Overcome Fears and Phobias
A phobia is an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation or feeling. Phobias are very common with about 10% of the population having a diagnosable phobia and many many more experiencing specific fears which may not be severe enough for diagnosis but which nevertheless interfere with your day-to-day life. Typically, people deal with their fear by avoiding the thing that’s causing anxiety – for example, avoiding flying or giving a speech. If the source of your phobia is very rare, avoidance may not affect your everyday life. However, for some people, avoidance can really restrict your life choices. Furthermore, in some cases, avoidance doesn’t work because even just thinking about the source of the phobia can make you feel anxious or panicky.
Phobias can affect absolutely anyone, regardless of age, sex or background because they occur as a by-product of the way the brain learns about danger. There are two main routes to developing a phobia. The first is from directly experiencing a frightening, stressful or traumatic incident that becomes associated with the object or situation. The second is from learning the fear from a parent or sibling, typically early in life. However, many people have phobias that do not obviously fall into these two categories. Regardless of the origin, almost all phobias can be successfully treated and fears and phobias tend to respond very well to hypnotherapy.
With almost twenty years’ experience as a hypnotherapist, I have helped many hundreds of clients to overcome their fears and gain a new freedom and sense of control in their life. A selection of the more common phobias I have successfully treated is listed below. But the list is by no means exhaustive, so even if your particular fear is not mentioned, please do get in touch to discuss how I can help you.
- Arachnophobia – The fear of spiders.
- Ophidiophobia – The fear of snakes.
- Acrophobia – The fear of heights.
- Agoraphobia – The fear of open or crowded spaces.
- Cynophobia – The fear of dogs.
- Claustrophobia – The fear of enclosed spaces.
- Mysophobia – The fear of germs.
- Aerophobia – The fear of flying.
- Thanatophobia – The fear of death.
- Glossophobia – The fear of public speaking.
- Monophobia – The fear of being alone.
- Atychiphobia – The fear of failure.
- Aphenphosmphobia – The fear of intimacy.
- Trypanophobia – The fear of needles.
- Haemophobia – The fear of blood.
- Vehophobia – The fear of driving.
- Nyctophobia – The fear of darkness.
- Androphobia – The fear of men.
- Emetophobia – The fear of vomiting.
- Gephyrophobia – The fear of bridges.
- Gynophobia – The fear of women.
- Koumpounophobia – The fear of buttons.
- Thalassophobia – The fear of the ocean.
Related Articles
Mark Witter
Mark Witter MA DHP PhD
A highly qualified and experienced hypno-psychotherapist, creating a safe, compassionate and professional environment to confidentially support your healing and personal development.
Comments are closed.