Most mental health practitioners have had clients who come to them because of fear and phobias, or perhaps reveal them as they progress into and through treatment. Snakes, mice, heights, flying, public speaking, cats, and dogs are just some of the provoking factors that turn otherwise balanced clients into anxious, disturbed, and frantic creatures. 
 
Most people have some fear or other. A very common, and sensible, one is the fear of annihilation. While this is a healthy sort of apprehension most of the time, it becomes pathological when the person can’t think about much else besides the date, means, and nature of death. 
 
The same goes for other fears. A person who is nervous about flying, for instance, might be able to get on a plane and be transported from one place to another without too much difficulty. On the other hand, there are many people who are so terrified of flying, they will drive 1,000 miles in both directions for a business trip or vacation.  
 
The distinction between a reasonable fear and a phobia that creates problems in a person's life is clear to any mental health professional. Traditional and CBT treatment for these behaviors include exposure therapy, where the client is gradually introduced to the feat-producing element, deep breathing, and positive self-talk. 
 
Many therapists and clients have had excellent results with these treatments, but they are not always effective. Moreover, they can take a long time to bring relief. What’s even more striking is that while these methods can help clients deal with the fear or phobia in the moment, they don’t address the roots of the problem. 

Is it really possible to get rid of a person’s fear or a phobia permanently? Hypnotherapists believe so. This is accomplished not just by what most people expect from hypnosis, that is, putting a person into a trance and suggesting that they overcome the fear.  
 
Rather, Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy™ as presented at The Wellness Institute, goes several steps further. In a hypnotherapy session, the client is relaxed so that the subconscious and unconscious parts of the mind are more prominent than usual. This allows the client to go through age regressions, wherein the client identifies the emotions underlying irrational behavior, and revisits the past to understand where the fear or phobia might be rooted. 
After expressing the fear, realizing the conclusions that were drawn and the behavior this conclusion inspired, the client can make meaningful connections that support change that is almost immediate.  
 
For example, a client who has a fear of public speaking might regress back in time to an embarrassing situation from childhood. Maybe this person was shamed by a teacher, other students, or a parent for making a mistake while speaking in front of a group. The client might have concluded that s/he was “stupid,” and will never be able to speak in public successfully. 
 
The client is encouraged to nurture that child part with love and acceptance, and then taken back to re-formulate those old conclusions and faulty behaviors. With these affirmations, clients are empowered to change the way they react to stimuli that may have disrupted their lives before treatment with hypnotherapy. 
 
Then, they may be given titration tools to manage the fear, should it arise again. This could be a reminder about loving that child part, or another tool such as a dimmer switch, that helps the client bring the fear up and down, as the client comes to embrace the ability to control the fear and tie it back to a previous experience that is back in the past. 
 
In some instances, people experience regressions back to the time of birth and gestation, and often have past life regressions. Hypnotherapy follows the client back to the place where the root of the fear or phobia lies, wherever it leads. The client acknowledges it, and then places it into context so that subconscious and unconscious urges no longer govern their lives. 
 

For all its power, you might think that hypnotherapy takes a long time to learn. You’ll be pleased to know that it’s easy to put hypnotherapy into your practice when you enroll in the Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification Program at The Wellness Institute. Learn how to conduct hypnotherapy sessions in less than a week, with didactic information and hands-on experiential sessions that show you how to use it to work with 
- codependency 
- sexual abuse 
- addiction 
- eating disorders 
- relationship issues and, of course, fears, and phobias 
 
The Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification Program will not only allow you to develop a new skill. It’s also possible to receive CEUs for your class hours. CEUs apply to the Six Day Training as well as our higher level programs, including the Advanced Internship and Personal Transformation Intensive Leadership.  
Our newest course, Introduction to Hypnosis, will allow mental health practitioners and others who wish to learn the basics of hypnosis to learn how to conduct sessions that motivate coaching clients, acupuncture and chiropractic patients, massage and energy medicine clients, and others to relax more and develop more positive ways they see themselves, 
 
Read more about these programs and what hypnotherapy can do to empower your practice on our website, and 

Enroll in the Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification Program today!