Richard Bandler described what has become known as “The Fast Phobia Cure” in his 1985 book, Using Your Brain for a Change. It is my favorite NLP technique because it is quick, easy for both practitioner and client, and effective. If that were the only technique you knew, you could help all your friends and relatives with anxieties, phobias, and even Posttraumatic Stress Disorder greatly reduce or completely eliminate those unpleasant feelings.
The Fast Phobia Cure is also easy to learn and use. When I used the technique for the first time, I had read about it in Use Your Brain for a Change. I had not seen it demonstrated (video was not nearly so readily available in those days), nor had I yet attended a NLP workshop. I was conducting a two-day communication skills workshop at a major Midwestern company. The workshop met on consecutive Thursdays, with a “homework” assignment to be completed during the time between. During the first day of the workshop, and especially in the afternoon of that day, I observed a woman doing a lot of fidgeting. When I asked what was wrong, this is what she said: “My husband and I are going camping this weekend. He has rented a small camping trailer that has a very small sleeping space. I’m claustrophobic and can’t do it. I can’t possibly sleep there.” Without thinking, I said, “I know how to fix that.” I read about it once, so I knew it, right?
So during the afternoon break, I took her through the “Fast Phobia Cure.” The day ended, and we all went home until the following Thursday. As class was starting for the second Thursday, I asked about her camping experience. Her reply was, “I don’t understand it, but it was fine. I was comfortable and slept just fine.” That experience convinced me that I needed to get serious about studying NLP. Although I have since learned a number of other NLP techniques, the Fast Phobia Cure has remained my favorite. One of the things I like about it (and other NLP techniques as well), is that it can only help; it follows the health-care maxim, First, do no harm. You can’t make a person’s anxiety, phobia, or PTSD worse by using it. The worst thing that will happen is that you won’t eliminate the problem. Then you get to try again.
The Fast Phobia Cure uses what Debra and I call “the Big Three” of NLP: anchoring, submodality shifts, and advanced language patterns. Anchoring is a staple of behavioral psychology, stimulus-response conditioning.” Those who drive, for example, are conditioned to stop at the stimulus known as a red light. The advanced language patterns of NLP consist of two linguistic “models,” the Metamodel and the Milton Model, named after the famous hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson, MD. Here’s a step-by-step description of the application:
- Identify the phobia, including the first experience of it and the worst example of it. You (or the person with whom you are working) may have many examples worth adding to the list, but “first” and “worst” are the most important.
- Imagine yourself in a movie theater. Remember what the theater is like, with the seats, aisles, and the projection booth at the back. Find a seat that gives you a good view of the screen.
- Send your conscious awareness up into the projection booth so that you can look down and see yourself looking at the screen.
- Select a memory of a time you experienced the phobia you will work with first. The first time you experienced the fear or your earliest memory of having a phobic response is the best place to start. Identify a point of safety before you experience the fear, and identify a point of safety when you knew you were safe and make a definite image of the ending point. These will be the beginning and ending points of your film.
- With your consciousness still in the “projection booth,” watch yourself watch the film in black and white from the first point of safety to the ending point of safety.
- When the movie has reached the ending point, move your consciousness from the projection booth into the movie. Make your memory “real” by checking your memory for specific details, such as what clothes or shoes you were wearing, and then run the movie backwards as fast as you can make it go until you have reached the beginning point of safety. Imagine that you are moving backwards and that everyone and everything else in the movie is moving backwards at a high rate of speed.
- Repeat the previous step, playing the movie backwards a few times, increasing the speed until you can’t make it run backwards any faster. Then take a brief break.
- Select another time you experienced a phobic response. The first and the worst are the best examples to use, but any others that occur to you are also worth running through the process.
- Take another brief break, and then test your response to see whether you can try in vain to get back any of the feelings that used to bother you. Think about whatever used to bother you, and see whether it still does.
A word of caution:If the feared item poses a possible threat, such as would be the case with snakes, bees (for those who are allergic), or heights (tops of ladders, cleaning gutters, etc.) include appropriate cautions. Unless you know enough about snakes to know which are poisonous and which are not, it’s best to avoid handling snakes. You (and the snake) are both safer when you can respond in a calm, reasonable way. I know a woman who was fearful of bees and nearly had a high-speed wreck when she noticed a bee in her car while she was cruising down the highway. In such situations, it’s best to be sufficiently calm to take appropriate action while remaining safe.
Here’s a video that shows what the process looks like in application:
If you want to know more about phobias, Debra and I have a link to a quiz (PDF format) about them available on the SCS website: http://www.scs-matters.com/phobia-quiz.pdf
For more about “The Fast Phobia Cure” and other NLP techniques, see the information about Healing with Language on the SCS website: http://scs-matters.com/products2.shtml
Questions about this process or about NLP? Send them to joel@scs-matters.com.