Arachnophobia – Case Study

The following case study is designed to walk you step-by-step through an authentic clinical hypnotherapy session. Firstly, watch the complete session video below, then proceed to the step-by-step guide which follows.

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BRIEFING: Sharon, an air hostess, has had a phobia of spiders since she was child. When asked, “On a scale of 1 to 10, where is your anxiety levels when you think about a spider?” she answered: “9.” So her phobia was severe.

Stage 1: Acquisition and Utilisation

During my initial consultation with Sharon, I asked: “What do you do to relax yourself?” Generic scripts are not as effective as scripts that have been tailored specifically for the client. My aim was to create a bespoke script that would appeal to Sharon’s interests and way of life. I aimed to elicit this information and then include it in my script, which is why this stage is entitled Acquisition and Utilisation.

Sharon informed me that she thoroughly enjoyed practising and being the recipient of Reiki – the spiritual healing system devised by Dr Usui. As I also practice this healing system, I utilised my knowledge of the subject within the script. I included references to Reiki and healing energy, as well as signing some of the Reiki symbols whilst conducting the session.

Watch the video below which demonstrates the processes of acquisition and utilisation

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Stage 2: Induction

The objective of this part of the session – the induction – is to induce trance. I asked Sharon to sit comfortable and close her eyes. Next, I asked her to focus on her breath. When a client concentrates solely on their breath, their awareness is diverted from their everyday thought processes, and their conscious mind begins to quieten. If their awareness gets consumed by a thought and their attention is diverted, simply asked them to bring their focus back to the breath.

This process will begin to disable the critical factor and open a gateway into their unconscious.

Stage 3: Progressive Relaxation Deepener

Now we have initiated the trance process via the breath induction, we need to deepen the state. Here, I utilise the Progressive Relaxation deepener in conjunction with references to Reiki and the Chakra system. I encourage Sharon to draw a healing light down through the various parts of the body, in order to relax the body progressively. The body and the mind are closely interrelated; so when we relax the body the mind will tend to follow.

I recommend that you to embellish the script in any way you feel befitting, allowing it to develop and deepen organically….

It is very important to develop your own style of delivery

Stage 4: Relaxed Scene Deepener

Next, I continue to deepen my client’s trance by utilising the Relaxed Scene Deepener.

Important Note: using the sense modalities

Earlier in this course we spoke about the five sense modalities: visual, audio, smell, taste and feeling. It is extremely important to incorporate a variety of these during every session. Many inexperienced therapists make the mistake of assuming that the client can SEE everything. So the script concentrates solely on the visual modality: “See the tall trees reach out into the clear blue sky”, “see the calming stream” and so on. If your client processes information primarily in the auditory or kinaesthetic modality, this script will fail to engage him/her. To counteract this problem use as many of the modalities as possible. Here are some examples:

• “Feel the texture of the grass beneath your feet” (Kinesthetic)
• “Hear the sounds of the birds singing in the hedgerow” (Auditory)
• “the scent of wild flowers hangs in the air” (Olfactory – smell)
• “see the tall trees reach out into the clear blue sky” (Visual)

Stage 5: Descending Count Deepener

I incorporated a descending count deepener at this point, whilst continuing to deepen Sharon’s depth of trance. Here, the steps she descends are metaphorical, in that I’m actually encouraging her awareness to sink deeper down into her psyche.

NOTE: notice how I offer suggestions of deeper relaxation each time she descends a step

Stage 6: Metaphor

A metaphor is a phrase or a story which is symbolic of something else. It can be a story, for instance, which has an ulterior, deeper meaning. The unconscious mind responds extremely well to teachings delivered in this way.

Here, I utilise a metaphor about a flowing stream which transmits the message “allow your mind to become fluid and find the path of least resistance around any obstacles which life presents.”

NOTE: Become efficient at creating and delivering your own metaphors.

Stage 7: Dissociation and Colour manipulation

Now, as I move into the intervention stage of the session – the part of the session which deals with the phobic response – I utilise the cinema screen method of dissociation. This is to protect Sharon from overwhelming adverse emotions (such as fear and panic).

By separating her awareness from her thoughts – the pictures, movies, sounds etc., that move through her mind – the emotional intensity of the experience will lessen considerably; enabling her to confront the phobic stimulus i.e. the spider. I also suggest that she is in possession of a remote control, so she can stop or pause the process if she feels overwhelmed. this gives your client a sense of control over the process.

In addition to dissociation, I also encourage Sharon to drain the initial scene of colour and turn it to black and white. My objective is to further lessen the emotional intensity during the period of the session where she faces her fear. This is a process called submodality manipulation. I am manipulating the colour submodality of the visual sense modality in order to lessen the Sharon’s emotional reaction.

Stage 8: Educating my client

During this stage, I educate my client as to the period of our lives in which most of our programming takes place: THE IMPRINT PERIOD. During the years between birth and approximately seven, we have no critical factor; it hasn’t yet developed. With the absence of this gatekeeper of our unconscious mind, things people say to us (especially repetitively), or things we watch on TV, tend to become deeply embedded in our psyche. They IMPRINT on our psyche. These IMPRINTS can affect our psychological growth either positively or negatively depending on their nature.

These IMPRINTS also gives rise to the early formulation of our belief system. However, our beliefs at this age are often constructed on distorted or erroneous information. For instance, we see a fiction film about a deadly spider and take it literally. Or we see a documentary on a deadly spider and generalise that all spiders are deadly. This information – whether true or false – IMPRINTS on us, and gives rise to our belief system.

During this part of the session, I regress my client back to the IMPRINT period in order to educate her about it. My ultimate intention is to help her inner child complex REFRAME her perception of a spider. Make the spider a friendly entity rather than a deadly adversary.

Stage 9: Reframing

Cognitive reframing is a psychological technique that consists of identifying and disputing irrational or maladaptive thought processes. Reframing is a way of viewing and experiencing events, ideas, concepts and emotions with a view to finding a more positive perspective.

In this session, I talk to the inner child complex of my client and inform her that the word Zimu, in ancient Chinese, is translated as ‘happy insect’ and it refers to the spider.

Here I am appealing to Sharon’s inner child to adjust her belief system – to change her perspective or REFRAME. Instead of seeing the spider as a threatening entity, I encourage her to see it as the ‘happy insect’ that brings good luck: hence, the ‘money spider.’

I attempt to get her to REFRAME her perception of a spider.

ANOTHER REFRAME during this stage happens when I inform Sharon that the spider is actually very frightened of us human beings; we are much bigger and more powerful than the spider.

Stage 10: Anxiety testing

Now, bear in mind I have dissociated Sharon’s awareness from her thoughts by using the movie screen technique. In addition, I have used submodality manipulation to change the pictures in her mind to black and white from colour. I have also reframed her inner child’s perception of the spider (as outlined in the previous step). In addition, this reframe is subsequently elaborated upon when I suggest her inner child has a cuddly spider toy. This is to further reinforce the radical change needed in adjusting Sharon’s perception of a spider.

Now it’s time to test for improvement. Here I say:

“On a scale of 1 to 10 where is your anxiety when you think of a spider?”

Sharon answers “barely one”. So in this short period of time we have made excellent progress. Her anxiety levels have fallen from 9 to barely 1.

Stage 11: The Inner Adult and Child Complexes

Independent of chronological age, we all have an adult and child complex within us. When Sharon encounters or thinks of a spider her inner child complex comes to the fore and dominates her response; which is why I have been working with this facet of her psyche and assisting her to REFRAME her perception.

During this stage, I ask Sharon to project her wise adult onto the cinema screen. I then ask her to view some old photographs that were taken when she had a spider phobia. Using past tense here sends a message to her unconscious mind: YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE PHOBIA – YOU ARE OVER IT.

Subsequently, I emphasise the wisdom of her adult self, and encourage Sharon to feel the liberation and freedom of overcoming the phobia. I encourage her to see, hear, and feel the liberation. To be effective, Sharon’s imagination has to peak when she imagines this scenario. It is my job to assist her by relaying words that will paint a picture in her mind.

Stage 12: The Fast Phobia Technique

Next, I use the Fast Phobia technique also known as Visual / Kinesthetic Dissociation. The latter name is used because it is generally pictures in a person’s mind (visual component) that give rise to the fearful emotions (kinesthetic component). The objective of this technique is to dissociate the stimulus (the picture in the mind or a real spider) from the fearful feelings which give rise to the abnormal reaction.

The first part of this process is to move the child very quickly through life up until today. Because of the sheer speed, consciously, Sharon won’t experience all the memories: but her unconscious mind will. To counteract the possibility of an abreaction during this stage, we retain the dissociated perspective (the movie screen scenario) and also drain the colour from the movie in her mind.

I don’t intend to list all the steps of the fast phobia technique here, as I have relayed them earlier in the course materials; however, I will highlight some important points.

• The rewind aspect from adult to child is executed very quickly
• On completion of the rewind, I get Sharon’s inner adult to impart her wisdom to her inner child. She is actually parenting her own inner child at this point
• The rewind procedure aims to rewire the brain by undoing neural networks that support the phobia.
• Repetition is the key here. Repeat the process a number of times (normally about 6 but up to as many as 20 if you feel the need – use your intuition)
• I also reinforce the reframing procedure outline in stage 9.

Stage 13: The Swish Pattern

I use the Swish pattern at this point, in an attempt to change Sharon’s emotional reaction to the spider. Before the session, I asked if she could remember a time when she had had a real belly laugh. She recalled that a particular episode of the Graham Norton show had left her in tears of laughter. I utilised this experience in the Swish pattern. I asked her to imagine a spider on her screen of consciousness, then swished it for the scene from the Graham Norton show. The message to her unconscious mind was: see a spider – laugh! see a spider – laugh! When her original reaction was: see a spider – panic! See a spider her panic!

My objective here wasn’t particularly to get Sharon to laugh every time she sees a spider, it was to negate the fear. By associating laughter to the fear inducing stimulus of the spider, I hoped to throw her psyche into disarray, whereby she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The real objective was for neither of these things to happen; the intended outcome was balance; the laughter negating the fear and emotional equilibrium being maintained.

Stage 14: Future Pacing (mental rehearsal)

Now, I wanted to test my work. Remember, the brain doesn’t differentiate between imagination and reality. So, if I can get Sharon to imagine encountering a spider, it will be a good indication of how she will cope when she does actually encounter a spider.

I also used submodality manipulation and graded exposure during the test. Submodality manipulation, in that I initially had Sharon imagine the spider in black and white to lessen the emotional intensity of the experience. Graded exposure, in that I used distance as a method of gradually introducing Sharon to the phobic stimulus. She initially imagined the spider in the garden and then I brought it gradually closer.

Throughout this process I tested her levels of fear. This had two objectives:

1. To check her mental and emotional well-being
2. To test for improvement

Stage 15: Anchoring and Post Hypnotic Suggestions

At this point I took Sharon’s hand. Each time I touched it, I urged her to embed the teachings of this session deep into her psyche. The touching of the hand was a form of anchoring.

In addition to anchoring, I used post hypnotic suggestions,”every time you see a spider from now on, you will see it through a new filter.” The spider itself being the anchor (or trigger) that would initiate a new emotional response.

Hopefully, after the session, should Sharon encounter a spider, my voice will pop into her mind and she will view it through a news positive lens. She will have a totally different perspective.

I set yet another anchor to assist with this process. I asked Sharon to imagine the scene from the Graham Norton show, encouraging her to associate into the scene and turn up all the submodalities. When this experience peaked in her mind, I asked her to touch her thumb and middle finger together. Here I was setting the anchor.

After setting the anchor, I used the following post hypnotic suggestion:

“Whenever you sees a spider in the future, you will touch your thumb and forefinger together and immediately return to this state of joviality.”

Here I’m getting Sharon to FIRE the anchor whenever she encounters a spider in the future. If we have set the anchor properly, Sharon will FIRE the anchor on encountering spider and the laughter of the Graham Norton show scenario will negate any fear that arises.

Stage 16: Ending the session

Finally, it is time to end the session, using the procedure you have been taught earlier in the course.

Live Classroom Study of Arachnophobia