Common treatments for phobias

Fast phobia cure

The fast phobia cure is the name given to a technique originally developed by the psychotherapist Milton Erikson and later developed by Richard Bandler and John Grindler. The technique was first described in the book "Frogs into Princes". This technique has also been called the Rewind technique and the VK technique (VK is an acronym for Visual Kinesthetic)

The technique involves desensitising memories of when the phobic stimulus has been distressing. The procedure usually uses hypnosis to help the person to relax (although this is not always necessary). The traumatic memories are then played on a movie or television screen with various distortions. For example, the memories could be played in fast forward or fast rewind, or in black and white, and even with different sound. This allows the brain to restore the memory with less emotion.

This seemingly simple technique is highly effective and can dramatically reduce and even remove phobic responses very quickly. Even if a person has a severe phobia with several distressing memories, this technique will reduce the distressing feelings each time it used with relative comfort.

One of the advantages of the fast phobia cure is that the phobic person does not have to tell the person that is performing the fast phobia cure any details about the traumatic memory.

This technique will also stop flashbacks and reoccurring nightmares.

Emotional freedom technique

Emotional freedom technique is essentially tapping on specific points whilst thinking about the phobia. Whilst the web site suggests that this technique works because of subtle energies in the body, one of the steps is the deliberate movement of the eyes which suggests a connection to the REM state.

However, this method clearly works as a person with a phobia of swimming is totally cured in an hour on the first DVD. The free downloadable manual and inexpensive DVD sets cover all of the steps needed to relieve phobic responses, sometimes in excruciating detail. The DVD sets contain around 8 DVDs are all very good value for money, and show how this technique can be applied to different problems. Their website can be found here: Emotional Freedom Technique.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a way of removing trauma and was developed by Francine Shapiro. It works by having clients recall traumatic events whilst tracking the movement of a therapist's hand back and forth in front of them. Many practitioners also use a light which moves from left to right on a wall.

Although users of this technique say that they do not fully understand how this works, including Shapiro, they do recognise that there is a connection with the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) State.

It is common for the phobic person to become emotional when this technique is used and therefore the therapist needs to make sure that the subject is able to cope with the distress. However, many people have been shown to recover from trauma and intense phobias after the use of EMDR, and there has been much research to prove its effectiveness.