My fear of dogs was 100 times worse than anything else.

The challenge

This case study has been written up together with my client and with their approval.  To protect their confidentiality, I will refer to my client as B.

B was scared of dogs. In fact, she was terrified.  Her fear was completely impacting her whole life.

The work we did after she first came to see me, helped for a long period of time and then wore off.  The second time she came to see me, it helped massively, and she has been fine ever since.  In between this, she had also tried hypnotherapy but that hadn't helped at all.

The effect

The fear effected B a lot. It was there every day, just walking around either seeing a dog or thinking that she may see a dog.  B couldn't go to the park, the beach, or anywhere and she was just scared there might be a dog somewhere.  Some friends had dogs and she couldn't go to their houses.  She wouldn't want to leave the house on her own.  B would get very anxious when she had to start catching the bus to school. She had this fear as long as she could remember.  It made everyday life really hard.  A few times it even became dangerous, as when she saw a dog, she would almost run into the road or a car because she couldn't stop herself.

Solution

B says, it worked!  She felt the work we did focused a lot on feeling calmer around dogs.  We did a few different NLP exercises and looked at all her options which really helped.  We focused on the past, the present and the future.  It helped to prepare her for future situations.  B felt that specifically a lot of talking about what was needed in different situations helped her.

I first saw B in a safe place, at my local surgery, then at her grandmother's home, then met her outside with my dogs, and worked up to her coming to my private practice at home and which my dogs are also part of.

B says she felt I was very understanding and very good at adapting myself to her, to help her understand.

Result

B is now a lot more confident.  Dogs were always one fear that was 100 times worse than anything else. B recognises now that if she could get over that, she can get over anything because nothing felt close to that fear.

It changed things massively for her. Now when she sees a dog, she doesn't feel anxious or scared, it doesn't faze her at all. Now she even feels happy and excited seeing a dog!!! B can now do a lot of things she couldn't do before and she feels more comfortable just walking outside and going out with friends.

B says it completely changed her life.  She can do so much more than she couldn't do before and reflects, 'If I can do this, I can pretty much do anything!'.