We are only born with two naturally wired fear imprints –fear of loud noises and a fear of falling, everything else is learnt! For example a child may learn a phobia by observing a family member’s reaction to an object or situation. Traumatic experiences and brain chemicals are also believed to influence the development of phobias. This can be influenced by high stress and poor nutrition.
The phobic trigger can be associated to anything, phobias can range from the more known fear such as spiders and other insects, flying, needles, driving etc.
Once our minds perceive an object or situation to be dangerous It creates an imprint of this on our mind so that the next time we come across or think about the object or situation the through feeling reactions coming up from unconscious memory triggers a physical response quickly and automatically in a flash, Regardless of whether the situation or object is dangerous or not. The fight of flight response kicks into action to keep us safe.
Hypnotherapy is widely used to correct the imprint. Once the mind understands that it is no longer protecting you it will drop the behavior, learning that a fear response is only generated when the danger is physically real. Hypnotherapy takes the emotional content out of old phobic memory and helps the mind to display calm and relaxed about the object or situation like any other changing the thought feeling reaction coming up from the unconscious memory.
Hypnotherapy techniques can be used to identify the root cause of the phobia and enable individuals to react to the particular object or situation they once feared in a calmer manner when encountering it in the future.