Subject - Marc

The case study was centered around Marc's phobia of spiders. He had been extremely fearful, to the point of panic, at the thought of a spider making contact with any part of his body.

To help Marc dissipate and let go of this phobia, I used the following process. I initially put him into a hypnotic trance by using a quick induction. He went into trance very easily. I then proceeded over the next minute or so to deepen the trance twice. At this point, I used the fast phobia/trauma relief technique from the course manual. The "meat" of the technique was run through three times while he remained in a deepened trance. The three "event markers" that were used were the earliest memory he could recall of this particular fear manifesting itself in him. The second was the most recent experience he had felt with this fear. And the third time through was the time when he had felt his phobia with the greatest level of intensity/emotion. Upon completing the technique, I brought Marc out of the movie theatre setting and told him that he was now outside and under a clear blue sky on a warm and beautiful sunny day. He was still in a deep trance at this point. I then explained to him the "Circle of Power" technique and told him to construct one on the field of grass on which he found himself. He did so very easily and quickly, and felt and experienced all of the strong and powerful emotions and sensations which he had placed in his circle. I instructed him at this point to give/make himself a cue so that anytime he wants to feel the way he feels now, in his daily life, he simply needs to fire off his cue/anchor. He made a rhythmic tapping gesture with his left hand on his thigh.

To test how effective the phobia removal process had been, I performed the following test on Marc, while he was still in trance. I told him to imagine that he was lying down on the field of grass and that if he turned and looked over his right shoulder, he would see a not-so-small spider moving towards him, at a present distance of about three feet. I waited to see what his reaction was going to be. He told me that he was watching the spider move closer and closer to him. I asked him how he was feeling at this point. He said that he felt nothing either way. He was going to "test himself out", by putting his hand in front of the spider and letting it walk onto it, which it did. Surprisingly to Marc, this caused him to have no emotional response whatsoever.

I told Marc to remain lying on the grass, close his eyes, and then began to count him out from 5 to 1. At the count of 1, he opened his eyes and re-emerged into the room we were sitting in. I asked him how and what he felt. He told me that as far as he knew, the phobia was gone. He had no feelings either way as far as spiders were concerned. I asked him to keep me informed and to also have me in mind the next time he wanted to eliminate another fear or phobia.

Return to Home Page           Return to Previous Page