Who can help ?
Well - you can help yourself to start with - and if you feel the need to get some
professional help - and this is strongly advised if you have a more general range
of phobias then there are a wide variety of alternatives - and there's part
of the problem - which one to chose.
There is psychology - psychiatry - psychotherapy - and a whole bunch of other
therapies, so here are just a few guidelines - whatever therapy you are thinking
of choosing. Firstly you need to ask if the therapist treats balloon popping phobia
and listen closely to the reply. If the reply includes the words 'I think we can...'
then it might be time to consider another therapist or therapy. Also it's a good
thing to ask how long the therapy will last or how many sessions it is likely to
take before some kind of result is noticed. I recently read on a website dealing
with another type of phobia 'I have been seeing my therapist for five years now...'
- this is not the situation to be in - either the patient or the therapist should
have realized that something isn't working well, and another approach could prove
to be beneficial.
The bottom line is - your therapy is your responsibility - so it's up to you to
be sure that you are making progress whichever route you take - the only guideline
that I will give here is this - therapists who have had 'mainstream' training in
either psychology or psychiatry should have had some formal training with regard
to the treatment of phobias. Therapists who have had training within the realm of
'alternative medicine' may or may not have had any specific training concerning
phobias - so it's important to ask. Most psychotherapists will only take on clients
who have problems they have an interest in, or specific expertise to deal with, but
your questions about their success rate and treatment structure should always be
asked - and you should be reasonably satisfied with the answers before you proceed
with any particular course of treatment.
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