Claustrophobia, the fear of enclosed places. The fear can lead to full blown panic attacks and while you may logically understand that there is nothing to fear but the fear itself, your body reacts as though you are actually under threat. The body goes into its fight or flight mode and you experience a racing heart, dry mouth, shallow breathing, nausea and perhaps a feeling of dissociation. Your vision can play tricks with you in that you imagine the room, the lift, the MRI scanner etc is incredibly small and tight.
With hypnotherapy we are looking for the event that triggered you to feel this panic in the first place. When we find the cause, we reduce its effect. For some clients with a fear of elevators/lifts, it can be a sense of dread, the no escape and feeling trapped. If the lift is busy, you can become very hot and clammy which of course does not help your panic as you may feel that you cannot breathe which increases your flight response – you want out now, to get some air.
With the help of hypnotherapy and NLP techniques I can help you to reduce your fear. Your subconscious mind has gone into protective mode for some reason and wants you to avoid confined spaces. Sometimes these same feeling can be invoked when in large groups of people and not being able to feel you can escape. Or you may find that your primary objective is to plan an escape route. This, of course, has an negative impact on your life.
Hypnotherapy and NLP are solution focused brief therapy techniques. They are designed to free you from the hold of claustrophobia. Logically you know this fear is irrational but it is very real to your subconscious mind and it makes sense that the only way to deal with it is by accessing the subconscious mind and reprogramme your response.
To book an appointment, call me on 086 1038892 or email zita@zitastanley.com.