David Johns, Licensed Mental Health Counselor

A phobia (from the Greek phobos, meaning “fear”) is defined as“an irrational, obsessive, and intense fear that is focused on a specificcircumstance, idea, or thing.” Phobic disorders, according to modernclassification, are a subcategory of anxiety disorders. Some common phobias involvethe fear of: public places, heights, flying, closed spaces, social situations,death, the dark, animals, foreigners or other groups of people, meteorologicalevents, and electricity. One of the most widespread phobias

is that of “public speaking.” Phobia sufferers may experience avariety of symptoms, including dizziness, heart palpitations, nausea, andimmobilization. A number of theories have been advanced about the causes ofphobias: that phobias result from conditioning that stems from a single frighteningencounter with the thing feared (the behaviorist perspective); that phobiasmask anxieties dating from childhood (the psychoanalytic interpretation); thatphobias are “learned” gradually, over a long period of time; and that phobiasresult from distorted thoughts about the thing feared (the cognitiveexplanation). Various treatments have been developed to help bring relief to phobiasufferers, based on the different theories about their causes, each withsimilar (relatively high) levels of success. Behaviorists, for instance, mayuse one of two treatments— gradual exposure to the thing feared (systematicdesensitization), or intense exposure (flooding), which creates a type ofdesensitization by over-saturating

the feelings. Psychoanalysts strive to help their patientsremember suppressed thoughts about childhood traumas. Cognitive psychologistsseek to alter the way their patients think about what they fear.

The Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) approach to dealing withphobias incorporates aspects of each of these other perspectives. There have beena number of NLP methods developed which effectively treat phobias, that havesimilarities to each of these various modalities of phobia treatment. In fact,one of the most well-known and successful NLP techniques is its celebrated “10 minute”Phobia Cure. From the NLP point of view, a phobia is itself a classic“neuro-linguistic program.”

Phobias result from generalizations about the world which includeour fight-flight response. NLP views the basic structure of a phobic responseessentially as a single trial learning experience (similar to the behavioristperspective) that can become complicated by other beliefs and events (similarto the psychoanalytic and cognitive perspective). In fact, people’s abilitiesto establish or change phobic responses rapidly have often been used as anexample of how quickly we can learn, when the intensity and timing of aresponse or state of attention leads it to be associated with a particularstimulus. Regardless of the manner in which such programs were initiallyestablished, they can often be addressed in a similar fashion. From theperspective of self-organization theory, for instance, a phobia is an example ofa “simple-stable” pattern. (It is “simple” because one particular stimulus isalways paired with a particular response; and it is “stable” because the stimulusand response always occur together.) The phobic stimulus is a type of“attractor.” The most effective way to address such a process is to interruptor destabilize the existing pattern related to the current “attractor,” andthen establish or install a new one.

One of the main ways in which NLP treats phobias is by helping tointerrupt the phobic pattern or “program” through techniques like Visual-KinestheticDissociation, (VKD) in which a person becomes a disconnected observer of himselfor herself. From this perceptual position, the person can dispassionately watchhis or her behavior during a phobic reaction. The phobic pattern can be furtherdestabilized by imaging the earliest event associated with the phobic responseas a “black and-white” mental movie and running it backwards.

In some cases, additional techniques which address andrestructure particular past events (such as an NLP pattern called Change PersonalHistory), and help to update limiting beliefs (Re-imprinting), are necessary toaddress deeper issues and replace the problematic “attractor.” The technique ofReframing, which explores finding other choices to satisfy the positiveintention of the fear, has also been used with success in the treatment of somephobias.

As I mentioned  this process incorporates aspects of thebehaviorist, psychoanalytic and cognitive approaches. Notice that, knowledge ofthe stimulus that triggers the phobic response is presupposed, as well as some knowledgeof the initiating circumstances behind the phobia. Some phobias and anxietydisorders, such as a generalized “fear of the unknown,” are missing both typesof information. Typically, in something like a snake phobia, information aboutthe trigger of the fear, namely snakes, is external and in a more “objective”  reality. A “free floating” fear of the unknownmost likely has an internal “subjective” trigger that is probably out ofconscious awareness for the individual. Working with this type of fear wouldfirst involve helping the person to conduct what is called a “transderivationalsearch” via hypnotherapy methods through his or her personal history to explorethe situation surrounding the beginning of the fear. Many times, such phobicreactions spontaneously change (become “reframed”) when the person becomes awareof the conditions in which the reaction was first established. The use ofmetaphors and symbols is also an effective way to treat ‘free floating’anxieties.

NLP has revolutionized the treatment ofphobias in that the therapist can direct the client through a simple set ofmental exercises that prevents the client from re-experiencing the "fightor flight" associated with the feared object or event, and the length oftreatment is shortened considerably to as little as one to three sessions nomatter how long the person had the phobia. Compared to 6 months to a year withmore traditional approaches this would seem more appealing to clients,therapists, and of course, insurance companies :). The phobic response can betested almost immediately, and usually the person's ability to react with thephobic response has been disabled. The funny thing is, if you want the phobiaback, the therapist can do that too!