Social phobia is one of the most common anxiety disorders in which a person is afraid of being in a social environment. A person with social phobia experiences incapacitating fear that impacts all aspects of their life. 

People with social phobia are very self-conscious and concerned about what others may think or say about them. They are typically afraid of speaking up, out of fear that they will be judged or criticized. People with social anxiety tend to look down on themselves or have low self-esteem. They are often worried about being seen by other people and find socializing to be very terrifying. 

A person with social anxiety may seem "shy," but in the case of a phobia, this is taken to extremes. For instance, if you struggle with social phobia, you may hesitate to make an important phone call because you are anxious about talking on the phone. You make the call, but you are so nervous that you "lock up" or forget what you were going to talk about. Although it can happen to everyone sometimes, for someone with social phobia it may happen every time, to the point where they find it difficult to make any calls.

Perhaps it is the night before a big meeting at work and you find yourself in a panic. You dread the idea of being in front of your boss and all your colleagues watching as you discuss a new idea or project. You can't help but feel very self-conscious and embarrassed. Even after the meeting ends, you continue overanalyzing everything you said and did. You worry that you embarrassed yourself in front of your colleagues by stuttering or saying something wrong. 

Perhaps you want to go to parties and meet new people, but you avoid socializing because you are anxious about introducing yourself to someone new. You find the crowds intimidating and the idea of meeting new people scares you. You worry about what you will say, or that you will get rejected. You might stay at home a lot because you are too worried to go out. These are only some of the ways social phobias can impact our daily lives. 

Social phobias are overblown fears that can prevent you from reaching your career goals or fully enjoying life. But even those who know their fears are irrational may not be able to eliminate their phobia. People with social anxiety disorder often want to be more outgoing and feel confident around others, but are too afraid to try. In spite of their conscious desires and hard work, they cannot control their fears because every phobia is seated in the unconscious mind. Ericksonian hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques are the most effective phobia treatments because they work at this unconscious level. 

It is often hard for those afflicted with social anxiety to get cured because they are too scared to visit a therapist or talk about their fear. This is why hypnosis therapy programs work well for them. The programs promote a confidence boosting, calm frame of mind in a private setting, without being overwhelming or intimidating. 

The first part of a phobia program is relaxation therapy. Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for eliminating your anxiety and tension. Once you are de-stressed, hypnotherapy techniques will shape positive ideas in your unconscious mind and eliminate your fears. NLP techniques will extinguish your fears by targeting the thought process that causes a phobia. 

In conventional hypnotherapy, distinctively worded post-hypnotic suggestions are utilized to treat every different phobia. Unfortunately, people have a tendency to ignore being merely told what to think or do, so conventional hypnotherapy is not always effective. A phobia calls for a combination of NLP and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. 

Ericksonian hypnosis therapy techniques work better than conventional hypnotherapy because they use suggestions that aren't obvious to the conscious mind, instead of direct suggestions. These suggestions are placed in discussion, in various stories and metaphors, to persuade the unconscious mind to adopt a new line of reasoning. For this reason, Ericksonian hypnosis therapy is much more successful than traditional hypnosis therapy and much more difficult for the unconscious mind to resist.

A single program that includes Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP techniques can treat social phobia and any other phobia, in any individual. This is because multiple techniques are combined to increase their effectiveness. People are frequently in awe of the seemingly miraculous results they can get using hypnotherapy. Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP are great tools to help build your confidence and beat social phobia so you may live your life to the fullest.

Alan B. Densky, CH is a certified hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. His e-commerce site offers self hypnosis MPs for self confidence. His Self Confidence CDs were recently reviewed by Personal-Development info in England. Visit him for Free self hypnosis & NLP newsletters and MP3s.

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