True phobias generally have a cause although the client is not often consciously aware of what this is. He or she, does, however know subconsciously where the problem originates and under hypnosis never fails to find it.

Sometimes the client can be taken straight to one original event that started the problem and sometimes there is an accumulative sequence of events leading up to the phobia.
 

Example 1:

A man with a phobia of lifts had been shut in a cupboard by his teacher, for talking in class, at the age of 5. Actually reliving the event which caused his phobia, and realising that this fear belonged in childhood, allowed him to leave it behind. After three sessions of hypnotherapy he is now using lifts on a regular basis. This is a true phobia i.e. one that grows out of a traumatic event in the past.

Anxiety and Phobias are very closely linked and often generalised anxiety will be channelled into a phobia because it makes the anxiety more manageable and acceptable.


Example 2:

A young girl with a phobia of vomiting traced her phobia to feeling anxious and alone and not having a parent available to talk over her problems. This is not really a ‘true’ phobia as it was something she had manufactured (unintentionally) to make her parents notice she existed. It was, however, no less ‘real’ to her than the previous example. After one session the girl understood what she was doing and why she was doing it and began to talk to her mother about feeling unsupported – which cured the ‘phobia’!

Whatever the cause of the phobia, it can always be treated and usually alleviated by hypnotherapy or a combination of hypnotherapy and counselling.