The initial cause of phobias can usually be traced back to an initial sensitizing event where a biological response has become associated at an unconscious level with a particular trigger or stimulus, usually as the result of some emotionally charged event. When you are re-presented with the trigger, for example, seeing a snake, the associated response is triggered, most commonly resulting in feelings of anxiety, fear and panic.

There are 5 main types of phobia; simple, complex, social, panic attacks, and agoraphobia.  A simple phobia is a fear of a single stimulus such as fear of heights, whereas a complex phobia is a fear of a number of stimuli.There are 5 main types of phobia; simple, complex, social, panic attacks, and Agoraphobia. In fear of flying, for example, the person may be afraid of crashing, being enclosed in the plane, losing self control etc.  Those with Social Phobias are afraid of what might occur when in the company of other people, for example, fear of blushing and forgetting what you are about to say, etc.   Panic attacks can be a quite terrifying but are very common and appear to mainly affect people who normally give the impression of being confident and dependable. Those that suffer with Agoraphobia experience increasing nervousness the further they travel from their own home sometimes not venturing from home at all.

A phobia can make one's life miserable, cause embarrassment, and undermine self-confidence and self-esteem.  Some people therefore attempt to conceal their phobia from other people and so can often feel very alone in their debilitating fear.  These people become very conscious that there is no cure for their phobia and that they must ‘learn to live with it’.  Although there isn’t a pill you can take, there is something that can cure your phobia.

How Can Hypnotherapy and NLP Help?

The basic feature of any phobia is a conflict between conscious and unconscious processes.  Since Hypnotherapy and NLP are the most direct way into the subconscious, it stands to reason that they can become the instrument of alleviating the irrational fear.  Hypnotherapy and NLP helps you to come to an internal understanding and acceptance of how the phobia may once have served a useful purpose but now has become an unnecessary behaviour pattern.

The objective of hypnotherapy is to discover the cause(s), communicate with these unconscious processes and desensitize you from the fear so that you react to them in a calmer fashion when encountering it in the future.  Attempting to deal with a phobia at a conscious level is often totally ineffective because phobias happen automatically below the level of conscious awareness. In fact many people are already aware of the cause, or trigger of their phobia, and no matter how much they attempt to consciously control and rationalise it, they still experience them.