Quick and Pain-free Way to Cure Phobias
By Jason Roth, Registered Psychologist

Our world is a scary enough place as it is. Certainly, no one needs to have routine everyday activities or experiences (such as flying, driving in the winter, crossing a bridge, taking an elevator, seeing birds, spiders or the occasional snake) evoke anticipatory anxiety and terror. Yet the phobic individual is often paralyzed into limiting their life and avoiding commonplace activities and situations.

By virtue of phobias usually not being visually apparent to others, it is not easy for the physician to make a diagnosis without being verbally told about the phobia by their patient. Fearing ridicule (since often the phobia is "not rational or doesn't make sense"), the phobic individual often goes to great lengths in order to hide or otherwise not disclose their fear. Often the phobic individual leads a life of quiet desperation and despair.

No one is born having a phobia. Rather, as with most behaviors that shape and influence our life, they are learned. Despite their irrationality, people come by them honestly. Sometimes they are taught by a parent or influential adult to fear or pro-actively avoid a specific object or situation. Sometimes they witness something traumatic happening to someone else and learn to fear that it might happen to them. More often, the phobia originates from an unpleasant or traumatic experience (e.g. motor vehicle accident, turbulent airplane ride) that they have had. The emotional aftershock continues to grow and resonate long after the event ended.

Although all of us have things that may cause us discomfort or apprehension, generally we are able to control our fears rather than have our fears control us. But if the discomfort intensifies (or, if the initial trauma is intense enough), the fear acquires a life of its own. Behaviour, actions and choices become skewed in attempts to avoid the stimulus or situation that will provoke the fear. At this point, a bonafide phobia is born. It may not be rational, but it is real. Irrationality aside, the phobia increasingly limits and defines the individual's actions and quality-of-life.

Because of this objective irrationality, attempts to treat phobias through Rational/Cognitive Therapy are rarely successful. Rather, such interventions usually result in increased dismay and frustration. "I know it doesn't make sense, but I can't help it" is a comment I often hear at the start of my first session with phobic individuals.

Until recently, "Progressive Desensitization" has been the most popular method of eliminating a phobia. Starting with a sense of emotional safety and disassociation (perhaps something as simple as viewing a picture of the feared object) the individual progressively moves toward greater emotional exposure to the concept of confronting the phobia. At some point a behavioral component is introduced, and eventually the feared experience is encountered and conquered.

The area of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) offers an innovative approach to treating phobias. This 30-year old counselling approach offers a relatively straight-forward "Phobic Cure" intervention that circumvents the long, tedious and cumbersome "desensitization" approach. Although we cannot eliminate the memory of the traumatic event that was responsible for the phobia becoming established, (a "partial lobotomy" that removes the brain cells that contain the memory is not a recommended procedure!) in only 1-2 sessions we are able to have our client separate the emotionality component from their memory and thus be able to regain control of their life.

Provided there is no "secondary gain" in holding onto the phobia (e.g. "As long as I can't drive and my spouse must take me everywhere, my spouse won't have the time to have the affair that I fear he/she wants to have"), our success rate approaches 90%. It is enormously satisfying to both our clients and us when we are able to quickly free them from a long-standing torment.

Two counselors at Roth Associates in Psychology -- Myrna Ranger and Jason Roth -- have advanced training in NLP. Please feel free to contact either Myrna or Jason about how they might be able to assist your patient(s) to quickly overcome their phobias and regain more control of their lives..