Fear vs. Phobias
It is normal – and actually healthy – to feel fearful sometimes.
Fear is an instinctual response, which humans have experienced since cavemen times, that is triggered by dangerous situations. If we didn’t feel any fear, we would likely risk physical harm on a daily basis (e.g. not looking for cars before we cross the street).
Phobias are different. They don’t have to be triggered by ‘real’ danger (e.g. coming across a brown snake in the wild) – only ‘perceived’ danger (e.g. watching a documentary about snakes).
Phobias can develop in response to either situations (e.g. flying) or objects (e.g. spiders).
If the situation or object is a common occurrence in your day-to-day life, this can really hold you back from going about your routine and can cause you a great deal of distress.
Types of Phobias
Phobias can be categorised as either specific/simple or complex.
Specific/simple phobias tend to centre on a specific object or situation. They also tend to develop in childhood and become less severe with age. Common examples of specific phobias include animals (e.g. spiders, snakes or dogs), the environment (e.g. heights, germs or open water), situations (e.g. flying or going to the dentist), the body (e.g. blood or needles) and sex (e.g. performance anxiety).
Whereas complex phobias tend to revolve more around everyday activities, have a greater impact on a person’s life, develop in adulthood and stem from deep-rooted anxiety. Two of the most common complex phobias are agoraphobia (fear of being outside or in a public place) and social anxiety disorder.
Symptoms
Physical symptoms experienced when exposed to a feared object or situation are similar to that of anxiety and can include dizziness, sweating, heart palpitations, nausea and/or shaking.
Symptoms are usually felt upon coming into contact with, seeing, talking about or even just thinking about the object or situation of concern.
What causes a phobia?
Phobias can stem from trauma (e.g. you were attacked by a dog as a child and developed a fear of dogs), the behaviour of others (e.g. your mother screamed when she saw spiders and now you fear spiders), genetics, mental health issues or a combination of these factors.
Regardless of how or why phobias develop and how much they impact upon your life, the good news is that they ARE treatable.
Treating Fears and Phobias
Phobias are developed through learned experiences – we are not born with them; whereas fear is instinctual.
Despite their differences, both fear and phobias are stored within the subconscious area of the mind. Meaning that no matter how much you try to rationalise your fear or ‘talk yourself out of’ your phobia, you will still experience negative emotions, without appropriate intervention.
This might sound like fear and phobias are impossible to overcome; yet actually, it makes them highly treatable with Time Line Therapy®, combined with Hypnotherapy (Hypnosis), because both techniques work to unlock the subconscious mind and clear any emotional blocks and/or root cause/s from a subconscious level.
Time Line Therapy® allows you to let go of & control your fear, while disallowing your fear to take control of you.
This helps you to regain a sense of control over your own life, stop living in a constant & unhealthy fear state and begin living your best life. Holding onto past fears serves no purpose in your current life. Through Time Line Therapy®, you will build awareness and strategies to maintain a fear-free future.
What happens during treatment?
During a Time Line Therapy® session, you will be guided to regain and maintain control over your emotional responses (and outbursts) on a subconscious level.
You will be guided to release the effects of past negative experiences underpinning your phobias & fears and change your ‘inappropriate’ programming in minutes, rather than days, months or years.
Hypnotherapy is also useful for treating fears and phobias, but only after using Time Line Therapy® first.
Hypnotherapy allows you to enter into a deeply relaxed state (similar to just before you go to sleep), where you will remain in complete control the entire time. You will then be gradually introduced to the item or experience you are phobic of, in a safe space, progressively learning to modify your fear response in a healthy way. (Relax, this can be done on a psychological level – you do not have to be in direct contact with the item or experience in question.)
The number of sessions required will vary from person to person and depend on the severity of the phobia. Some people are actually able to overcome their phobia after only a single session!
Other Therapies
Time Line Therapy® and Hypnotherapy can also work well in conjunction with other therapies such as Counselling, to address other underlying conditions, unhelpful emotions and other issues such as trauma.
Apart from these services, I also offer a range of complimentary modalities including Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Access Bars® and Life Coaching and/or can work together with your support team to maintain complete continuity of support.
For more information please visit www.purposefullife.com.au. To make an appointment, please phone on 0481 877 860 or email at hello@purposefullife.com.au.