Hypnotherapy could help you to overcome fears and phobias

Irrational fears or phobias can make life feel miserable, frightening and out of control. Although the solution may feels as if it should be very simple, attempts to remove the fear through logic alone often fail.

Because these fears exist in the unconscious part of our minds, hypnotherapy is a very effective way of overcoming them. Often just a few sessions of hypnotherapy can remove phobias or unhelpful fears permanently, leaving you free to enjoy you life to its fullest.

What is a phobia?

Fear is a natural emotion that helps to keep us safe when faced with things that could harm us. 

However, if you have an extreme or irrational fear of something that poses no real threat, and that most people would not fear, you may be suffering from a phobia. The fear may persist in spite of any logical reasoning.

You are not alone - an estimated 10 million people in the UK have some form of phobia.

Particularly if your phobia has been adversely affecting your ability to live life in the ways you choose, perhaps now is the time to allow hypnotherapy to help you to overcome this.

Effects of phobias

People with phobias have an overwhelming need to avoid all contact with the source of their anxiety. Encountering, or perhaps even thinking about, the focus of the phobia causes anxiety or panic.

If the focus of your phobia is something you don’t need to face regularly, such as snakes, it may be fairly easy to avoid it, and your phobia may have minimal impact on your day-to-day life. 

However, people who have phobias about everyday items, such as birds, can find avoiding them more difficult.  Some people begin to organise their lives around avoiding the things they fear.

More complex phobias, such as agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces and public places), can be very restrictive, making it  difficult to lead a normal life.  This can be very distressing for the person themselves and for those around them.

How can hypnotherapy help you to overcome your phobia?

Conscious reasoning, however logical, does not usually overcome phobias, because they are stored deep in your subconscious mind.  However, hypnotherapy can help to overcome phobias, by changing the way your subconscious mind works. 

If your mind has developed an irrational, unhelpful link between intense fear and a particular object, such as spiders, hypnotherapy can help to remove that link. If you have developed a fear of specific situations, such as flying, you can learn to relax and feel more confident.  You can envisage how you would really like to react to the focus of your phobia, and learn how to work towards this – all in the safety of the therapist’s chair.  Learning relaxation techniques can help you to approach specific situations more calmly and confidently.

As with all hypnotherapy provided by Vanessa, help to overcome phobias is designed on an individual basis for each client.  Many simple phobias may be alleviated in just one or two hypnotherapy sessions.  In more complex cases, analytical hypnotherapy may be required, in order to overcome the phobia. 

In all cases, the first step is to arrange a free consultation, to allow you to agree with Vanessa how hypnotherapy can help you best.

Note: you will not suddenly be face-to-face with the object you fear!

We would like to reassure you that our clients are never suddenly exposed without warning to the object of their fears during therapy.  Every effort is made to make your hypnotherapy experience feel as comfortable and safe as possible - we are here to help you, not to frighten you!  If you have any concerns, please discuss them with Vanessa during your consultation.