FEAR OF INJECTIONS

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Permalink Reply by Marc Carlin on September 12, 2010 at 12:06pm

Hi Jim,

Yes that would be similar. What I did was to show her how she could remove the sensation of any kind of discomfort in one area of her arm. The usual convincer for pain removal. And then I told her she could rub any part of her body to install that analgesic response wherever she wanted. I had her do it while in the chair and verify that she could do that, and told her she would do that before the injection, wherever the injection would be.

Marc

Jim Sloan said:

Hi marc,
Would that be similar to developing a Magic Spot on both of the forearms, where pain acnt be felt?

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on September 12, 2010 at 3:22pm

This is what I love about your comments, Adrian. I admit that often I use certain techniques because 1. I learned them from credible sources and felt comfortable using them 2. I gained experience of success 3. I actually understand WHY they work

Regarding the fast phobia cure, I was operating from a position of 1 and 2 until I read your post. Thank you!

Kelley

Adrian Tannock said:

Hiya,

I use this technique more than any other - I find it just works ...

Here's an article detailing how I use it. I pretty much follow Kelley's steps, but dispense with the cinema imagery (I find it superfluous) and instead go for CCTV imagery instead (CCTV handily is comprised of the "submodalities" you're looking to impose on the memory: black & white / dissociated and small).

http://adriantannock.com/2008/01/18/freedom-from-the-past-part-2/

The key is repetition. Understand that what you're trying to do is re-process the content of the situationally accessible memory (SAM) of a traumatic or sensitising event(s), in order to stop the amygdala from activating the fear response.

This basically means you've got to get into the emotional content of the experience. So at first, as a person plays the memory forwards & backwards, it'll keep 'pulling them in' (from 3rd person to 1st person), becoming colour, new details remembered, etc... This means they're going from a visualised remembrance (verbally accessible memory) into the problematic, traumatic memory. After a few repetitions of the VK Dissociation process, it'll pull them in less / stay black & white / get smaller, grainier... This means you're making progress in dealing with the somatic content of the memory, and the incident is becoming desensitised.

Do that for the full array of sensitising events, and standard phobias disappear - the amygdala is no longer involved.

Here's a (straightforward) document that talks about the various memories implicated in PTSD (which has relevance for phobic responses):

http://www.med.uio.no/ipsy/ssff/konferanser/presentasjoner5nasjonal...

Cheers,

ADrian

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Permalink Reply by Rob McKeon on September 13, 2010 at 9:50am

Just to note that if a client's fear of needles is due to blood-injection-injury phobia then there's a high probability that they have experienced neurocardiogenic syncope (read: fainting) one or more times in the past due to it, and this is a major source of fear.

There are a certain percentage of people biologically predisposed to this condition of fainting if they are afraid of blood. The important point from a therapeutic perspective is that the fainting results from a sudden drop in blood pressure. Therefore any hypnosis to suggest relaxation in response to the threat is contraindicated because relaxation reduces blood pressure.

A very effective cure for this phobia is applied tension by practitioners such as Lars Gorsn Ost. Here is an extremely simple explanation of the technique:
http://www.anxietybc.com/resources/pdfs/AppliedTension.pdf

It requires practice and using it with exposure (real or imaginal).

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Permalink Reply by Jim Sloan on September 13, 2010 at 11:07am

Very interesting points Rob. Thanks for the link.

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