Richard Bandler's Freedom from Phobia Day - by Matthew Wingett

 

On Saturday 9th May 2009, 150 people made their ways to the Ibis Hotel Kensington to face their worst fears... Not that the Ibis Hotel in Kensington is such a bad place, really! These 150 souls had phobias that they wanted to get rid of with the help of the professionals. Richard Bandler and his team of 25 assistants, headed by Tina Taylor were waiting for them to do exactly that.

 

The NLP Fast Phobia Cure was devised by Richard Bandler in the 1970s, and is a highly effective means of inducing radical changes in feelings and behaviour. It is a dramatic demonstration of how NLP can be used to bring about real change quickly so that people can take control of their lives.

 

There was a wide range of phobias to deal with on the day - from the standard ones to do with spiders and snakes, through public speaking, driving and claustrophobia to ones that were a little less usual - like a fear of gerbils, electric pylons, paperwork or even vegetables.

 

Although some of these fears were not quite so common, Tina was quick to point out that people can develop phobias about virtually anything. "Sometimes, people feel silly about their phobias, and can feel alone and isolated in their fear," she says, with a tone of understanding. "But I would go so far as to say that I have seen so many phobias of all different kinds that nothing these days shocks me. Many of my clients feel a sense of relief when they realise that they are not the only people to have these feelings."

 

As is common with phobics entering a room in which they are being asked to deal with their fears, the mood was at first a little uncertain. The delegates had probably been adding extra anxiety to their expectations by making very big and unpleasant pictures in their minds about just what was going to happen to them on the day. They needn't have worried. Old fashioned methods of exposing people to the objects of their fears and forcing them to do something they don't want to do is exactly the opposite of the NLP approach to breaking phobias. 

 

Instead, delegates were treated to a talk by Richard Bandler in which he explained to them that fear is made in a very simple way by using the imagination. He then demonstrated how, by changing the way we think about something, we change our feelings.  He went on to describe how so many people create phobias - and how they allow them to sneak up on them, unaware that they are the ones who are making it happen. Having skilfully engaged and led his audience, reframed their fears and raised expectations, the room was alive with a wanton desire for change.

 

The time to demonstrate exactly what was to come had arrived.  Richard took two women on stage - one with a spider phobia and one with a snake phobia - and quickly removed their fears. The woman with the snake phobia took about ten or so minutes to cure. The effect on the audience was powerful in showing them what they could expect of themselves.  Now it was the delegates' turns. Attendees were divided up into groups of delegates who shared the same phobia. Each group was then worked on by an assistant. As each delegate's phobia was removed, they headed off for lunch, leaving the slightly more "stuck" phobics behind, so that the assistants could focus on them more closely.

 

"Everybody's needs are a little different," Tina Taylor commented about the day. "One person we had today had a phobia of eating. Now that might seem to be a difficult thing to believe when you look at the person who is saying it and they seem to be a perfectly normal weight.  But what they mean is that they only allow themselves to eat an extraordinarily limited diet. The woman we dealt with today had managed on her own to break down a lot of her fears about food. But she was stuck with not being able to eat vegetables. She could talk about them, but if she imagined eating one, she immediately began to feel stressed and started to gag."  

 

In contrast, some people thought that anxiety alone constituted a phobia.  Just so with one man who stated that he didn't know which group to join. He was phobic of flying, but he had other fears, too, he explained. Tina asked him if he ever flew. "Oh, yes," he said, "but I don't like it." Discussion of his symptoms meant that Tina was able to identify that he had a general background anxiety about not being in control.  This was not the same as a full-blown phobia - but if ever there was a place to deal with it - this was it!

 

There were some funny moments, too. One of the tarantulas used on Phobia Day is also called Tina. Passing by a delegate who was struggling with overcoming her fear of spiders, Tina Taylor heard one assistant say: "No, really, I promise you, this Tina is nothing in comparison to that one over there!  You don't want me to call her over, do you?" The injection of a little piece of timely humour is often enough to break the spell cast by a phobia - and this was no exception.

 

There were also moments of pure magic, like the woman who was sitting with a tarantula on her hand, a great big proud smile on her face - saying over and over again: "I can't believe it.  I just can't believe it."  

 

As Tina said to me later: "One of the most wonderful things about working with Richard's technology is how simple it is to teach someone to take control of their life. Everyone who was in that room today has taken away with them the tools they need to deal with their fears."

 

By the start of the afternoon session, everyone in the room had been dealt with. The longest time it had taken to dispel a fear had been spent working with a woman who didn't know how to calm herself down. In the end, she was cured in two and a half hours.

 

To ensure that the work had been completed satisfactorily, Richard asked if anyone in the room was still phobic. One woman, previously claustrophobic, replied that yes, she was. Richard checked with her. - Had she gone into the box they had brought along to test claustrophobia?  - Yes. - Had she panicked and been terrified? - No. - So how was she still claustrophobic? The answer was enlightening: The woman replied that, yes, she was still claustrophobic, but that she now had the tools to deal with it. This is a common experience for people who have suddenly had a change made in their lives. Their understanding of the world has not yet caught up with the change that has already happened. Richard spent a little time reframing the claustrophobia, and this solved her misconception. Richard asked again, was there anyone else who was still phobic? There wasn't.

 

All in all, a highly successful day, in which the power and efficacy of NLP in one of its more dramatic applications was shown with stunning effect!