One of the most common phobias is social phobia, a disorder in which an individual is afraid of being in certain social settings. An individual with social phobia experiences devastating anxiety that impacts important aspects of their life.
People with social phobia are very self-conscious and worried about what others may think or say about them. They are often afraid of voicing their opinions, out of fear that they might be judged or berated. People with social phobia tend to look down on themselves or suffer from feelings of low self-worth. They are worried about being seen by others and find social situations to be very stressful.
A person with social anxieties may seem “shy,” but in the case of a phobia, this is taken to irrational extremes. For example, if you struggle with social phobia, you may hesitate to make a crucial call because you are nervous about talking on the phone. You dial the number, but you are so nervous that you “lock up” or forget why you called. Although it can happen to everyone sometimes, for a person with social phobia it may occur every single time, to the point where they find it impossible to make any phone calls.
Imagine it is the evening before a big meeting at work and you find yourself worried sick. You hate the idea of being in front of your boss and all your colleagues watching as you talk about a project or new idea. You can’t help but feel very embarrassed and self-conscious. Even after the meeting, you continue overanalyzing everything you said and did. You fear that you embarrassed yourself in front of your co-workers by stammering or saying something wrong.
Perhaps you would like to go to parties and make new friends, but you avoid socializing because you are nervous about meeting new people. You find the crowds intimidating and the idea of meeting someone new scares you. You worry about saying the right thing, or that you’ll get rejected. You might stay at home a lot because you are too scared to go out. These are only a few examples of the way social phobias can influence us.
Social phobias are overblown fears that can keep you from achieving your professional goals or enjoying your life. But even those who realize their fears are irrational may not be able to rid themselves of their phobia. People with social anxiety would like to be more social and make new friends, but are really too afraid to try. Despite their conscious desires and efforts, they cannot shake their phobia because every phobia is rooted at the unconscious level of the mind. Ericksonian hypnosis therapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques are the most helpful phobia treatments because they work at this unconscious level.
It is often difficult for people with social phobia to get cured because they are too scared to visit a counselor or open up about their fear. This is another reason why hypnosis programs are appropriate for them. The programs promote a confidence boosting, peaceful mind frame in a private setting, without being intimidating or overwhelming.
The first part of a phobia program is relaxation therapy. Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for relieving your stress and tension. When you are anxiety free, hypnotic techniques will help shape positive ideas in your unconscious mind and extinguish your social phobia. NLP techniques are used to extinguish your fears by directly targeting the process of thought that is responsible for a phobia.
In conventional hypnotherapy, distinctively worded post-hypnotic suggestions are used to address every different phobia. The problem is, people have a tendency to reject being merely told what to think or do, so conventional hypnotherapy is not always effective. A deeply rooted phobia calls for a combination of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP.
Ericksonian hypnosis techniques work better than conventional hypnotherapy because they utilize suggestions that aren’t apparent to your conscious mind, instead of direct suggestions. These suggestions are placed in conversation, in the form of stories and metaphors, to convince your unconscious mind to follow a different line of thinking. This is why Ericksonian hypnosis is far more advanced than traditional hypnosis and much more difficult for the unconscious mind to resist.
A program that includes Ericksonian hypnosis therapy and NLP techniques can treat social phobia and any other phobia, in any individual. This is because multiple techniques are used together to maximize their effectiveness. People are often amazed at the seemingly miraculous effects they get through hypnotherapy. Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP are great tools to help boost your confidence and beat social anxiety so you can fully enjoy your life.
Alan B. Densky, CH has created many hypnosis techniques for the healing of social phobia. He also offers hypnotherapy CD’s for any phobia. His authority website offers a full list of hypnosis CD’s. Visit for Free hypnosis videos, downloads, and newsletters.
- Alan B. Densky, CH
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