When knowing that everything is fine is not enough

 

​“I know it isn’t dangerous. I know my reaction is disproportionate. But it feels stronger than me.”

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This is probably one of the phrases I hear most often when someone comes to see me about a phobia.

And it describes the problem quite well.

The person knows. They can reason. They may even be able to explain perfectly well why their fear makes no sense. And yet, when the situation arises, the body reacts before reason has a chance to intervene.

Racing heart, shortness of breath, tension, an urge to escape, a feeling of losing control… Sometimes, simply imagining the situation is enough to trigger the reaction.

It is precisely this gap between what we know and what we feel that makes phobias so particular.

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A learned response… that can change

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A phobia is not a lack of willpower.

At some point, the brain associated a situation, object or sensation with a danger response. That association may have an identifiable origin — a difficult flight, a bite, an accident, a medical experience — but that is not always the case.

Over time, avoidance often reinforces the mechanism. You stop taking the lift. You organise your holidays around avoiding flying. You change your route. You ask someone else to go down to the cellar because there might be a spider.

And gradually, it is no longer only the fear that you are avoiding: part of your freedom begins to be organised around it.

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Why I use hypnosis so often for phobias

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Phobias are among the issues I work with very regularly, and they are also an area in which I often observe particularly rapid changes.

This is partly due to the way they function: the aim is generally not to convince someone rationally that they should no longer be afraid. They already know that.

The work is rather about addressing the automatic response that has become established.

Hypnosis allows me, in particular, to work on the association between the trigger and the emotional response, on certain experiences that may have contributed to the mechanism when relevant, and also on the anticipation of the feared situation.

My objective is not to teach you how to “put up with” your phobia.

It is to help it gradually stop needing to organise your behaviour.

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Flying, driving, animals, medical procedures…

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I work with a wide range of phobias: fear of flying, driving, heights, enclosed spaces, lifts, animals or insects, needles, the dentist, certain medical procedures…

Some have been present for only a few months. Others for twenty or thirty years.

The length of time a phobia has been present does not necessarily indicate how long it will take to change. A long-standing mechanism is not necessarily a complicated one.

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Regaining freedom, in practical terms

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The result that matters to me is not simply that someone tells me they “feel better” in my office.

It is that they can get on a plane again. Drive. Step into a lift. Go through with the medical procedure they had been postponing. Go hiking. Stay in a room when they notice a spider.

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In other words: to regain, in real life, something that fear had gradually taken away from them.

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Is a phobia limiting your life?

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An initial conversation allows us to understand how the phobia works, how long it has been present, and determine whether my approach is suited to your situation.

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