According to Hypnosis Motivation
Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.,
a phobia
is caused by a physiological reaction to a stimulus. In most cases, a drop in
the person’s blood-sugar level triggers the phobic response. Physical symptoms
such as rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, dizziness and confusion are just a
few examples of the sensations that induce the perception that the person has
no control over him- or herself or the environment. These symptoms may
ultimately become so debilitating that the individual becomes restricted to his
or her home (agoraphobia).
To treat this or any other phobia, the hypnotherapist should explain how
nutrition
affects the phobic response and encourage the person to change his or her
eating habits. For example, encourage the client to eliminate sugar and
caffeine from the diet and increase protein intake. Next, the hypnotherapist
would use hypnosis to systematically desensitize the client to the events or
stimuli that trigger the phobic reaction.
Conversely, anticipatory anxiety is about worrying that the phobic
reaction will happen in the first place. “You’ve had the panic [and] you start
worrying it will recur. You’re more affected by what you think will happen,” Dr. Kappas explained. This reaction is a
behavioral example of the fight/flight response, whereby the individual
prepares him- or herself to face a potential threat based on previous
experience or a belief that the threat exists.
Anticipatory anxiety is an entirely different condition from a phobia
and should be handled differently. In this case, the hypnotherapist must
“break” the association between the phobia and any stimuli that trigger the
anxiety response about the phobia. In most cases there are no common
denominators in the phobic reaction, although anticipatory anxiety will follow,
Dr. Kappas said. “You can’t remove the anticipatory anxiety until you remove
the phobia.”
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist
based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more
information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an
appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2016
