Phobias can be about things (animals or objects); processes (driving, flying, public speaking) or a form of social anxiety.

A simple phobia is when there is a straightforward association between the feared stimulus and the symptoms due to some kind of trauma from the past. For instance, if as a child you saw your mother scream when she saw a spider, then you would have been vicariously traumatised and 'learnt' to be afraid of spiders too (since we take our cues on behaviour from our parents). Below is a photo taken by a teacher of my four year old daughter Lara asking to hold a tarantula at the zoo. Because her parents are not afraid of spiders, she grew up learning not afraid to be either. If a four year old can do it, anyone can. Simple phobias can usually be resolved in a single session with certain techniques.

 

A complex phobia is when there is an indirect link between the stimulus and the symptoms. For instance, a lady came to see me for a phobia of mice, but it soon transpired that she had a deep seated insecurity about being 'unsafe' in her home, which related to other incidents when she was a child. The mouse which she saw in her home was just the latest manifestation of that underlying fear, not the true source of it. Complex phobias require more work so it may not be possible to resolve the phobia in one session.

Traumas
Traumas can occur from both actual life threatening experiences (assaults, car crashes, rapes, experience in war zones or earthquakes or natural disasters); as well as other non life-threatening but intensely uncomfortable experiences (such as standing up to speak in school and being humiliated). All phobias are forms of traumas.
When an individual is traumatised, they experience such strong emotions that it is thought to overwhelm the brain. Normal brain functioning or processing is interrupted and the memories of the trauma seem to become "frozen in time" or stuck. The memories become locked in traumatic memory as opposed to the normal narrative memory. That means that when the traumatic memory is triggered and accessed, the emotions attached to the memory can be as intense and vividly recalled as they happened yesterday as opposed to 10, 20 ,30 or more years ago. In contrast, in narrative memory, emotions become more diluted and distant with the passing of time.
Most talking therapies rendered ineffective due to the mechanical nature of the trauma as a problem. If anything talking about the problem over and over again to reinforce insight tends to unwittingly retraumatise the person and reinforce the memory neurones in the brain. For this reason only certain therapists that work on a mechanistic level are recommended. They allow the client to access their traumatic memory while inducing a state of low emotional arousal, allowing the memories to be processed, unblocked and converted into narrative memories, where the accompanying emotions can become detached.

Recommended Therapy: - EMDR, NLP, Clinical Hypnosis.

For clips of Felix Economakis using clinical hypnosis for phobias on TV programmes click here. See also testimonials

Group Workshops for phobias with Felix Economakis are also possible at half the reduced fee of one-one therapy.

 "...I've got to admit it's pretty impressive... i'm still able to walk through a crowd of pigeons and watch them flutter around me. That would have been inconceivable just a few hours ago. The sickness in my stomach has gone, I can't believe the progress I've made..."
- Journalist Beth Neil, Daily Mirror,challenged Felix to treat her phobia of pigeons in 1 session. 
                                                               Read the full story here

© 2011 – Felix Economakis, Heath Mind Body Therapies