A Phobia is an example of a one time learning. It’s a reaction to a stimulus or trigger that fires off an intense associated response from the client. The client will often also not differentiate between the label of the experience (e.g. the word “mouse”) and the actual external trigger (e.g. seeing a mouse). A Phobia brings the client into a fully associated, intense, usually uncomfortable state.
How do you remove a phobia?
• Establish a resource anchor
• Acknowledge one time learning and the clients ability to learn
• Discover strategy for firing phobia
• Use timeline and have them go back to the earliest possible occurrence
• Make a movie screen above the time line and have them watch it from a projector booth
• Run the movie forward fast in Black and White, like a Charlie Chaplin movie
• Freeze frame at the end and White out / or Black out
• Associate and run backwards at normal speed in full colour
• Repeat until client can’t get the feeling back or until memory is inaccessible
• Check ecology – Do they have an alternative strategy
• If necessary, use swish pattern to install a new desired stage
• Test and Future pace