Releasing Phobia's and Traumatic Events FAST

by Wil Horton, Psy. D. CAC CMI

As I was thinking about what to write for this article, I received a phone call from a rather distraught young man. He was quite upset that he had to leave his job as an iron worker because he was having severe panic attacks whenever he went above a couple of stories. As I gathered information, I found that he had avoided jobs for a couple of years that would require heights. As we made an appointment, I knew that he would need a Phobia relief technique, and I could use this as a teaching tool for this article.

Phobias are severe physical responses to perceived danger, real or imagined. It is in effect a Pavlovian response. The stimulus (heights, snakes, spiders, water, airplanes, and sex) will automatically elicit an unwanted fear, or terror, response. It is important to realize that this is a preconscious event. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to consciously control a phobic reaction. In fact many people with a phobia will intellectually try to overcome this handicap by learning a lot about the fear stimulus. This cognitive approach usually has very little positive effect in symptom amelioration. Since it is a preconscious (or subconscious to us hypnotists) process, it is best to use a subconscious approach to help overcome this problem.

I have found "The Fast Phobia Technique" is the best way to quickly remove a phobia. It is also very useful for other severe trauma relief (sex abuse, violence, etc.) as part of an overall treatment plan. I have used this process many times and have seen it do some rather miraculous things, from removing a basic phobia to helping a veteran overcome a long standing case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have also seen it used to remove the emotional charge out of a sexual abuse case.

Here are the steps for the technique, starting with the Pretalk. You can do this technique in light or deep trance. Remember that most people learn to be phobic in a single situation that was actually dangerous. It is what psychologists call "one trail learning," and proves your brain can learn things rapidly! This ability to learn quickly will actually help you to find a new way to respond to the old phobic event.

Now, it is important for you to realize, consciously and subconsciously, that this response has been protecting you all these years. We want to preserve its ability to protect you in any dangerous situation. In fact, all we are going to do is refine your brain's ability to protect you by updating its information.

1. With your eyes closed, imagine you're sitting in a movie theater and you see a black and white snapshot of yourself, at a time where everything is OK.

2. Now, float out of your body and up into the projection booth behind you. See yourself sitting in the theater seat, safe and secure, and also see the black and white photo on the screen. You may add a Plexiglas screen over the booths opening, to protect you.

3. Now, watch and listen, protected in the booth. Visualize the snap shot turning into a black and white movie of a younger you going through the first, or worst, situation in which you had that old phobic response. Watch the entire event, starting just before the initial incident until you are beyond the end of it, when everything was OK. (If you need, you could make the screen smaller, or darker, or farther away)

4. Next, leave the projection booth and slip back into the present. You are once again in the theater seat, safe and secure. Now step into the freeze photo of that younger you, who is OK, at the movies end. (This is double dissociation) Now, run the entire movie of that experience backwards and in color. See, hear, and feel the entire experience in two seconds or less. Be sure to go all the way back to the time before the start of the phobic episode.

5. Repeat step 4.

6. To test the process, try in vain to find your old phobia. What would happen if you were in that situation now? (If they still have a response, repeat #4)

7. After Talk... Since you were phobic/traumatized, you have stayed away from those particular situations in which you used to feel fear. Hence, you have not had the opportunity to learn about those experiences. As you encounter and explore these situations in the future, we urge you to have a degree of caution until you are comfortable with them.

Now that you have completed the basic steps to the technique, I would highly recommend that you follow it up with some direct suggestion hypnosis. This is to deepen the level of change, and to give the subconscious a chance to assimilate the neurological changes that have occurred. A metaphor at this stage is also very useful, as you brain will reprogram itself quickly.

I always strongly suggest a follow up session, to see how the changes settled in, and to see if we need any additional work. Also at this point I recommend to the client to keep the changes to themselves, as it is not uncommon for other people to reinstall the fear. I strongly urge this point. I explain that I have seen clients do great for awhile until someone reminds them, in graphic detail, how they used to respond to the stimulus, and the client re-phobitizes themselves.

My Ironworker client went back to work on the beams (40 stories up) and is doing fine, he is very careful. His original event was he saw a fellow worker fall from a great height, and it "played on my mind, that it could be me" to use his words. A closer follow up provided the insight that the accident was a result of an impaired worker. (The worker had been out drinking all night the day before the accident. Now my client does not drink the day before working on the beams).

Another use for this technique is mending a broken heart. All you need to do is have the person watch a movie of their relationship, good, bad, and neutral and then run that backwards (step 4). You also add having them look at a collage of pictures of all the BAD times of the relationship at the very end. This seems to speed up the natural process of looking back on a relationship and seeing it for what it was, instead of the broken heart attitude of remembering only the good times. This is a very powerful technique. Use it only when you're sure they want to end the strong feelings. I came up with this technique, and used it on a client who had been dumped and could not shake the depression. It worked so well that the next week when he came back with a proposal, she had no feelings for him. She was thrilled. Of course we could have reinstalled love, but she decided to leave it alone.

This technique is also good for trauma, sexual abuse and any time you need to remove the strong emotional feeling from a situation. I have a video that demonstrates a couple of applications of this technique. If you are interested, contact the editor of this journal for details.

Until next time, use the force. It will allow you to live long and prosper.

For more information visit: http://www.nfnlp.com.