Fears and Phobias

Phobias are far more common than many people realise. It is estimated that more than 11% of the population have some kind of irrational fear.

A phobia is an irrational fear, a fear without good reason. People with phobias experience unwanted responses to animals, insects, objects, actions or places.

The physical response is known as a stress response. People often describe their reaction to something as being ‘paralysed with fear’ or ‘having butterflies in my stomach’ or ‘just wanting to run away’ from whatever is triggering the response.

An irrational fear of something is a learned behaviour, either from a parent or a carer or through a traumatic experience such as a turbulent flight or a dog attack. As a young child we learn about fears from (consciously and unconsciously) how to live and relate to the world around us. If a parent is frightened of spiders the child’s instinctive response and the message hardwired in the brain may be that spiders are a threat. Over time, the message can become reinforced and repeated exposure is likely to compound the fear and make it worse.

At The Wellness Hut we use a range of different therapeutic tools that can be used to benefit clients with a phobia. Depending if the root cause of the phobia is known, how it is viewed by the client and how receptive the client is to change, will determine how many sessions it may take.