Do you often feel afraid to do something? Have you stopped doing something because you were afraid? Do phobias prevent you from fully enjoying your life?

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Phobias and fears can limit our lives and prevent us from reaching our full potential. Each person has unique experiences, so it is necessary to apply a personalized approach in the treatment of phobias and fears. Using evidence-based techniques, such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, the Exposure Therapy, the Systematic Desensitization and training in Relaxation Techniques, we will work with you to explore the roots of your fears and develop effective strategies to face them. Let's challenge your negative thoughts, replace them with more realistic beliefs, and build a mindset of strength and resilience. The Positive Psychology will help us detect your strengths that you have and which you probably don't realize.

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There are numerous types of phobias characterized by an irrational and overwhelming fear of specific objects, situations, or activities. Here are some examples of common types of phobias:

1. Arachnophobia: fear of spiders.

2. Acrophobia: fear of heights.

3. Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces.

4. Agoraphobia: Fear of places or situations from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing.

5. Hematophobia: fear of blood.

6. Aviophobia: fear of flying in airplanes.

7. Entomophobia: fear of insects.

8. Cynophobia: fear of dogs.

9. Nyctophobia: fear of the dark.

10. Trypophobia: Fear or aversion to patterns of small holes or gaps.

 

These are just examples of common phobias, but there are many other specific phobias that can affect people in different ways. Each person can experience phobias in a unique way and with different levels of severity. Some of them can cause unpleasant feelings only occasionally, but others, such as social phobia, can seriously affect our daily lives. Any of the phobias or fears prevents us from enjoying life and it is important to remove them as soon as possible.

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​Don’t let your fears stop you. The most effective way to treat a fear or phobia is to stop running. You turn around and look into the eyes of the fear that haunts you. It will get smaller little by little. It can be done abruptly or more gradually, no matter. For example, immersion is generating the scary situation and stay in it until the anxiety goes down. At first you will feel some anxiety but you will see that over time the anxiety will go down. Cognitive resources are very limited and anxiety cannot always remain. For example, you go up to a tall tower and look down without escaping. Another way would be to create a hierarchy of scary situations and gradually face each one of them starting with the least strong and ending with the one you’re avoiding. You can refer to the Behavioral Experiments technique on the Anxiety page. Remember that fear alone does not go away.

By avoiding fear every time, you reinforce these behaviors because you don’t allow yourself to check if the consequences of what you fear come or not. We often fear something that isn’t even dangerous. Our thoughts are mental events in our brain. They do not reflect reality. They may or may not match it, but in any case they are still events of our brain.

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Remember that fear grows every time you run away from it!