Fear versus Phobia: whats the difference?

Fear has a real and concrete reason. For example a fear of being burned can result from a bad experience with a fire. With a phobia, the person experiencing it often cannot pinpoint the cause: its an unknown factor.

Moving Beyond Your Fear

The first step is to desensitize the reason for the fear. After that, we work on re-framing it so the phenomenon in question no longer results in a feeling of fear, but is either neutral or has a positive spin on it. For example, a candle burning on a table can create a relaxing or romantic atmosphere, its aroma can help one fall into a deep meditative state. A burning candle need not suggest the house is going to burn down at any moment!

Dealing With A Phobia

Since the cause of the phobia is unknown, the first thing I like to do is regress the client so we can discover the root cause. Once weve specified what resulted in the phobia, really is becomes similar to a fear because now its a known. From here we can desensitize the reason for the phobia and reframe it.

The Ultimate Test

When possible, I like to test the client to make sure weve completely cleared the fear/ phobia. All of a sudden the un-thinkable becomes doable. Clients who have had a fear of dogs can sit calmly in the same room with them driving in busy city traffic is no longer frightening lighting a candle elicits no sense of panic.

If we need to, we can clear any fear which remains but most often people are amazed at how well they do confronting the thing which once would have terrified them.

So rather than stay stuck in fear or panic for an unknown cause lets get to the bottom of the problem and turn things around for you!