NLP Podcast 90: Fast Phobia Format – Quickly and easily eliminate phobias

A phobia is a panic-like, irrational, intense fear. The fear of realistic dangers such as lions or guns is not a phobia. Fears of things that cannot actually harm a person, such as ants or tight spaces, are irrational and can develop into phobias. Many people are afraid of spiders or snakes, even if they are harmless and non-venomous animals. Snake or spider phobias occur particularly often.

Types of Phobias

Some phobias are created by experiences, that is, by a specific event. For example: A child sees a spider for the first time and their mother immediately screams loudly. In this case, the mother has set an anchor for her child. Phobias that arise from a real event can be particularly well treated with anchoring techniques such as the Anchor Merging method. The second type of phobias is different: Here we assume that the phobic person has formed an idea of a fear themselves. In the phobic person's mind, a kind of fear film plays every time, making the fear even greater. The crucial point is that the phobic person has no control over this film and cannot stop it. Such phobias can be very well treated with the Phobia Technique method. Attention: The treatment of phobias is only allowed in Germany with appropriate psychotherapeutic training. However, the Phobia Technique can also be very well used for stage fright or stress reduction.

Steps of the Phobia Technique

The Phobia Technique is applied in NLP with the following steps:

1. Imagine the situation in which the phobia occurred, associated
2. Eco-Check: Imagine life without phobia and check if serious negative consequences have arisen
3. Imagine cinema situation: Client and coachee are in the cinema
4. Steps:
• Let the film (disassociated) run in black and white with the situation
• Stop the film at the worst point
• Send the client into the still image of the film associated
• Make the still image colorful
• Let the film run backwards to the beginning
5. Repeat the steps from 3 about 6-8 times until the client no longer reacts phobically to the critical point
6. Future-Pace: Imagine the situation from point 1 again associated. If the format was successful, the client experiences the situation no longer as badly as at the beginning.

Through the format, two points are changed: First, the client realizes that they can change the film themselves, as the client lets the film run in black and white. Second, the client understands that they have control over the film, as they can stop it at any time. In the complete podcast episode, Stephan Landsiedel explains the individual steps in detail, so you can apply the format yourself. He also explains what problems may arise during this technique and how you can solve these problems.