If you feel phobic about something but don’t know how to control the feelings naturally, then this may be the most important website you ever find.
Fear is a normal and valid feeling because it’s purpose to to help protect us. But when it gets out of control, fear can become phobic. The problem with phobias is that the fight or flight response (which is helpful when required) occurs when there is no immediate danger. Some people find that even little things (usually reminders) make their phobias come on.If you feel phobic about something but don’t know how to control the feelings naturally, then this may be the most important website you ever find.
Fear is a normal and valid feeling because it’s purpose to to help protect us. But when it gets out of control, fear can become phobic. The problem with phobias is that the fight or flight response (which is helpful when required) occurs when there is no immediate danger. Some people find that even little things (usually reminders) make their phobias come on. This greatly reduces quality of life because you may find yourself avoiding activities you really want to do. A phobia is normally in response to a certain stimulus (see below for multiple examples).
The cost of avoiding the problem is too high. Personal relationships often suffer. If you find it difficult to manage your phobia, you are not alone.
Some symptoms of phobias:
- Shortness of breath
- Palpitations or accelerated heart rate
- Chest pain
- Choking sensation
- Excess sweating
- Digestive upsets, nausea, IBS, bloating
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Fear of death
- Feeling faint
Having any of these symptoms does not necessary mean that you have a phobia, and not all phobias include all these symptoms.
The good news is, therapy can help you discover the root cause of your phobia, the triggers, and how to resolve it quickly. This is achieved in a safe and supportive environment. Approaches applied will depend upon what we consider most appropriate for you, and may include one or a combination of humanistic person centred therapy, Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation exercises, Existential therapy, psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, Dream work, NLP, Hypnotherapy and other such methods – the point is to find out what is best for you to manage how you feel and discovering the causes of your phobia, so you can discover lasting inner peace and real happiness.
What can I expect from a session?
The first step is to make an appointment to see me. I only work one on one with people. The first session is to find out if you click with me, and if I think I can help you to stop having phobias. This in itself usually gives people more awareness and different things to think about.
How are you different?
When you have therapy in our Bentleigh clinic, we work a little differently to what you may be used to from previous experiences. A short outcome and session rating tool is used to measure effectiveness of each session which allows us to track progress together, and know how comfortable you are with your therapist. A fair amount of research suggests we should see changes pretty early on in therapy. If after 3-4 sessions there is no improvement, I will attempt to change or modify my method. If that still doesn’t help, I will work with you to find someone else more suitable. Even if you have trialled other therapies, I have training in counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy (traditional and ericksonian methods), nlp and Buddhist psychotherapy, which means I have a wide array of tools free to help you control your phobia, rather than being controlled.
How long will it take?
Usually after a couple of sessions we will know how the therapy is helping, and then we will have a clearer idea of how long to expect for lasting change to occur. It may take only a few sessions for you to resolve your phobia, even if you have several phobias. I may suggest regular sessions for long term results, until you have things under control, at which point we can space out frequency of sessions and then discontinue.
The first step is just so important, and it takes courage to request help.
Here is a list of possible phobias. If you have any of these, call us today on 9557 9113 to make an appointment.
To start making changes, call us today on 9557 9113 for a confidential appointment. Visit us here for more details.