Background

Susan is 48 years old and lives with her husband David. She did not “believe” in hypnotherapy, but she was going to “risk it” to be able to get over her phobia of fungus (Mycophobia). She and David rode horses (hers being called Frizzle) and with the wet summer, the field where the horses lived had a large amount of fungus growing and she found visiting the horses fairly stressful.

She said her first memory of the phobia happened when she was 5 or 6 years old, and she was visiting the Thames Valley with her grandmother. They walked up a path and in front of them was a selection of large fungus and she freaked out.

Ever since she has found it difficult even to look at a photograph of a toadstool and going shopping in the supermarket means she has to avoid the vegetable section. If she goes out to dinner and she knows someone is eating mushrooms, she has to move out of sight.

Initial Consultation

I explained about how the mind works, the primitive mind working mostly in anxiety, anger or depression, and a longer description of how phobias come about, with our experiences having a heightened emotion attached to them, so over a period of time it all added up until it became so anxious that we could not cope.

She couldn’t remember any incidents before the Thames Valley experience, to have built up the anxiety to the phobia point, but I explained that it wasn’t that important because working backwards would not help, we had to scrub the template and put in a good experience.

I went on to explain how the mind thinks we’re in danger and we produce all the anxiety chemicals when we think negatively because it did not know the difference between real and imagined, so that by imagining what was in store for her in the field was keeping her anxiety levels high.

I then went further to say that we wanted to think in a positive way which would promote all the positive chemicals such as Seratonin, Noradrenalin and dopamine.
By lowering the anxiety we would gain intellectual control, and that by having control in one area of our lives, we gained better control in other areas.

I asked her how she slept, fine she said, no problems there. I briefly explained the benefits of good sleep and the role REM plays, and that hypnosis was like daydreaming. Using the REM state for the subconscious and the conscious mind to communicate.

I explained how we scramble the templates using the rewind method and I would ask her to think of two times she had felt phobic, the first one she can remember and the most recent case. She mentioned the Thames Valley experience and said how she had squirmed when she had looked down whilst getting off Frizzle last night, because there were loads of toadstools growing by the tree in her field.

I explained how we were to watch these incidents on an imaginary TV and she was to watch the incidents forwards and backwards, making them fast and then finally cartooning them. Then the week after we were to visualise a scene she wanted, so she was to go away and think what it was she would like.

I gave her the relaxation CD and asked her to listen to it every night.

Session 1 – a week later

Susan turned up and looked really well, she was beaming and said her sleeping was getting even better. I said I didn’t think she had a problem sleeping, no she said, I didn’t think I did until I started to sleep really well and then realised I hadn’t been sleeping well, as things were getting mulled over in her mind constantly, so often she would take up to an hour to sleep.

I asked her how her relationship with fungus was this week – still bad, I can’t even look at them she replied, I have to walk around the field and try not to look down, just the thought of accidentally coming across them makes me nervous.

Session 2 – One week later

Susan reported that last week when she left she felt that all her senses had been enhanced and she could see colours more clearly and smell the flowers stronger. She had found at work that she was able to get on with more work, as she was finding it easier to remember to do things instead of writing them all down.

I asked her how she was getting on with her fungus friends, and she laughed, I’d rather not have to encounter them at all she replied.

I asked if she remembered what we discussed in the consultation about the rewind technique. Yes she said, the Thames Valley and the incident in the field.

She then asked me if hypnotherapy would help her riding as her horse Frizzle would rear up at bicycles. I said I’d never hypnotised a horse before and I wasn’t sure it would work. She laughed and said, no for me! I laughed and said that it was possible that Frizzle was sensing her anxiety, so I said I would write the reframe to include the riding as well.

Session 3 – One week later

Susan was beaming when she turned up, she had noticed some toadstools by the gate to the field at the weekend, instead of having to look straight ahead, she made herself look down at them and was amazed she did not feel alarmed. The next day she even pointed them out to David who was surprised she even mentioned them, let alone point them out!

I asked how her riding was going, and she said it was improving. She took onboard my comment that it may have been her reaction to the cyclists that had caused Frizzle to rear up at cyclists. That Saturday she had gone out riding along a footpath, and where there were two bollards a whole group of children with bikes were milling about as a number were trying to put a chain back on one of them.

She had taken a deep breath and relaxed and Frizzle walked on by without a murmur, she was really impressed.

I briefly went through why we did the rewind and that the reframe was to help place in a positive emotion. I reminded her that when we lower our anxiety we increase our intellectual control.

After I asked if she would like to look at a photograph of a toadstool, but she declined, she said she would do it in her own time, but the overall experience was worthwhile and she had gained a lot and was sleeping better.

About a six weeks after the session, I received an email which read:

“Just had to say thank you for the hypnotherapy. I admit I thought it was all a load of baloney but am completely converted.

I can’t say I am 100% over the fungus phobia but I can look at them in the field and in the supermarket without freaking out. I don’t think I’m ever going to eat one though!

However, the most dramatic difference has been in my riding. I’ve always been a bit nervous cantering Frizzle as she is quite a handful sometimes and you know about her pushbike fear! Well, I went out Saturday with a friend and I led all the way past several pushbikes and Frizzle didn’t bat an eyelid. David and I went out in the field yesterday and I had a canter around out there. I did 3 dressage tests the other week all involving canter (and got placed 3rd and 6th!). I am also taking her to a show on Saturday and am doing 2 more dressage tests at a local yard on 30th September. Even my instructor can’t believe what she is seeing!!

I think this probably had the most important to me. With the fungus – it is a pain in the arse – but I’ve lived with it so long it’s just a nuisance now.

So thank you very much! I think you can be expecting some phone calls in the not too distant future!”

And I did!