We all know that a phobia – defined as an irrational or excessive fear – can develop in a matter of seconds.
All it takes is a dog to surprise you by running at you whilst barking, or struggling to regain your breath whilst swimming, and before you know it you’ve developed a fear of dogs, or water, or anything else that your subconscious mind develops to protect you.
Since hypnosis is the most direct way into the subconscious, it stands to reason that it can become the instrument of disarming the irrational fear. And, as a life-affecting fear like this can develop in seconds, then it should be no surprise that if we can access the subconscious mind then we can remove the phobia as quickly as it arose.
Many specific phobias can be traced back to specific triggering events which may have occurred at an early age and have set a subconscious response pattern. As such, most fears are learned. Some of these are useful, e.g., the fear of touching a hot saucepan. Other fears appear to not be useful; such fears are considered irrational. Strictly speaking, the term ‘phobias’ is reserved for such irrational fears.
Very often an unchecked phobia spreads to more and more situations. Thus the life of a phobic person becomes ever more constricted. Or a person might be phobic, for instance, of driving across a bridge. Then he becomes phobic of even looking at a photograph of a bridge, thence he avoids books with photographs of bridges and movies because there might be a bridge image, so he begins to avoid bookstores and movie houses. Then streets near bridges. Then highways because somewhere along their length they might include a bridge. And on and on.
There are hundreds of phobias. Here are a few:
* fear of animals (Zoophobia)
* fear of bees (Apiphobia)
* fear of being alone (Monophobia)
* fear of being buried alive (Taphophobia)
* fear of blood (Haemophobia)
* fear of bridges (Gephyrophobia)
* fear of clowns (Coulrophobia)
* fear of confined spaces (Claustrophobia)
* fear of the dark (Nyctophobia)
* fear of Dentists (Odontophobia)
* fear of disease (Pathophobia)
* fear of dogs (Cynophobia)
* fear of flying (Aviatophobia)
* fear of heights (Acrophobia)
* fear of insanity (Lyssophobia)
* fear of marriage (Gamophobia)
* fear of needles (Trypanophobia)
* fear of open spaces (Agoraphobia)
* fear of rats (Musophobia)
* fear of spiders (Arachnophobia)
* fear of vomiting (Emetophobia)
* fear of water (Aquaphobia)
Hypnotherapy is a proven method of removing fears and phobias. The method most often used is a variation of the Rewind Technique, which is effective at removing many phobias in one session.