Phobias

Overcoming Phobias

Phobias can be powerful — a rush of fear that feels completely out of proportion to the situation, yet utterly real in the moment. Whether it’s spiders, flying, crowded spaces, or something less common, the fear response can trigger the same part of the brain that reacts to real danger. The heart races, palms sweat, breathing changes — the body believes it’s under threat, even when logic says otherwise.

Phobias often develop from a single moment of fear, shock, or discomfort that becomes “stored” in the brain as a template for danger. Each time the same situation arises, that old template replays automatically. For some people — especially those with anxiety sensitivities or neurodivergent traits like ADHD or autism — that fear response can be stronger and harder to switch off, as their nervous systems are naturally more finely tuned.

The good news is that phobias can be changed — often surprisingly quickly.
Using Solution Focused Therapy, along with techniques from NLP, CBT, and hypnotherapy, we work together to “scratch out” that old fear template and replace it with calm, confident associations. The process is gentle, relaxed, and highly effective — and most phobias can be resolved within three to four sessions.

This approach doesn’t involve reliving traumatic moments or forcing exposure to the fear. Instead, we retrain the brain to recognise safety where it once saw threat — helping you move forward feeling lighter, calmer, and completely in control.

Examples of just a few specific phobias:-

• Acrophobia -fear of heights
• Trypanophobia – fear of needles
• Agoraphobia – fear of going outside
• Escalaphobia – fear of escalators
• Trypophobia – fear of clustered shapes
• Gephyrophobia – fear of bridges or tunnels
• Amaxophobia – fear of driving a car
• Astraphobia – the fear of thunder and lightning

“After having a phobia of going down on escalators for around 20 years, it was beginning to rule my life and my family’s life, so I really needed to do something about it.

Just the thought of having to go towards a down escalator would send my heart pounding, my pulse racing, bring on a hot sweat, not to mention the ‘oh mum do we really have to go and find the stairs?!” type of comments… and I haven’t even mentioned the fear of vertigo!

I would stand at the top of an escalator, (with my husband saying ‘you can do it – just step on’) and try my best to step on, miss several steps, get pushed from someone behind me (that was expecting me to just step on and move). Then I’d start to feel sick, dizzy and disorientated, and then I couldn’t coordinate my limbs to even step on if I tried – my legs would go like jelly and I would sometimes even end up crying!!

I really didn’t know what to expect, but the whole process was so much simpler and more comfortable than what I perceived it would be like. In fact Clare helped me to sleep like a baby, relax, ease overall tension, calm down, and helped me to see clearly, think rationally, make me more sociable, put things into perspective…. and that’s even before we got to the escalator phobia!

Then as if by magic, she said ‘right you’re cured – go and have a lovely shopping day out with your daughter. Go up and down as many escalators as you want’. At this point I was still not convinced it had worked. So, I organised a day out with my daughter and hey presto – I went down 10 escalators that day – 3 of them on my own, and then I did it all again a couple of days later, completely on my own to make sure I could still do it!!

I can highly recommend Clare and the whole hypnotherapy process. Her voice is very calming and reassuring and makes you feel completely at ease. I have already referred some friends – so what are you waiting for – book today and change your life too!” LS

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