Working with Phobias
Phobias are intense emotional responses of fear to a specific stimulus,
which are often developed from a one time learning yet can plague
people for a lifetime. However many people do learn how to take
control of their response and free themselves from their phobias.
People can have phobias to all sorts of things - spiders, cats,
public places, insects, flying etc. Someone with a phobia will often
go to extreme lengths to avoid the object of their phobia - flying
phobias frequently stop people from travelling abroad for years
and years, or if they do they have to find alternative methods of
getting there.
Sometimes people say that they have a phobia, however it is really
just anxiety - I knew a musician who believed he had a phobia about
performing, however did it almost every night - he did feel frightened
before performances, however it was not a phobia. On the other hand
I was once visiting a friend and a spider ran across the floor,
at which point my friend jumped up on top of the sofa and flew into
a panic. With a phobia, people will do almost anything they can
to avoid the stimulus.
What To Do
There are many ways to work with phobias. Traditional psychological
methods include flooding and progressive desensitization.
Flooding is quite an extreme approach where the phobic person is
put in contact with the object of their phobia until the phobic
response fades away. It can be very effective, however is regarded
by most people as far too extreme. I do know therapists who have
used this effectively with people, for someone who was phobic about
driving was given the task of getting in their car and driving until
the fear disappeared. This worked very well for the person, however
many people would not have felt able to begin the challenge in the
first place.
Another method is progressive desensitisation. Here the person
would make a list of things that trigger the phobic response and
list them in terms of the amount of fear they induce, starting with
things they feel they could cope with. The person would then relax
and gradually be exposed to the stimulus, starting with the least
frightening and then as they could cope with that, the next would
be presented. This is frequently combined with hypnosis to put the
person in a very relaxed state before they are presented with the
stimulus.
NLP & Phobias
There is an NLP fast phobia technique which can be extremely effective
in dealing with phobias. In fact, this can often get rid of a phobia
in one session. I have used this countless times with people and
helped them get rid of their phobias very quickly.
The technique essentially involves 'scrambling' the automatic response
that someone has to the stimulus, and part of the process involves
having the person imagine being in a situation that has triggered
the phobia and having them imagine it running backwards very quickly,
like a speeded up film or cartoon. This completely changes the experience
for them and they can cope with the thing that they were once phobic
about. Once the process is complete it is good to test it immediately
afterwards, so if someone had a phobia about spiders, then you would
have a spider that you could show them, or if they had a phobia
about flying, you would want them to go on a flight as soon as possible.
For more information about where to find help with dealing your
phobias, please contact us and we can put you in touch with an NLP
based therapist.
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