The Case of the Spider Woman

Anne had been suffering from severe spider phobia for over thirty years; so much so that she couldn’t watch any TV programmes with spiders in them, couldn’t be comfortable in the presence of toy spiders, and would be paralysed with fear at the thought of a real spider in the same room as her; and although she was not normally afraid of things, being quite able to cope with fierce dogs, snakes and scorpions, this fear of spiders had been a constant worrying factor in her life, which had to be taken into account before deciding to do anything.

After finding out the full details of the problems (and since she wasn’t too comfortable having spiders in the same sentence as her, this was not without it’s difficulties, as is often the case) it was clear that a very minor event involving a spider in her childhood had triggered an enormous response which had over the years developed into her current problem.

We undertook a course of two sessions of hypnotherapy; after the first session she felt happy to touch her children’s toy spider and visit London Zoo’s spider house to observe the inmates. She rang a day later to say she had had a great time in the spider house, staying in there for over an hour, peering at the creatures and tapping the cages to see how they moved. She realised that she hadn’t actually seen a spider close up for decades, as usually she would be running fast in the other direction.

After the second session she said she would be happy to go home, find a house spider and touch it. She again had no trouble accomplishing her mission and was last seen happily heading off for India and Pakistan, secure in the knowledge that when she next met one of the furry eight legged creatures which are numerous in those parts, she’d be fine..

Names have been changed to ensure the client's confidentiality

Information provided by the

Crouch End Natural Health Clinic, London UK tel/fax 020 8 341 9800

There is always a waiting list for appointments, so you might like to download Phil Parker's book on the subject, which will help enormously in the mean time.