Cynophobia? Muzzle it with hypnotherapy!
People who own dogs tend not to be scared of them. Neither are their families. Familiarity with man’s best friend tends to breed acceptance and love for such creatures. However, I’ve noticed a big increase in enquiries for cynophobia in recent times. I think it’s down to covid 19, which drove people apart and so reduced contact between people and also between people and other people’s dogs.
Whilst it’s perfectly natural to be wary of big dogs an over-riding fear of dogs constitutes a phobia because it simply doesn’t stand to reason. Yes, a dog may have scared us when we were young and yet we needn’t be so scared now.
At that time your brain learned very quickly to avoid dogs. You avoided them and the relief you felt after having run or hid from one strengthened your brain’s belief that running and hiding was a good idea.
The fear became reinforced and, hey-presto – you now have a full-blown phobia.
People can be afraid of the sight of dogs which are a great distance away. People can be afraid of dogs which are merely pictures in a book.
People can be afraid of the very tiniest of toy dogs. Even the sound of dogs barking on a television can send shivers down the spine and when these responses stand in the way of a normal life it’s time to take action.
I’ve used hypnotherapy for the phobia of dogs with people of all ages. I’ve worked with adults and also with children as young as the age of six.
I am now a qualified child and adolescent counsellor, am close to completing a masters degree in child and adolescent psychotherapy and have a whole range of skills and approaches for working with children which lie outside of the skill-set of other hypnotherapists in my area.
Art, sand, play and many other activities can be combined with hypnotherapy in order to help even the youngest of children to overcome their phobia of dogs.
How far do you go to avoid dogs?
People begin to avoid public spaces for fear of seeing them. People refuse to visit friends because they own one. People’s lives begin to shrink because they will do anything to avoid the very remotest possibility of coming into contact with dogs. Dogs seem to be everywhere!
It’s a more common phobia than you’d think. I’ve used hypnotherapy in Reading, Thame, Oxford, Wallingford and London to help adults and children overcome their fear of dogs. You or your child could be next.
Imagine how much easier life would be!
You could enjoy trips outside, walks in the park, visits to the homes of dog owning relatives and many other places besides, free of the fear.
Give me a call whenever you’re ready and we’ll discuss how I could help you or your child (perhaps both) to be free of this fear, once and for all.
I also offer hypnotherapy online for the phobia of dogs, using vsee, zoom or whatsap. Please get in touch for more details as to how this works.
How could hypnotherapy for the phobia of dogs help you?
I could help you. Hypnotherapy can help place dogs into their true perspective. Hypnotherapy can help to deal with the root cause of the fear. That dog which scared you when you were very young needn’t seem so scary now.
You can revisit that scene and help the younger you to cope with the situation more easily. You can talk him or her through the situation so that he or she can learn new understandings, seeing things through different eyes.
You can talk to that part of your mind which developed your phobia of dogs. That part of your mind is trying to help. Together we can convince it to let go of this fear. It doesn’t need to work so hard anymore.
It may seem a strange concept but anybody who has seen the kids’ movie ‘Inside Out’ will understand that we all have different parts of our minds which sometimes work against one another. They can be retrained!
Imagination is behind the creation and maintenance of this phobia. Hypnotherapy could help you to undo the threads which hold it together. You can almost literally imagine yourself into letting go of this fear of dogs. Hypnotherapy for the phobia of dogs can help you to do just this.
Furthermore, so long as there isn’t a complicating history of anxiety or depression, such a process can take as few as two sessions. It needn’t take months or years, as is often the case with other forms of psychotherapy. I’ve never tried to claim, as other people sometimes do, that hypnotherapy is a magic cure for complex issues such as childhood experiences of abuse or OCD. For simple phobias, however, which are uncomplicated by histories of depression or general anxiety, hypnotherapy can produce miracles in startlingly short periods of time.
Get in touch and we can get to work!
It’s never wise to be too care-free around large and unknown dogs and yet they really needn’t rule your life. I have seen clients – of every age – in Reading, Thame, Oxford and Wallingford for this phobia and I’m happy to report that they now live full lives and have left their phobias behind them.
You could too.
If you’d like to learn more of how I could help you then please feel free to give me a call. I offer hypnotherapy in Reading, Oxford, Wallingford and Thame. Give me a call on 01865 600 970 for Oxford, Thame and Wallingford, 01183 280284 for Reading or 07786123736 to be sure. Alternatively you could email me at paul@resolvedhypnotherapy.co.uk or use the contact form below.
However you choose to get in touch, I look forward to hearing from you and to helping you free yourself from this needless and life-limiting phobia.
Best wishes
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