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Spider Phobia Fix
Congratulations: you’ve downloaded the hypnosis you will listen to every day (or more!) for the next two weeks (or more!). The next step is to power up that hypnosis by making your personalised visualisations.
You are going to create two Mind Movies to play in your imagination when you listen to your download.
A Mind Movie is a visualisation in the form of imagined moving images – like a movie – which you create to watch inside your mind when you listen to your download.
Phobia Delete Mind Movie
Rational Response Mind Movie
Phobia Delete Mind Movie
Follow the steps below to create your Phobia Delete Mind Movie.
This shows moving images representing the experience which sparked your phobia of spiders or, if you can’t remember this, the worst episode connected to your phobia.
Step 1: Identify
Identify the experience which sparked your spider phobia.
If you can’t remember this, identify the worst experience you’ve had relating to the phobia.
Step 2: Relax
Find somewhere comfortable to relax.
Close your eyes.
Take five deep breaths (inhale through your nose for four or five counts, exhale through your mouth at a slower pace).
Then breathe deeply in a way that is comfortable for you, taking breaths from low down in your abdomen. Place your hand on your stomach to check that it is moving up and down as you breathe.
Step 3: Create
Create a Mind Movie of imagined moving images representing the experience.
Have the Mind Movie start just before the event happened when everything was fine, then move on to show the experience happening, and then finish when everything is fine again.
Step 4: Detail
The images should be in black and white and grainy in quality (this will make it less distressing to imagine).
Your Mind Movie should be about 30 seconds.
Step 5: Control
Imagine you have a control board in front of you which allows you to play with your Mind Movie.
Practice pausing it, fast forwarding it, and rewinding it while you watch it.
Spider Phobia Example
Clare had a phobia of spiders. She couldn’t recall why the phobia started. She made a Mind Movie of the worst episode of finding a spider in her bed.
She made a black and white Mind Movie which started when everything was fine (in bed) moved through to her panic (screaming when she felt something tickling her foot and discovering the spider in her bed) and ended when all was fine again (her flatmate removed it).
Rational Response Mind Movie
This consists of moving images representing a rational response to your spiders phobia.
We are going to use the brain’s “conditioning” function to show your brain how to respond calmly and rationally when you think about spiders or encounter them.
What is Conditioning?
Our lives contain experiences which, if repeated, trigger an automatic response in our behaviour. In the most famous example, Pavlov, the Russian scientist, rang a bell every time he fed his dogs. After a while, just hearing the bell would trigger his dogs to salivate. An otherwise neutral stimulus like a bell ringing took on a positive meaning for the dogs.
Other examples of classic conditioning might be: standing up when the school bell is rung; or feeling tearful at the sight of a needle because of past painful injections; or a song from the happy moments in the past putting you in a good mood. Put simply, two stimuli are linked together to produce a learned response.
