The object of this paper is to provide a discussion on a technique which I refer to as Phobia Mitigation Therapy. The paper describes a model of the initial anxiety state and its progression into the phobic state. It then describes the way in which recall takes place via the experiencer’s prime representational system and how a particular phobia may be reduced or eliminated by a causative behavioural change in the memory routing via a representational system that, at the time of the initial trauma, did not identify and record the trauma to the same degree as the prime representational system.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Anxiety and Phobic States
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Anxiety has often been described as “fear spread thin” and a person experiencing an anxiety state cannot normally pinpoint the fundamental causes of his or her anxiety. We can illustrate this state by the diagram shown at Figure 1.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
What we can see here is that there are unconnected fears (solid colours) experienced and recorded via different aspects of the three fundamental representational systems.
These coloured overlapped areas represent events
intaken and stored as minor fears and may be described as :
(a) (S I V) event(s) recorded
in Sound and Sight system
(b) (S I T) event(s) recorded
in Sight and Touch system
(c) (V I T) event(s) recorded
in Sight and Touch system
Fig 1
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
It can be seen that these are three separate entities which are similar in their similar in context yet do not come together to focus upon an event or events that to the client constitute a particular fear. Figure 1. may be taken as an intuitive description of the anxiety state and this pictorial analogy may be continued to describe the phobic state. This is shown in Figure 2.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
In this diagram it can be seen that the anxiety states
(S I V), (S I T), and (V I T) have coalesced
and focused themselves to create the phobic states
{VI (S I T)} {SI (V I T)} {TI (S I V)}.
The above notation is used to indicate that the
traumatic event itself can be recorded in one of three
possible representational systems. The representational system by which the trauma can be completely recalled is considered to be the
prime representational system.
Fig 2
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Expanding the use of diagrams a little further we can perhaps make the point a little clearer:
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Fig 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
The next set of diagrams shows the access route, which is always through the medium of the prime representational system. For example, if a person experienced a traumatic event he or she would record it in his or her prime representational system. In this case recall of the trauma would be via the medium of that prime representational system.
Thus if the person’s prime representational system was the visual system then it would be recalled in that system, likewise if the trauma was recorded in the touch (or kinaesthetic) system then recall would be via that system.
This may be indicated by the diagrams Fig 6,7 and 8 below. The relative size of the Venn circles indicating the representational system. Thus the larger circle is represents the representational system in which the trauma was first recorded.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Identification of State and Routing
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
In this paper we are dealing with fears (phobias) to which the client has insight, that is, he or she is aware of the fear and, most important of all, remembers and is aware of the root cause of his or her fear.
For example, an adult may remember having been very frightened as a small child by a pet bird. Possibly the bird flew into the child’s face and the resultant fear, although known to the adult and often, can cause such an anxiety state as to prevent that adult from entering a room in which there is a bird flying free.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
The key to treatment is to identify the representational state in which the original trauma was recorded. Once this has been done the access route to the trauma can be switched to a different representational system in which neither the traumatic memory is so clear nor the importance assigned to the event so pressing. The treatment depends not upon why we react in a certain way but that we do react in a relatively predictable way.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Eye movement during recall can provide the therapist with an insight into the representational system used in storing and recalling the trauma. As we have discussed above we all access our unconscious minds in a particular way using established memory patterns. The reading of these patterns by the therapist from the client’s external behaviour indicate whether visual recall (sight), auditory recall (sound), or kinaesthetic recall (touch) is the prime representational system. The movement of the client’s eyes during recall indicate to the therapist the particular representational system in which the client recalls the trauma.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Let us examine the position of the eyes during recall as established from neuro-linguistic programming eye scan patterns. The table (Table 1) shows the interpretation that the therapist may make as the client’s eye movements are observed during the recalling of the traumatic event. The table shows the interpretations of the eye movements of a right handed person facing the therapist. For left handed person the eye positions for a given interpretation should be read as the opposite as in a mirror image reflection.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
VISUALLY
CONSTRUCTED
IMAGES
VISUALLY
REMEMBERED
IMAGES
CONSTRUCTED
SOUNDS VISUALISATION REMEMBERED
SOUNDS
KINESTHETIC
(Feelings & bodily
sensation) INTERNAL
DIALOGUE
TABLE 1
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Amplifying the above table in a graphical manner we have the relative eye positions as shown in Figure 9 :
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Fig. 9.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
It is important to note that not every single person is going to behave in the same way and the above descriptions ought to be taken merely as indicative. The real point of note is that eye access cues tell us something about the way an individual accesses information. The object of using this in a treatment is to cause a change in the access cues thus leading to a change in the reaction to the phobia.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Treatment
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
When a client recalls a traumatic event the first thing that happens is that rapid eye movement occurs. This is may be taken by the therapist as a signal that there is a trauma connected with the particular memory. The eye then moves to a position that indicates the access route, the position of the eye being referred to as the accessing cue position. For example a client’s eyes might exhibit some preliminary movement and then move to the client’s top left (the therapist’s top right as the therapist faces the client). This is a general indication that the client is recalling the event via the medium of visually remembered images. He or she is accessing via the sight representational system.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
It is important to remember, as stated above, that PMt deals with cases were the client is aware of the original traumatic event and possesses insight into the event. He or she is fully conscious of the cause of his or her fear. Over the intervening period between the event and the present day (usually years) the client has established a memory pattern. This memory pattern has been reinforced over the years by use and has become an established response in the nature of a habit to events that appear similar to the circumstances of the original trauma.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
To mitigate, or perhaps even remove, the effect of the original trauma the therapist needs to accomplish two things namely
(a) breaking of the established memory pattern
and
(b) convincing the subconscious mind that the feelings connected with
original event are no longer as traumatic as they once seemed.
This is done by
(i) understanding the access route by which the trauma is accessed
and
(ii) changing the access route to that of a different representational system.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
By causing an observable change (change of accessing cue position) in the way the client recalls the trauma will cause that trauma to be remembered through the medium of a representational system which has only recorded the original traumatic event in a very minor way. Thus the fear generated by the recalled event is minimised.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
In orthodox psychotherapy it is standard practice to minimise the emotions attached to a trauma to cause the client to repetitively relive the trauma (flooding) until the emotional intensity is reduced to an acceptable and manageable level. In PMt abreactions can be caused more quickly than orthodox methods, although in many cases this is not necessary. In most cases an acceptable conclusion to the therapy can be obtained by breaking the habitual eye movement associated with the trauma and establishing difficulty in reproducing the original feelings.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
The therapy can be somewhat boring for the client as he or she will be obliged to describe in detail the original traumatic event to the therapist at least three times. The first time the tale is recounted the therapist studies the client’s eye movements. Following this, the therapist then instructs the client to retell the tale while focusing their eyes on the therapist’s finger and moving the eyes to follow the therapist’s finger. The third time the client will retell the tale while the therapist watches to note the effect of the re-routing. In general the treatment will require two or three sessions. As in all therapy it is important for the therapist to be available to the client for several days in case of problems – often caused by a sense of loss.
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
References
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
“Eye and Head Turning Indicates Cerebral Lateralization; Kinsbourne”,
M., Science. 179, pp.539541, 1972
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
“Eye Movements and NLP” and “Roots of NLP” by Robert Dilts
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Antony J. Edwards - Colchester, Essex, England - 9th May 2003
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
Phobia Mitigation Therapy
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