Anxieties and Phobias
Anxiety, panic disorders and phobias are very similar in nature as they are all, at their very heart, fuelled by fear. From an evolutionary standpoint, fear was a powerful emotion intricately linked to our survival instincts. Under threat, fear triggers the fight/flight/freeze response which helped primitive man escape from predators, attackers or to be cautious around fire. This, however, becomes problematic when that very same survival instinct makes you want to run away from exams, freeze during presentations at work or keep you from going to the dentist even though your infected tooth is desperately in need of attention.
Anxiety disorders are characterised by a feeling of unease, worry and fear of what is to come. The feeling of fear is accompanied by various physical symptoms and can be debilitating and intense for some.
How Can Hypnotherapy Help?
The template for our fear response exists in our subconscious. When the amygdala, which is like our Health and Safety Officer, registers a possible threat, it will refer to the hippocampus, where all our past patterns of behaviour and experiences are stored. Hypnotherapy allows us to bypass the conscious mind and reach the subconscious directly in order to create new, positive and healthy templates and patterns of behaviour.
While specific phobias are managed with a quick Rewind/Reframe process, usually requiring 3 or 4 sessions, non-specific phobias take longer as we focus on lowering general anxieties.