“Come into my parlour” was the line the spider used on the fly as popular legend has it but what if the fly had spider phobia? It could of had shortness of breath, hot or cold flushes, numbness, sweating, trembling, chest pain, palpitations, rapid heart beat, nausea, dizziness, fear of losing control or dying or even feelings of unreality?

A phobia is an intense state of fear produced by a specific object or situation that is in fact relatively harmless and if it interferes with your daily life then it really is time to seek help. Now I say objects or situations that are relatively harmless because if a fully grown tiger entered the room you are in now I think you can realise that you don’t have a tiger phobia but you will become intensely fearful. But some people may have a huge reaction to a tomato entering the room, a balloon, a clown or just about anything. The way the phobia works is like this. At any time in your life you could have a bad reaction to an object or situation that causes you upset in any of the above ways. Your brain stores away how you felt and whenever you talk about or think about the object or situation your brain replays that to you over and over. Now as time passes your active imaginative mind may exaggerate that feeling making this harmless object or situation fill you with complete dread. And so when you are faced with it you begin to react and literally fall apart.

What I will do as your hypnotherapist is to scramble the stimulus response attached to your object or situation so you can unlearn your phobia. Most clients will tell me I don’t want to react at all; I want to feel nothing, not even the slightest bit bothered. Maybe you can think right now how you would like to react or feel? I am a very 'hands on' therapist and I'm happy to go out of the therapy room and work on your phobia using graded exposure. I have helped clients on buses and tubes. I have gone to pet shops, great heights, I have even brought my own dog in. I will do whatever it takes to get you to your goal so your life will not be affected. It is not whether I can it is simply how we get there. Don’t forget that your mind has created your phobia from something that could have happened as far back to when you were maybe a few years old and over and over your mind has rehearsed that feeling again and again and presented it to you when the object or situation appears. And if your mind can do all that then it will be your incredible, amazing, imaginative mind that will cure your phobia too (with a little help from me). 07855660390