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This is called arachnophobia and it’s the most common animal-related phobia in Britain, even though there are no dangerous spiders in this country. No one really knows why fear of spiders is so common. It could be a built-in memory inherited from our distant ancestors. Hundreds of thousands of years ago our ancestors maybe lived in areas where poisonous spiders did exist.
People who have fear of spiders are especially bothered in the autumn. At this time spiders tend to come into the house due to the weather getting colder. Their main problem is embarrassment at having to get someone else to remove the spider. Of course they know that the spider is entirely harmless but this makes them feel worse, not better. This is because they feel stupid or ridiculous. In extreme cases I have known people to remain outside their home, or locked in a bedroom, for hours, until their partner or housemate comes home and can deal with the spider.
While terrified due to being in the presence of a spider, people with arachnophobia can sometimes get very strange ideas which they would never have at other times. For instance they may become convinced that the spider knows how scared they are and is taunting them maliciously by moving towards them!
When my clients have begun to overcome this fear, they can do all the simple ordinary things like putting rubbish out or fetching something from the shed or garage. They can calmly remove spiders from their home or just ignore them.
Cost of therapy for fear of spiders
Therapy sessions are £60 per session, which is about the average going rate in this area. How many sessions are needed varies from person to person, as no two people are the same. However in my experience it’s normally between three and eight sessions. We will be aiming for a permanent change in this time. This is not like seeing a hairdresser where you keep on going back on a regular basis. Once you get over a phobia there is normally no reason why you would get it back.
NOTE: It’s best to have this therapy in the autumn when there are more spiders around. So if it’s not that time of year, you can join my mailing list and I’ll send you a reminder when it’s nearer that time.
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WANT HELP NOW?
To get started on overcoming the fear of spiders, call me on 01392574669 or use the contact form below. Remember to tick the “consent” box or the form won’t send. I see clients in Plymouth and in Exeter.
You can read HERE about how phobias are generally created.
Where does fear of spiders come from?
It’s often not clear why the full-on spider phobia occurs in certain people. Perhaps some of us inherit a stronger version of the memory from ancient times. Or perhaps arachnophobia, like other phobias, results from a traumatic event in childhood. Now of course the spider itself cannot really traumatise a child. It cannot sting you like a bee or wasp, or even make an annoying sound like a fly. But possibly a small baby could be traumatised by encountering a spider at the same time as he senses anxiety from adults due to some other cause. But these are just theories. We have no real way of knowing what a baby might have experienced at a very early age before he has the words to tell us. Fortunately a phobia can be treated even when we don’t know what originally caused it.
Interestingly, I find that some people with arachnophobia are less scared of tarantulas (the extremely large furry spiders) than of the normal spiders you might find in your home. Perhaps because the tarantula is so big that it doesn’t feel like a spider. Or it may be because the ordinary house spiders move much faster.
How fear of spiders can be overcome
You can read HERE about the main elements of hypnotic treatment for phobia. Many people avoid therapy for arachnophobia because they imagine the therapist will suddenly open a huge box full of spiders. This technique is called “flooding” but it would never be used by any competent therapist as it would likely make the client worse. In effective phobia treatment the therapist should never spring any surprise on the client which they’re not yet ready to deal with.
