How hypnosis can resolve your phobia
Updated: Oct 4
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Fear is a natural healthy response to danger. It keeps us safe and responsive when fight or flight is necessary.
But if you're not in front of a saber tooth, and you develop an unrealistic, ongoing, intense and exaggerated fear, it becomes a phobia. Some phobias can interfere with your daily life and lead to other mental disorders and physical conditions if not resolved.
Let's explore how hypnosis can help you resolve your phobia or significantly reduce its symptoms and avoidance behavior.
What is a phobia?
Phobia is an anxiety disorder where you feel an overwhelming fear or anxiety that is so severe that it consistently disrupts your life and wellbeing. The percentage of people affected varies depending on the type of phobia, anywhere from 5 to 15% of the population.
There are as many phobias as there are stars in the sky and a phobia can be triggered by specific animals, objects, situations, or environments. These fears often provoke a strong stress reaction, such as rapid heartbeat or sweating, even when the person is aware that their fear is disproportionate to the actual threat.
Despite recognizing the irrationality of their reactions, individuals with phobias may avoid confronting their fears by steering clear of situations or stimuli that trigger them. This avoidance works as a temporary coping mechanism but doesn't address the root of the issue.
Many only seek professional help, such as hypnotherapy, when their phobia begins to interfere with daily life or causes distress, or when parents fear passing their phobias onto their children.
The 15 most common phobias that hypnotherapists address:
Arachnophobia – Fear of spiders
Acrophobia – Fear of heights
Claustrophobia – Fear of confined or enclosed spaces
Aerophobia – Fear of flying
Trypanophobia – Fear of needles
Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder) – Fear of social situations
Agoraphobia – Fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult
Ophidiophobia – Fear of snakes
Cynophobia – Fear of dogs
Mysophobia (Germophobia) – Fear of germs or contamination
Nyctophobia – Fear of the dark
Emetophobia – Fear of vomiting
Thanatophobia – Fear of death or dying
Aichmophobia – Fear of sharp objects
Hydrophobia – Fear of water
How phobias develop?
Phobias typically emerge through learned behavior, often passed down from parents, caregivers, through stories we listen to as we grow up, or they can be triggered by a distressing event.
For example, someone who has been through a turbulent flight or had a frightening encounter with an animal might develop a fear related to that experience. During childhood, we observe how those around us respond to situations, consciously and subconsciously picking up on cues about what to fear.
If a parent displays anxiety around spiders, for instance, the child may begin to associate spiders with danger, even without a direct encounter. Over time, these fearful associations strengthen, and repeated encounters with the feared object or situation can intensify the phobia.
The brain begins to solidify the belief that the object or scenario is harmful, which reinforces avoidance behaviors and makes overcoming the fear more challenging.
Symptoms of phobias:
There can be mental, physical and behavioral symptoms of phobias when you’re exposed to the feared object or situation and/or when thinking about it.
Mental:
Intense fear
Feeling like you're in immediate danger
Panic or the need to escape.
Disconnection from your own body (depersonalization) or the world around you (derealization).
Physical:
Sweating, feeling hot or chills.
Tightness or pain in your chest.
Shaking or trembling.
Trouble breathing
Pallor (pale appearance)
Behavioral:
Doing everything you can to avoid triggers. (Example: not going to the dentist or doctor because you are afraid of needles)
Avoiding positive life changes. (Example: you were offered an amazing job position but you rejected it because you would have to work on a 9th floor office with big windows and you're afraid of heights.
Purposely changing your life to avoid triggers. Example: you live in a coastal area but you move away because you are afraid of hurricanes.
Complications of phobias:
If phobias are left unchecked and unresolved, they often develop into other serious mental and physical health problems.
Mental:
Other anxiety disorders.
Depression.
Bipolar Disorder.
Personality disorders.
Somatic symptom disorders.
Substance abuse.
Physical:
Heart Disease.
Parkinson's disease.
Degenerative brain diseases and dementia.
Imbalance and dizziness which can lead to falls and related injuries.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
How can hypnosis help?
The earlier you treat a phobia condition the better the outcome will be. A phobia can have an extremely negative impact in your mental and physical health. So if you have been diagnosed with a phobia make sure you don't let it continue to run your life, leading to other more serious problems.
Hypnosis has proven to be extremely effective in either resolving phobias completely or hugely reducing their symptoms and avoidance patterns.
Research suggests that hypnosis can be an effective tool for treating phobias, often when combined with other therapeutic techniques like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT), the method I am proudly trained to offer to individuals, is a phenomenal method that combines a blend of techniques like CBT, hypnotherapy, traditional psycotherapy, Neuro-linguistic programing (NLP), mindfullness and neuroscience.
A 2019 meta-analysis highlighted that hypnosis significantly reduces anxiety related symptoms, which are common in phobias. It works by helping individuals confront their fears in a calm, controlled state, often through methods like imaginal exposure, which allows them to mentally rehearse facing their phobia without the immediate presence of the feared object or situation​.
Another study indicated that hypnotherapy can result in significant symptom reduction for patients with anxiety, with some findings showing that it can be more effective than traditional therapies alone.
For example, a 2021 study compared the effectiveness of hypnosis and CBT for depression and anxiety, with hypnosis showing a slightly higher reduction in symptoms​.
Hypnosis creates a deeply relaxed state, which can make people more receptive to positive suggestions. It addresses these phobias by reprogramming the subconscious mind to alter the conditioned fear response and create a more balanced reaction to the phobia's trigger.
If you are reading this and would like to experience the power of hypnosis to help you resolve a phobia, I am offering a 10% discount in any of my programs. All you have to do is subscribe with your name and email on the link provided, add the code "PHOBIA" and I will send you a link to book a free consultation call with me.
Do you enjoy my content? Then make sure that besides subscribing you also drop me a comment and let me know if you have any theme you would like me to explore in the future.
Take care and remember that your mind is so much more powerful than you think...
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