Hypnotherapy Works (Overcoming Rare Phobias through Hypnotherapy)

Jamie Lewis June 17, 2011

“A receptionist at a bank has lost more than eight stone after conquering a bizarre phobia – of sweat. Tracey Stone, 35, beat the phobia after seeing a local counsellor and hypnotist. She spent a total of six hours in the chair, and now believes she is ‘almost entirely’ cured”. -Daily Mail Reporter posted on June 14, 2011

The Rare Case of Fear of Sweat and other Phobias

Generally, phobia is defined as the “unrelenting fear of something (either an object or a situation) that makes one avoid it exaggeratedly. Just like the common fear of water also known as hydrophobia, people having this get too scared that even looking at a glass of water can make them feel they’ll get drowned in an instance. Many psychologists acknowledge that phobia starts from childhood and gets worse during the adulthood. There are even cases of phobia that have been very detrimental to sufferers causing permanent disabilities, mental problems such as severe depression, and even death.

Tracey wouldn’t walk a lot and would just stay in one place to make sure she will not get sweat. Instead of walking, she will drive even to the beach. This kind of lifestyle has made her reach 18 stone when she turned 28. The disturbing fear Tracey has gone through is a very rare kind of phobia. Statistic shows that only 1 in 200,000 people across the UK suffer from this kind phobia. The fear is relentless that even a drop of sweat can result in alarming anxiety and panic attacks. According to Mary Ison of Clifton Counselling Clinic, Bristol; a lot of phobias have their roots which can be traced back hundreds of years ago and the fear of sweat can be a fear of disease.

Fortunately, there are many ways to treat phobia. Treatments include Behavioural Therapy, Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Relaxation Techniques, and Energy Psychology Treatment and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Hypnotherapy to Overcome Phobia

Tracey overcame her phobia through hypnotherapy. By coping with the terrifying fear of sweat that caused her to gain much weight, she has successfully dropped her size from 18 to 12. The case of Tracey is just an explicit manifestation that hypnosis is a significant treatment that can be the answer to all our fears. A professional therapist helps the patient get over such fear by reprogramming the subconscious. When such “programs” were corrected (by instilling that the fear is no fear at all), symptoms of the phobia is likely to be reduced.

Understanding the nature of hypnosis and how it works can help patients totally get over their long dreaded fears. Hypnotherapy does not actually treat the symptoms of phobia but goes deeper as in removing its underlying cause. During the treatment, the person is “hypnotized” or taken back to the time where oppressed memories are recalled. Once the said memories are taken from the subconscious mind to one’s consciousness, she/he can deal with the fears appropriately. This procedure is also called hypnotic regression.

Through the help and support of the people around phobia sufferers like Tracey, hypnotherapy is indeed an incredible cure that is effectual and healing.