Hypnotherapy for Phobias: It Can be an Effective Phobia Solution
Hypnotherapy has been tried and tested for many years as a phobia therapy. There is some good evidence that it can be effective for many people. It is an increasingly popular alternative solution for phobias which, in other words are, an irrational, disproportionate fear response to everyday things. It offers a unique approach to tackling your fears and anxieties by accessing the subconscious mind and exploring the root causes of your issue. This allows individuals to gain a deeper understanding of their fears and with this new insight develop strategies to overcome them with your therapist.
What Happens During Treatment? Hypnotherapy for Phobias Explained
During your hypnotherapy session, a trained, experienced therapist will guide you into a relaxed state of hypnosis. This is not quite the same as being asleep but, instead, it is a deep, focused state of relaxation where the mind is highly receptive to positive, ethical suggestions offered by your therapist. In this hypnotised, dream like state, your therapist (or dream guide) will work with you to uncover and reframe (see from different perspectives) the underlying emotions and potentially false beliefs associated with your phobia.
Reframing the Way You Think Can Help
By delving into the subconscious, hypnotherapy helps individuals reframe their thoughts and responses to their phobia. It can help you challenge negative thought patterns or beliefs about whatever you are afraid of and replace them with more positive and empowering beliefs. For example, if you have a fear of leaving your home (agoraphobia), hypnotherapy can help you shift your perception of going outside from something terrifying to something safe and enjoyable.
Hypnotherapy Can Reduce Your Anxiety
One of the great benefits of hypnotherapy is its ability to reduce anxiety. Phobias often come with intense feelings of fear and panic. This is a very natural and good response to something dangerous. However, if there is only perceived danger that is not really dangerous at all, as with a phobia, it is setting off your fear response too often. In the long term this sort of thing can lead to many problems. You will be glad to hear hypnotherapy can help calm these fearful emotions in many ways. It can teach relaxation techniques that can be used wherever and whenever you need them.
Breathing techniques like “mindful breathing”, “4-7-8 relaxing breathing” or “diaphragm breathing” can be useful for this. Also an anchor an be created during hypnotherapy. This might be pressing your thumb and finger together when you are feeling calm and relaxed. Your subconscious mind will have recorded this for you. Then after the session you can press your thumb and finger together when you need to and those relaxed feeling can come back. Hypnotherapy is useful in providing tools to manage anxiety. Through repeated sessions, you can build resilience and develop a greater sense of control over your phobia.
Hypnotherapy Can Help Find Your Phobias Root Causes
In addition to reducing anxiety, hypnotherapy can also address any underlying issues that may be contributing to your phobia. It can help you uncover past traumas or experiences that have shaped your fear response and work through them in a safe and supportive environment. For example, if you were told something many times as a child (don’t go swimming you will drown) by your parents, this can end up being a belief. Now we all know that once you learn to swim the chances of you drowning are small, as long as you take care while in the water. But, if you are given this negative idea many times you can become phobic of bodies of water. Each time we go near water our alerts are put on high and we start to panic. By resolving these underlying, historic issues, using regression therapy you can experience long-lasting relief from your phobia.
References:
Auna, M. (2020) EFFECT OF HYPNOTHERAPY IN REDUCING PHOBIA SYMPTOMS, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY SCIENCE (IJNMS), 4(1), pp. 29-36. doi: 10.29082/IJNMS/2020/Vol4/Iss1/256.
Schweizer C et al (2023) Hypnotherapy for agoraphobia—Feasibility and efficacy investigated in a pilot study [online] available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10448829/ last access 15/11/2023