis as a therapeutic tool.
But some hypnotherapist believe that you may cure one problem without curing the root only to find other problems surface, especially when clients have issues relating to childhood traumas. IE you are not curing the cause of the issue (in this case the phobia)
My personal preference is to use whichever technique gets the fastest and lasting results, this way each session varies depending on the client’s needs and on their world. The author of the above articles talks about curing the phobic in one session, using the method he describes. If this technique works well for him and his clients, there must be something in it.