How Hypnosis was used to cure a fear of moths
Hypnosis can have an advantage of traditional psychotherapy
as it usually works far more quickly and allows the subject to 'root out' the
unconscious fears that are responsible for phobic conditions..
Julie came to see me about two years ago. For as long as
she could remember she had been afraid of moths to the point where she
couldn’t stand to even look at one. She told me that she had been seeing a
psychiatrist for about five years to try to resolve her problem which was no
nearer to resolution than when she first attended.
During the first session I helped Julie to relax, something which she told me
she always had great difficulty in doing. She was given some post-hypnotic
suggestions to feel better and go even deeper into trance next time.
On Julie’s second visit she told me that she had been feeling better than she
could ever remember. Using ideomotor signals we discovered that her fear
originated from the age of about a year. I regressed her back to that age and
after a few moments she began making brushing movements across her nose, which
was followed by a long series of wails. Julie’s husband, Mark, who had accompanied
his wife, was most alarmed, and when I spoke to Julie she was quite incoherent.
I told her that everything was alright, she would not be afraid of moths or any
other insects any more and that when she awoke she would remember in detail
everything she had experienced.
When I brought Julie out of trance she was smiling. She recalled standing up in
her cot as a baby, having woken in the night and was crying for her mother when
she felt something fluttering around her nose. This incident had intensified her
anxiety and made her cry even louder. Even so, Julie was relieved to be closer
to the origin of her phobia and on her third visit she told me that she felt her
fear had dissipated completely.
Using ideomotor techniques again to discover whether any other incidents were
involved with this fear we discovered another occurrence at the age of six. She
regressed back to a time when she had been left alone in the house for a short
period whilst her mother was out shopping. Deciding to explore the house she
went into the attic where she found an old box. When she opened the box a moth
flew out and straight into her face. From that point on moths were anchored to
that original traumatic experience and her phobia commenced.
On Julie’s fourth visit she informed me that she had, a couple of evenings
previously, been sitting out in the garden with Mark when a very large moth flew
very close to her face. Both Mark and Julie were extremely pleased with her calm
reaction and she felt she had no need of any further sessions.
A year later Julie telephoned me to let me know that she had not only been
completely free from her phobia, but also that she had become much more relaxed
in general and her confidence had improved greatly.
