Where to begin?

[keiths]

Dear all, I have read through lots of posts on here on the merits of different therapies, so I apologise in advance if Im duplicating a thread, but the truth is I've no idea where to begin with therapy for my pigeon/bird phobia.

Im 32 and have been phobic of birds since my early teens. It got steadily worse as I approached my late teens and most commonly manifests itself as a fear of pigeons, specifically the fear of them flying near my head. I live in a city with lots of pigeons but have mostly been able to deal with this by not going to parks, not sitting outside cafes etc and walking close to buildings as I know they won't fly towards a building. I always meant to do some kind of therapy to cure it but never got round to it.

A couple of months ago, 2 pigeons got into my house and I had to deal with them in the house, coming face to face with them and then them flying around and over my head. I was really traumatised by it for a couple of weeks but thought I'd kind of got back to how I was before, however the reality is that anything that flaps unexpectedly is now affecting me quite badly....paper bags in the wind, flags, anything that seems like wings flapping. Also, although I now make sure every window is closed, if my partner leaves one open for even an hour, I feel the need to go round the house cautiously to make sure there are none there.

I was thinking to go to my GP but I never find them that helpful so I wondered if anyone could recommend a therapy that's worked for them. I've read about Fearfighter (not sure if NHS Lothian in Scotland has a licence), or if one to one CBT would be better, or NLP or.....?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts,

Keith

[Paul H]

Hi there

I'd recommend hypnotherapy for phobias. Hypnotherapists use techniques which have since been pinched by NLP practitioners. Most NLPers are hypnotherapists anyway.

I would recommend this because I am a hypnotherapist. I see people for all sorts of phobias and it works very well. I think I've only had one fail to resolve her phobia so far. Most phobia clients I've seen have seen their phobias resolved within 2-3 sessions.

This isn't a sales pitch because I'm sure you live miles away. I just thought I'd try to reassure you that your phobia can be resolved and that hypnotherapy is a real and valid option.

Paul

[Si]

I have to say, hypnotherapy was the most successful treatment I had, but was expensive.