Lift Phobia/Claustrophobia – A Case Study

Jane - Lift Phobia/claustrophobia

Background – Jane is a 68 year old woman who has had a fear of getting stuck in lifts or any enclosed space for the majority of her life. She actively avoids lifts and thinks that the time has come to address this problem. She also feels claustrophobic in such situations as being hugged tightly. I explained to Jane that we can most certainly help her with this issue of lift phobia / claustrophobia, and that we would be using a combination of Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques known as “The Fast Phobia Cure.”

I drew a diagram of the brain, and talked to Jane about the following;

1. The conscious mind and how we can help ourselves to think positively, the Tibetan monk studies regarding the left and right Prefrontal cortex.
2. The intellectual mind and how it is positive and solution seeking, the primitive/emotional mind and how it’s negative, obsessive, vigilant, how it can hijack the intellectual mind during times of anxiety.
3. The negative matrix and how the primitive mind is there to look after us and to keep us safe with the freeze, fight and flight protective modes, and how this behaviour shows itself with panic attacks and phobias.
4. How the primitive mind works with negative introspection and negative forecasting, each negative thought is an anxiety producing thought and the fact that as anxiety increases intellectual control decreases.
5. The precedent library and pattern matching and how phobias start.
6. The filling of the anxiety bucket and emptying it during the night during our REM sleep, and the relationship with anger, anxiety and depression and how they come about.
7. Primitive man and neurotransmitters, the fact that we need the dopamine reward to make life worthwhile, the connection between neurotransmitters depression anxiety and anger and the fact that when we get the neurotransmitter release we work from our intellectual positive mind.

I advised Jane that during the fast cure phobia appointments her anxiety levels will reduce. I gave Jane a CD and asked her to listen to it every night between now and her next appointment; this will help reduce her anxiety by getting the process started, familiarising her with my voice and ‘topping-up’ the effects on a daily basis. Jane left in a happy.

Session 1 – 1 week later

Jane looked a lot more relaxed when she arrived today, she was happy and smiling. When asked what was better with a week Jane told me  the following;

I’ve been a lot more positive this week, when I’ve become aware that I am being negative I actively try to change to positive thoughts, I’ve had a very good week, when I get panicky at the thought of going in lifts, I try to find something positive to think about and I feel a lot better.

We discussed the way the brain works again and paid particular attention to the following;

1. When anxiety goes up intellectual control goes down
2. When we work from my intellectual mind we get a constant supply of neurotransmitters that help keep us positive and working from the intellectual mind
3. Sleep patterns and emptying the anxiety bucket to enable us to wake feeling good
4. The fact that the CD helps us to go into the right sleep slot to achieve good REM
5. When we consciously think positive thoughts it keeps us working in the intellectual mind

I discussed with Jane what trance would be like, that it was just like really focusing on the television or a good book and everything else fading into the background, like being in a daydream and that we all enter trance about every 6-7 minutes in our daily live in a daydream or focused state. We talked about what will happen next week during the rewind and i asked Jane to come up with some points for next week on what she would like included for the reframe story that we will replace the stressfull memory of claustrophobia with.

SCRIPTS USED: Relaxation induction / Magic rainbow / Reframing part one / Metaphor: The village / Reframing part two

Session 2 – 1 week later

Jane has listened to her CD every night and she feels that she is looking at things in differently, she’s more positive and doesn’t worry about what may happen, she certainly feels more relaxed and calm.

We recapped the way the mind works in relation to;

1. How we can utilise the conscious mind to our advantage, the Tibetan monks metaphor
2. Anxiety increases intellectual control decreases, the primitive mind hijacking the intellectual
3. Neurotransmitters
4. Memory templates

SCRIPTS USED: Rag Doll induction / Tropical Island / The rewind technique

I asked Jane for the list of things she wanted to include in next weeks reframe to create a scenario of her going in lifts, including all things she had been anxious about.

Session 3: 1 week later

Jane looked very calm, relaxed and content today. When I asked her what is being good this week her answers were;

‘I’ve been very productive. I’ve done some gardening which was nice and I felt a real sense of achievement this week. I have however got to have an MRI scan and am worried about feeling claustrophobic in the scanner so can you put something about this in the new story please?’

We briefly recapped away the mind works in relation to positivity, the intellectual mind and being in control, the primitive mind hijacking the intellectual with negativity. I praised Jane for having come so far she seems to be utilising the explanations in her day-to-day life be taking control.

SCRIPTS USED: Relaxation induction / The Magic rainbow-part of reframe / Going in an MRI scanner  including getting to it via a lift and including Jane’s previous anxieties of the situation.

Jane was full of smiles after this session, she commented that everything during the trance was fine, she didn’t feel anxious at all and she was now ready for her appointment. We discussed maybe taking the CD to play whilst in the scanner for reassurance; Jane didn’t think she needed it. I wished Jane well and we said goodbye.

Outcome – I have heard from Jane since her appointment, although slightly apprehensive, Jane got through the MRI scan well, she is now able to get into lifts and the more she does this the less she even thinks about it. Not only is she cured of her phobia but has learnt to dramatically reduce her stress levels.

(The name of this person has been changed to protect her confidentiality)