How do phobias develop?
In most cases, a phobia develops in childhood, although it may not be apparent until many years later. When you are a child, you are very busy learning to stay safe. You are carefully watching everything other people are doing (especially parents and people in positions of authority) and copying them. If one of these role models shows a fear of something then you are quite likely to copy this as well - very useful since it passes on beneficial fears through the generations. Unfortunately, it can also pass on phobias in the same way since you are not to know that there is nothing to fear in a common house spider, or from standing on a chair.

Another cause of phobias is an incident occurring where you build an association between the event and something bad. As an example, imagine you are watching a TV show with a particular actor prominent on the screen and a car crashes into your house, destroying the wall where you were sitting and almost killing you. The image in your mind when the crash happened would have been the actor and it is quite possible that in later years you would feel fear every time he or she is on the TV. You would probably be completely unaware of the association, just have a fear of the actor for no real reason.

So How Can Hypnotherapy Help Get Rid Of A Phobia?
Because phobias are formed in the subconscious, it is very hard for you to correct the faulty programming that is causing them. But hypnotherapy allows you to relax deeply, so opening the subconscious mind to more readily accept changes. When you are very relaxed, a skilled and trained hypnotherapist can offer suggestions to you that allow you to change the way your subconscious mind is programmed. Effectively, the therapist is guiding you as you make the changes.  These changes are still fed via the conscious mind, and that is why you cannot be made to do anything you don't want to. Once the change has been made, it will stay unless a future event causes it to change again.