Fears, phobias, panic
Generalised anxiety disorders
Hypnosis for social phobia
Fear of situations & people
Social phobia is the fear of certain situations. People with social phobia fear embarrassing themselves, feel that others are constantly watching them, or are plagued by extreme shyness.
Interaction with other people is difficult for them; therefore they avoid everyday occasions such as parties, invitations and visits to restaurants. They shy away from meeting strangers or even friends, speaking up in the presence of others, eating, drinking or talking on the phone – always for fear of embarrassing themselves and being criticized by others.
If they come into contact with others, they react with sweating (hyperhidrosis), blushing or fear of blushing (erythrophobia) and other typical anxiety symptoms. Therefore, they avoid social contact as much as possible, which in turn exacerbates their problem. A vicious circle is created.
Social phobia usually originates from self-esteem issues and deeper hurt feelings. Often the causes of low self-esteem can be found in one’s own life history.
Reasons can be, for example, rejection by parents or at least one parent, more often also exclusion and humiliation at school or at work. People who have been rejected by parents are usually very sensitive to potential further rejections.
While children from a stable home react confidently to relatively harmless attacks such as laughter or ridicule by classmates, children with self-esteem problems find this extremely mortifying. Her fears of rejection intensify and her self-esteem suffers even more.
How hypnosis can help with social phobia
Like all conditioned fears, social phobias can be treated well with hypnosis. In treatment, I use a combination of dissolving and confrontational hypnotherapy. Because typical avoidance strategies usually mean that you have hardly taken part in a normal social life for a long time, once the fears have dissipated the next step is to become more socially active, get to know people and make up for what you have missed. This may take some effort, but in the end you will gain a lot in terms of quality of life: Hypnotherapy will help you to develop a healthy self-esteem and to enjoy your interactions with others again.
