`Fear and anxiety are normal, adaptive responses that in evolutionary terms, have aided our survival for millennia. They have helped humans detect and appropriately respond to threats in the environment. However, sometimes fear can become maladaptive, meaning it affects an individuals daily functioning. This can occur when fears become extreme, persistent or irrational in nature, we refer to these fears as phobias.
Phobias are a subset within anxiety disorders that compel the individual to actively avoid the object or situation that almost always provokes immediate fear and anxiety. Phobias cause clinically significant distress or impairment and they typically last for 6 months or more. Specific types of phobia include; animal type, natural environment type, blood injection type, situational type or other type.
What Causes a Phobia?
Phobias are often a subsequent response to a frightening event or stressful situation, however it’s not always so clear why some phobias occur. They can sometimes be linked to an early childhood experience and are learnt through our environment. Less is known about complex phobias such as social phobia and agoraphobia, but it is thought that brain chemistry, genetics and our life experiences play a role in their development.
Phobias can give rise to both psychological and bodily reactions. In a stressful situation the body releases the hormone adrenaline, which can result in symptoms such as:
Physical Symptoms
Dizziness/lightheadedness
Sweating
Trembling
Fast heartbeat and/or palpitations
Shaking
Nausea
Pain or tightness in the chest
A sensation of butterflies in the stomach
Choking sensation
Psychological Symptoms
Feeling detached from your body
A fear of losing control
A fear of fainting
A fear of dying
How Can Hypnotherapy Help?
To learn more about hypnotherapy for phobias, we need first to understand that in our everyday life we are constantly bombarded by our surroundings and the world around us. Our attention can be pulled in multiple directions. Hypnotherapy enables individuals to explore thoughts, feelings and memories that otherwise may not be so easily accessible to them in a conscious state. Hypnotherapy is believed to elicit an unconscious state that allows people to perceive things differently.
Hypnotherapy uses guided relaxation and intense concentration. Those in hypnosis, experience focused attention to the degree that they temporarily block out their surrounding environment, resulting in a heightened state of awareness. As such they quiet the conscious mind that is involved with daily life and can deeply access the unconscious. Whilst they remain in control of their actions, behaviours and statements, contrary to perceptions of hypnosis in the media.
There are two different ways in which hypnotherapy can be used. Firstly, it can be used to analyse the client in their relaxed state in order to explore their problems. This may involve exploring an individual’s social history to uncover events that may play a role in their current distress and symptomatology. After which, the client may wish to proceed with psychotherapy.
The second, involves using suggestion therapy. The use of hypnosis in this method enables clients to be more receptive to suggestions to change behaviours. The hypnotherapist assures the client of the safe environment they’re in, so they can face their phobia without their usual panicked reaction. The client may also be taught cognitive behavioural coping skills, guided imagery and how to conceptualize their phobia in a different way.
Phobias have their roots in learned responses and exaggerated emotional reactions to stimuli, this makes them particularly susceptible to hypnotherapy. Phobias activate the sympathetic nervous system and parts of the brain associated with the fear. These neurobiological reactions prepare our bodies for emergencies and activate a quick, instinctive response. Our body acts in a way to protect itself from harm despite the individual knowing the phobia poses no real threat.
The way in which hypnotherapy works is by unlearning the fear response and gradually building up your exposure to the phobia, which with time, decreases the associated anxiety.
How many sessions a client has differs from person to person, it can range from one session to a longer term treatment plan. Moreover, hypnotherapy is often used in parallel to talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy. The drawbacks of hypnotherapy is that it may not be appropriate for those experiencing psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, those who are using alcohol or drugs, or those who are susceptible to suggestion as with dissociative disorders.
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