Overcoming Phobias Real Case

Rational and Irrational Fears

OVERCOMING phobias and deep fears, rational or not, is a common request for hypnotists.

There are very few out there without some sort of a phobia of something. We usually don’t know why or when it started. Sometimes people are able to remember a specific event or emotion that triggered their deep fear but usually they have no idea. As a side-note, it’s not necessary to know the root of a phobia in order to get rid of it.

It’s important to realize that not all phobias make sense or appear to be rational in the conscious mind. Indeed some  event, sound, emotion etc… may have been triggered firing off a fear, anxiety or feeling of panic that can then take on many symbols, associations and representations. For some it can be as simple as having watched a scary movie.

Let me give myself as an example of knowing exactly when a phobia started for me and in my case snakes.

I was living in England with my family and at seven years old came over to America to visit my grandparents and my mother’s relatives in Michigan. I went to stay with my beloved great aunt Ginny who I simply adored. I felt nothing but love and warmth when I was around her and she was a true beacon of light in my life. There was nothing about this beautiful woman I didn’t worship.

While visiting her, we spent endless hours in her beautiful garden and I specifically remember picking raspberries and white blooming phlox. We would take them into the kitchen put color dye in the water and watch them turn these magnificent colors. She was everything to me. Our friendship and love was magical. I smile as I write this with my beautiful memories of her and the precious time spent together.

I would sleep in her huge bed with her cuddled and toasty under gorgeous hand sewn quilts. I remember as though it were yesterday how on one particular night she woke up in a complete state of panic, shouting and crying. I of course was terrified.

She was screaming, “Get it off me, get it off me, get it off my neck.”

Her exquisite waist length strawberry blondish hair had coiled around her neck in her sleep. It had triggered a nightmare that she was being attacked by a venomous snake. To her it was completely real. Even as a little girl I remember helping to uncoil the hair from her neck and be as calming as I could.

BOOM! Then and there was ignited in me a persistent, extremely long terror and extreme phobia of snakes and worms poisonous or not. The experience hadn’t happened to me but I was there emotionally and my subconscious translated it as a threat and fear. I saw someone I loved deeply in terror and panic and it affected my psyche too. Interestingly aunt Ginny did not have or develop a phobia of snakes. I did!

I’m happy to say that after working with not only self hypnosis but professional Hypnotherapy from colleagues my snake phobia has gone.  I still don’t enjoying seeing them which is fairly regularly in the summer as I live in the countryside. However the full on phobia has gone with a residual small unpleasant factor – maybe 2 out of 10. That’s a huge accomplishment from once not even being able to look at a photograph of one without being so terrified I would’ve jumped off a bridge to escape. I even had to walk out of the movie Jungle Book when my daughter was little because of the cartoon snake.

In my particular case I know where and why the phobia started. However we don’t NEED to know in order to rid someone of a phobia. I always remind my clients you may think you don’t know but your subconscious does. That’s the entire point of hypnosis. To engage the subconscious to re-frame, release, reason with, parts negotiate and shift internal deep seated fears and emotions. We rewire short circuits getting the train back on the right track so to speak. I often use what’s known as ‘content free’ hypnosis and at other times I use regression. It really is on a case by case basis.

I vividly remember working with a top CEO businessman who had a phobia of flying. It was really starting to interfere with his career and was something that he felt embarrassed about. In his case we used some regression techniques. By the way this is an extremely common phobia for all sorts of reasons.

Under hypnosis he described being about 12 or 13 years old and playing down by the river with his pals. They were floating on logs on a beautiful summer day. One of his friends got the idea that they would tie their belts together and then tie themselves to one particular log. My client felt absolutely terrified. At one point the log rolled and he thought that he was going to be stuck on the log with his face down in the water and immediate panic set in. He remembers soiling his shorts and being horribly embarrassed. His friends were laughing and carrying on making fun of him as he was in the clutches of a profound panic. They did not intend to be malicious, they simply didn’t understand.

Still under hypnosis I asked my client. “What does this memory have to do with your flying phobia today?”

He answered. “Well it’s the seat-belt of course.” I continued with further questions. He then went on to say.

“It’s the same feeling as being on the log on the river, it feels exactly the same. I’m terrified. I could die. I don’t want to die.”

I asked him how he felt then while driving in a car and wearing a seat-belt.
“Oh I never wear a seat-belt in a car, I never have. I’ve never known why because I understand the statistics but I just never have.”

So here you can see how floating on that log and being terrified has absolutely zero to do with airplanes. However that fear deep-seated within him had translated and symbolized the feeling of a seat-belt being on the plane as terrifying. Then the birth of a phobia. It may not make sense consciously but it makes complete sense to the subconscious.

I used a number of hypnosis and NLP techniques with him to rid him of that phobia. We can do that while disassociated from any trauma and I’m happy to say that two weeks after his session he emailed me to let me know that he had actually enjoyed a long business flight finally free of fear and terror.

As I like to say. Reality is perception and perception is reality. Let the subconscious do the work.

For further reading.  http://www.abouthypnosis.com/phobias.html

To book with me.  https://modernhypnosisworks.com/contact-modern-hypnosis-works/

To Your Success.

Be confident and stay humble.
Vanessa Lindgren, Cht
© 2020 Modern Hypnosis Works