Conquer Your Fears: Specific Phobia Treatment in Melbourne

What Is Specific Phobia?

Specific phobia in its simplest explanation is a type of anxiety disorder that gives an individual an intense fear of a specific object, situation or activity. General feelings of unease or worry happen to everyone but a specific phobia causes overwhelming distress and individuals often go to great lengths to avoid their feared object or situation. Specific phobia in adults can be extremely debilitating in daily life.

Specific Phobia Symptoms

Some symptoms that could indicate you are suffering from a phobia could include:

• Shortness of breath
• Accelerated heart rate
• Shaking
• Feeling faint or dizzy
• Excessive sweating
• Pale or clammy skin
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Observable panic or ‘hysteria’ when confronted with the object of the phobia

The good news is that most phobias respond to treatment.

Do you suffer from claustrophobia — a fear of small or confined spaces — or agoraphobia, which involves both the fear of being in a public place and the fear of crowds? Both are common phobias our therapists have had success addressing for many patients.

What Are the Side Effects of Having a Phobia?

While phobias are often noted to accompany avoidance behaviour and general restrictiveness, it’s important to remember that they exist for a reason. The intent behind a specific phobia may be opaque at first. Therapy aims to elucidate the intention behind a specific phobia and make something new with it. Not addressing a phobia may lead to exacerbation of the fears and avoidance behaviours.

Seeking Treatment With Bayside Psychotherapy – What Treatments Are Available? 

Phobia treatment involves examining the cause of your phobia, which may lay buried deep in your past, and addressing it to bring it back into proportion. It means analysing and dismantling your overblown response to whatever you are phobic about so that, in time, you may learn to suppress or eliminate the symptoms. If we can reduce your reaction from outright panic to mild discomfort, we regard that as a win.

The skilled hypnotherapists at Bayside Psychotherapy have years of experience delivering phobia treatment to clients from all walks of life.

Our therapists offer face-to-face treatments at our Highett clinic in Melbourne, or online therapy using secure video conferencing platforms. You can also download one of our targeted self-hypnosis MP3 recordings if you’d like to get a head start on treatment.

You and your therapist may work together to discover the root cause of your phobia, what sets it off — and how to deal with your reactions. We aim to keep things simple with the goal of providing you with the tools to manage, and eventually master your phobia. If you understand the reasons behind your phobia, you’ll be better able to face your triggers calmly and rationally. Some of the treatment methodologies we use include mindfulness meditation exercises, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and hypnotherapy.

At Bayside Psychotherapy, we don’t believe in band-aid solutions or generic quick fixes. We’ll consult with you to tailor a treatment plan to suit your individual needs and preferences.