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Claire King is a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist and emotional eating and menopause-informed coach based in Norfolk, UK. She specialises in supporting women with anxiety, emotional eating, confidence issues, hormone-related emotional changes, and phobias using evidence-based Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (CBH).
What is a phobia and how can it be treated?
🌿 Understanding Phobias
What they are, why they happen, and how we can work with them
A phobia is an intense fear of a specific object, situation, or experience that feels overwhelming even when the actual level of danger is low or not present at all.
Phobias can involve anything from flying, driving, heights, and animals, to more personal fears like being sick, public speaking, or enclosed spaces. What matters most is how your mind and body respond, not how “serious” the fear seems to anyone else.
Phobias are real and they can have a big impact on daily life affecting your confidence, travel arrangements, relationships, work and even the choices you make about where to go and what to avoid.
So, how does a phobia start?
Phobias often develop in one of three ways:
After a distressing or frightening experience
By witnessing someone else’s fear (especially in childhood)
Through a gradual build-up of anxiety or association over time
Even if you don’t remember a specific “cause,” your mind has learned to link a particular thing or situation with danger and your body reacts as if that danger is real, every time.
Why do phobias stick around?
One word: avoidance.
Avoiding what makes us anxious can feel like the safest option in the moment but over time, it actually strengthens the fear. Every time we avoid the trigger, the brain learns:
"That was close, good thing we got out of there!"
This creates a cycle:
Trigger → Fear → Avoidance → Temporary relief → Stronger fear next time
That’s why even thinking about the feared situation can cause anxiety.
The good news? This can be changed gently, safely and at YOUR pace.
How I can help
As a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist, I help clients:
Understand how the phobia developed
Reduce the physical and emotional intensity of the fear
Learn tools to feel calmer and more in control
Gently reframe and rewire the fear response using evidence-based techniques and guided hypnosis
You’re not weak, your mind is just trying to protect you, but it’s using outdated information. Together, we can update the system.
You're not alone. And you're not stuck. You CAN change.
Phobias are more common than you think. They’re also highly treatable. With the right approach, you can build confidence, reduce anxiety, and stop fear from running the show.
If you’re ready to explore support in a safe, structured and supportive way, I’m here to help.
My phobia was very severe, I was unsure if I could change and I have been amazed at the results. Claire is very positive and encourages belief that you can overcome your issue.
I found it very helpful that Claire often reminded me when we were talking "that is what you used to do, it's not what you do now" and this has stuck with me.
Claire is very good at putting you at ease, instilling a sense of calmness during sessions. She was very good at listening and adapting to suit my personal needs.
I think Claire did an amazing job, I would definitely recommend her.
I felt very comfortable in the calm environment Claire provided for our sessions. I was encouraged to address my worries in a calm and non threatening manner, enabling me to consider my concerns using a different perspective.
I learnt valuable tools that I could immediately put into practice - prior to this I found being a passenger extremely challenging and distressing. I used the recordings Claire provided to reinforce and reassure myself and as a result I was actually able to enjoy my trip and focus more on the event and my surroundings than the actual journey (no more catastrophising what may or may not happen). This is something I had been unable to do since 1995!!!
I give my sincere thanks to her.
I had a severe fear of spiders, within a few sessions I was amazed to find myself out in the garden actively looking for them, excited to try out my newfound coping skills.
I learnt so much about how we perceive a threat and the way our bodies process fear, I regularly use the relaxation techniques Claire taught in my every day life to help me manage stressful situations.
As a result of overcoming my lifelong phobia of spiders, I used the same techniques and processes Claire taught me and practiced them to overcome my fear of heights.
My life has truly been transformed and I am able to live it free from fear.