Training in hypnotherapy doesn’t make us super-human. It can, however, help us to understand ourselves better and allow us to overcome some of our most basic and intrinsic fears.
When it comes to being a practitioner, walking the walk, is, perhaps, more important than being able to ‘talk the talk.’
In other words, challenging ourselves to overcome our own innate phobias means we can not only empathise with a client but that we can reassure them that the therapy process can really work.
Part of my modern psychotherapy and hypnotherapy training course looks at two main fears which are hot wired into most of us: falling, sudden loud noises.
It makes sense. Our ancestors would have quickly learned that climbing trees to get away from sabre tooth tigers was a great idea – until, of course, you fall from them.
And so, an innate fear of heights develops and is passed down from generation to generation.
It’s an area of research which has drawn some fascinating conclusions. A little-known experiment carried out in 2015 led to the notion that the fear of spiders is drilled into our DNA.
Media articles reflected on the idea that some people with arachnophobia are simply born with it. In other words, this is not a learned response. Those tribe members who developed a flight response to certain animals would live longer.
The study was carried out by researchers at Columbia University in New York. They put random shapes onto computers and then asked more than 250 people to look at the screens.
The shape of a spider was introduced and… hey presto! People’s response times were very fast when they saw its’ outline (even when it was distorted).
The team concluded vigilance and detection were the ‘critical arbiter of success.’ And, as such, the faster we could react meant the better chance of survival.
Our primitive brains are also primed to respond to a sudden, unexpected, loud noise. Think of a restaurant. Plates get dropped. They smash. Everyone goes quiet. Why?
Well, everyone’s amygdala has been simultaneously triggered and the diners’ brain is assessing what to do next. Freeze. Flight. Fight. A natural response.
Go back a few thousand years and that rumble from the nearby volcano could mean pack your bags and get out of Dodge. Pronto!
The primitive brain (mainly) gets a bad press and (sometimes) gets its reactions wrong. In some cases, badly wrong. But it’s doing what it thinks is right to protect us. And it’s not a problem unless it’s a problem.
And that is, of course, where we come in. Helping someone overcome their own primitive brain reactions means we should be in check of our own responses to situations. And we can do that by engaging in our own constructive way of thinking.
Reacting negatively to the spider running across the practice room carpet when seeing a client who’s looking to overcome their own arachnophobia might not encourage their confidence in us!
Focusing on overcoming our own reactions to certain stimuli can really provide a huge confidence boost for the client. Doing so can also expand our own horizons and encourage us to engage in activities which we would, perhaps, have avoided.
Keeping our own stress bucket levels nice and low to ensure our intellectual brains are in control will not only help our clients – but will also allow us to live life to the fullest.
It means we can do new things and savour new experiences which we can cherish for years to come.
