Edmonton · Zoom, or a house call
Hypnotherapy for fears and phobias
Flying. Needles. The dentist. Elevators, heights, bridges, spiders, or standing up to speak. You already know the fear is out of proportion, and knowing it has never once made it smaller.
What this is for
Reasoning with a phobia does not work
Nobody with a fear of flying is unaware of the safety statistics. People terrified of needles can explain, calmly and accurately, that it takes four seconds. The information is already in. It changes nothing, because the response is produced somewhere the information never reaches.
What it actually costs is rarely the fear itself. It is the arranging around it:
- The wedding you did not go to because it meant flying.
- The dental appointment you have now rescheduled four times.
- The promotion you did not put your name forward for, because of the presenting.
- The eleven flights of stairs, taken every day, so as not to use the lift.
Most phobias began somewhere. A single bad episode, something absorbed from a parent in childhood, or an event that nobody remembers clearly. It does not especially matter whether you can identify it.
A phobia is a response that was learned very efficiently, usually in one go, and then never updated.
Because it was learned, it can be worked on — not by arguing with it, and not by forcing yourself through it repeatedly and hoping it wears down.
The approach
Updating the response, not enduring it
The same three stages Al uses for quitting smoking, applied to a specific fear.
-
Find the precise trigger
Fear of flying is usually not fear of flying. For one person it is the cabin door closing, for another it is turbulence, and for another it is having no control. The exact trigger point matters, because that is what gets worked on.
-
Change what the trigger produces
In hypnosis the mind is unusually receptive to updating an automatic response. The aim is not bravery or gritting your teeth. It is for the trigger to stop producing the same reaction in the first place.
-
Rehearse it before it happens
You mentally run the real situation — the actual flight, the actual chair, the actual room — in a state where you are calm, so that the version your mind has practised is not the old one. You leave with self-hypnosis for the day itself.
Hypnotherapy offered here is non-medical and is not a treatment for diagnosed anxiety disorders, panic disorder, PTSD, or any medical or psychological condition. If your fear stems from a traumatic event or you have a diagnosis, speak with your physician first and tell Al before booking. Results vary from person to person and no outcome is guaranteed.
Before you book
What a session is actually like
You stay in control
Hypnosis is not sleep. You hear everything, you can speak, move, or stop the session at any point, and you stay aware throughout.
Nothing is sprung on you
You will not be handed a spider or driven to an airport. Al explains what is about to happen before it happens, every time, and the work is done in the chair.
You have felt this before
The closest comparison is being absorbed in a film, or the few minutes before sleep. Deeply relaxed, entirely aware, and far less dramatic than people expect.
Common questions
Fears and phobias questions
Will I be made to face the thing I am afraid of?
Not by Al, and not in the session. This is not exposure therapy and there are no surprises. The work happens in a chair in a quiet room. What you choose to do afterwards, in your own time, is entirely up to you.
I have no idea where the fear came from. Does that matter?
Usually not. Plenty of people have no recollection of an original event, and some phobias were absorbed rather than experienced. The work is aimed at the response as it operates today, not at excavating a story about its origins.
I have a flight in three weeks. Is that enough time?
Say so when you book, because a fixed date changes how the work is scheduled. Al will tell you honestly on the free session what he thinks is realistic in the time you have, including if the answer is that it is too tight.
Other things Al works on
No cost, no obligation
Start with a conversation
Describe the fear and what it is costing you. Al will tell you honestly whether he thinks he can help, and what would be involved.