My “home base” for my professional work is Vinings Natural Health Centre in Haywards Heath. It’s a nice place with four light, spacious, well-equipped treatment rooms in a peaceful setting with its own parking – not bad for Haywards Heath!
Once a month one of the Vinings therapists gives a talk on a Sunday morning, giving people the opportunity to meet the therapist, learn a bit more about the therapy and ask questions. All with coffee and biscuits too!
Last Sunday it was my turn, and I talked about how hypnotherapy can help people who are struggling with fears and phobias. It was an interesting, enjoyable morning and we covered a lot of ground, from defining what a phobia is – “an irrational fear, literally a fear without good reason, or a fear of something that may not happen.” – to talking about some of the more unusual phobias.
There are lots of them including, for instance, Gephyrophobia (fear of crossing bridges over rivers) and Ablutophobia (fear of taking a bath or shower, or cleaning yourself) to Trypophobia (fear of clustered holes, especially on plants, but also on watering cans, showers etc) and even Phobophobia (fear of phobias).
More specifically we talked about the phobias of those who were there, and who were open enough to share their fears. One lady, for instance, had a fear of cats which came, she felt, from a time when she was a child, ill in bed with a fever. She was gazing out of the window at clouds when one of the clouds seemed to morph into a big, threatening cat that was coming to get her – enough to scare the wits out of any little person, and certainly enough to set up a habit of fear. Another lady was petrified of being a passenger in a car. A bit of gentle prodding elicited an incident many years ago when the lady had been a passenger in a car involved in an accident when the driver of the other car was killed. Again, plenty traumatic enough to leave an imprint at an emotional level.
I shared a few stories from my own case files, including a lady with a complete fear of rivers, lakes and the sea. We found a past life where she had been a young urchin boy in London centuries ago. He fell foul of the gang he was working for and his punishment was to be bound hand and foot and thrown into the Thames. No wonder the client didn’t like water!
Lots of questions, doubts and anxieties were addressed – and then we adjourned for refreshments!
If you feel that your life is being hampered or affected in some way by an irrational fear or a phobia, whatever it may be – give me a call on 01444 459 433 or 07597 020 512.