How to treat a phobia

How to treat a phobia

I have a client coming in who wants to deal with a Phobia.  I got to thinking about how to deal treat a phobia.

Phobias are learned disorders and therefore any phobia can be unlearned. Treatment for phobias are usually successful, although clearing a phobia completely may take several sessions.

In hypnotherapy for phobias therapists often use the NLP Phobia Cure, or some form of graduated exposure therapy. But there are other ways of dealing with a phobia.

Ways of treating a phobia

Graduated exposure for phobias is done by introducing the phobic person to what they fear, a little at a time, to get them used to it.

Flooding consists of surrounding the phobic person with what they fear. For example a person with a fear of knives would be taken to a room with a drawer full of knives, and knives on the bench top. This will cause them to have their reaction. Although it can be unpleasant, they will realize that they did not come to any harm. So you learn that you can be in a situation where there are knives.

Another method  is Counter conditioning. This is a treatment that teaches the phobic person how to relax while in the phobia situation. By relaxing, you learn to control the panic you get from their phobia.

Ordeal Therapy is seldom used today, but it does work. The idea is to get the phobic person to be exposed to the phobia just up to the point where they want to turn away and avoid it. Then the phobic person is told to do something unpleasant. You are told to keep doing it until it gets so unpleasant that you would rather face the phobia.