Phobias
Whereas anxiety is a generalized state of fear, a phobia is an overwhelming, irrational reaction to a specific object or situation. Most phobias do not usually manifest on a regular basis, but can cause severe panic, including physical symptoms like breathlessness, heart palpitations, stomach pain and numbness in the body when you encounter your fear directly.
Common phobias include fear of heights (acrophobia), fear of going out in public (agoraphobia), fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia), fear of vomiting (emetophobia) fear of spiders (arachnophobia), fear of driving (amaxophobia) and fear of germs (mysophobia). I have also successfully worked with clients with more uncommon phobias like fear of buttons, fear of swallowing, and fear of balloons.
Although sometimes it is easy to avoid things that you are afraid of, there are times when this may not be appropriate or possible, resulting in an overwhelming sense of panic and fear. This type of fear affects your life, but with the right intervention and support you can overcome this, so that the triggers no longer have the same debilitating and terrifying effect on you.
OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by an excessive focus or fixation, which can be about creating order, perfectionism, cleanliness, or having irrational thoughts that interfere with daily life. If you suffer with an OCD, you may spend hours cleaning, checking, rearranging items, counting or repeating, or acting on other seemingly random compulsions that take over you’re your rational thought process.
As well as working with you to deal with these irrational thoughts and subsequent behaviours, and empowering you to take back control, I can also explore and address the root cause of your compulsive behaviour so that we can stop it from dominating your daily life.
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From the fear of flying, resulting in refusing to board a plane to a family trip to Florida to being able to fly freely all over the world.
Coral - Fear of Flying
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From having a life long terror of heights to enjoying going up the highest viewing deck in the southern Hemisphere: the Skydeck Australia
Gary - Fear of Heights
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From claustrophobia, fear of lifts, tube trains and flying to learning how to take back control of her fear, feeling confident to fly on holiday, travel by tube and having a different mindset.