Resolve Phobias
There’s a special kind of frustration that comes with phobias. You know the situation is safe. You know the spider is tiny… the lift is solid… the plane is statistically fine… the needle is quick… the dog is friendly. And yet your body reacts as if you're stuck in a small boat with a hungry grizzly bear.
How does it go for you when your whole mind and body are flooded with fear, although there is no present threat? Heart racing. Stomach tightening. Tension surging. Mind scrambling. The urge to run – or freeze – takes over before you can stop it.
It’s embarrassing. It’s confusing. It makes you feel like you’re being hijacked by your own nervous system.
These are the common 'normal' phobias I see people for:
Fear of flying.
Fear of heights.
Fear of spiders, snakes or dogs.
Fear of public spaces.
Fear of needles or medical procedures.
Fear of driving, bridges, and tunnels.
Fear of vomiting or getting sick.
Fear of crowds or confined spaces
The more unusual phobias I have seen people for are: phobia of flatulence, fear of hospitals, fear of buttons, fear of new food (ARFID), which gets its own page, and a phobia of sand.
Underneath all of these and every other phobia? It’s the same pattern: experiencing fear when there is no present danger.
Let’s go deeper into the problem
Phobias aren’t about the thing itself. They’re about what your mind believes the thing represents.
It is a great example of (unhelpful) self-hypnosis. Imagine a party entertainer hypnotising a guest at a tea party to be scared of tea-cups. The guest at the party has been given an imagined idea – tea cups are scary – and that imagined idea is more real to them for the next ten minutes than the reality – tea cups are harmless. This would be very funny for the other guests, but not so much when it's going on in 'real life'. Your mind is not 'having a laugh' though.
Once upon a time—often years ago—your mind misinterpreted a moment of overwhelm and tagged it as “danger.” Maybe a childhood scare. Maybe a stressful experience. Maybe something you barely remember. It might have just been something that was once said to you as a throwaway comment that wormed its way deep into your imagination.
Ever since, the mind, trying to protect you, locked in a rule: “This thing = threat. Avoid it.”
The problem is… that rule never got updated.
So now, as an adult, your nervous system reacts instantly and intensely, long before your rational mind has a say. You know it doesn’t make sense. But phobias don’t run on logic. They run on story—old story. An illusion of danger your mind keeps replaying. The result?
A life that shrinks in unexpected ways.
Avoiding holidays.
Avoiding lifts.
Avoiding medical care.
Avoiding opportunities.
Avoiding embarrassment.
Avoiding the fear of the fear itself.
You lose freedom without ever choosing to.
What therapy with me looks like
We will perhaps uncover the invisible, subconscious story that created the fear and update it.
We help you experience the illusion of fear, to see the story as a story.
Through imagination, hypnotic work, psychological illusion techniques, and thought experiments, we retrain the mind to recognise safety again.
We separate the old emotional memory from the present moment.
We help your nervous system stand down.
We make the feared situation feel neutral instead of threatening.
You’ll learn to:
Stay calm in situations that used to trigger panic.
Move freely instead of avoiding life.
Feel in control of your body and mind.
Experience safety where your mind once imagined danger.
Reclaim confidence, ease, and freedom
This isn’t about becoming fearless. It’s about becoming accurately fearful—responding to real danger, not imagined danger.
If you’re ready
If you’re tired of a tiny thing having a huge hold on you…If you’re ready to update the old survival program, your mind is still running…If you want your freedom back – without force, pressure, or shame…
Book a session.
Let’s help your mind finally recognise: You are safe when you are safe, and start living your life without that imaginary grizzly bear.
Please click through to see prices and to contact me for a no-obligation chat or to book an appointment to resolve your phobia.
Or please take a look through this non-exhaustive list of some of my other services: Anxiety Treatment, Trauma Recovery, Smash Procrastination, Beat Social Anxiety, Resolve Phobias, and Defeat ARFID.