Recover from Emetophobia with Sense-Ability
Jane Pendry
Effective, affordable, online Solution Focused therapy for Fear of Vomiting
TRIGGER WARNING
If words associated with emetophobia are triggering, get in touch and arrange an initial exploratory chat (no charge) or a formal initial consultation, so I can tailor the explanations and avoid triggers. I use an asterix * to shorten typically triggering words. Please see the glossary at the bottom of the page.
This article was published in the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapists’ Blog, 2019; and updated in 2021 and 2022.
There is no miracle cure for emetophobia. It takes time, commitment and patience.
However the Sense-Ability Emetophobia Recovery Programme, delivered online and one-to-one, is safe, painless, effective, affordable and event largely pleasurable; and it’s indisputably the gentlest approach to emetophobia resolution.
I am Jane Pendry at Sense-Ability Hypnotherapy & Coaching. I am delighted to have helped many dozens of people overcome emetophobia; an intense fear of phobia of being s* or v* seeing someone else be s* with both physiological and psychological elements. See glossary for short codes.
“I can’t possibly express how grateful I am to have found Jane. She’s an absolute treasure. My 12 year old son had been suffering from emetophobia and general anxiety for years. We had been to many different psychiatrists and therapists but none seemed to be very effective. My son’s time with her has been extremely beneficial and he is doing better than ever. He is honestly a different kid from before he started and his anxiety is much more manageable. As a result our family as a whole is functioning better and that is due to Jane’s help. ”
The Sense-Ability Emetophobia Recovery Programme.
Most clients come to me because CBT-based approaches or Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy hasn’t worked for them, or is simply too tough. By definition, I don’t see people for whom these therapies have been successful.
The Sense-Ability Emetophobia Recovery Programme works with your unconscious mind and is the most gentle but effective approach available today.
The programme is rooted in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.
Rewind Trauma Therapy (where appropriate) is sometimes used to resolve associated experiences from the past. The programme also uses breathing techniques, mindfulness, NLP anchoring, tapping and time line scripts to help manage symptoms during the process as required.
The Sense-Ability Emetophobia Recovery Programme is supported by strategies to help manage symptoms such as breathing, mindfulness and NLP techniques and EFT Tapping where clients become stuck.
How long does it take get over emetophobia?
The Sense-Ability process is tailored and aims to resolve emetophobia completely.
Progress is often relatively fast. Significant improvements in quality of life - occasionally even complete resolution - can be seen within 5 to 6 weeks.
Typically, however, clients take between 8 to 12 sessions to satisfactorily resolve their issue and achieve their hoped for outcome.
Factors such as generalized anxiety, current external stress or other complicating factors can impact on the number of sessions needed. For more complex cases, where the most gentle approach is appropriate, up to 20 sessions spread over a few months may be required.
What is Emetophobia?
What causes emetophobia? Photo (c) Unsplash
Emetophobia is an intense and debilitating fear of v*, or watching others v*. Even anticipating the possibility of v* can cause significant anxiety or panic. Those affected can feel trapped and terrified because they can’t escape situations that trigger panic and fear.
A complex phobia
Emetophobia is a very complex phobia. Perhaps the most complex phobia.
Complex phobias always take longer to resolve than classical simple phobias. Most phobias, such as snakes, spiders, birds, dogs, insects etc are resolved within one or two sessions. The fear is outside ourselves and not embedded and reinforced on a daily basis.
Emetophbia is, in essence, a phobia of your own autonomic nervous system making it one of the most complex phobias to address. The fear is often embedded and reinforced daily by a variety of associated triggers e.g. eating out, visiting other people’s houses, hearing about people being ill, TV programmes, social media posts, travelling, germs etc.
Most complex phobias tend to be situational like agoraphobia, claustrophobia, medical phobias and social phobias.
Emetophobia is the most complex because the fear is linked to a bodily function we cannot control.
So be wary of anyone who says they can ‘cure’ emetophobia in one session!
What causes Emetophobia?
Sometimes emetophobia is rooted in overwhelming childhood or adolescent experiences, when our minds are not yet fully formed, although this isn’t always the case. Sometimes there are biological, psychological and even inter-generational predisposing factors - our parents had a fear of v*ing so we are conditioned to see it as dangerous
When we are physically s*, we activate our sympathetic nervous system which raises our heart rate and increases our heart rate because our fight, flight, freeze response had been activated. If our experience of v* was overwhelming, or linked to intense emotions, we can develop a persistent and debilitating phobia.
Despite the complexity, given commitment and persistence, the Sense-Ability Emetophobia programme can resolve even the most chronic, deeply embedded emetophobia.
How Common is Emetophobia?
Emetophobia expert and Psychiatrist, Professor David Veale, explains, “It’s hard to say [how common emetophobia is] as there have been no large-scale surveys conducted. Many people with a phobia of vomiting are often too ashamed to talk about their problem or feel very misunderstood. The best estimate is about 0.1 to 0.2% of the population. This is different to a fear of v*ing which is more common.”
How Can Sense-Ability help?
Jane at Sense-Ability primarily uses Solution Focused Hypnotherapy to help clients steadily and painlessly resolve most, often all, aspects of emetophobia.
Rewind Trauma Therapy
Rewind Trauma or Phobia Therapy helps to resolve past traumas related to the fear. Experience indicates that Rewind usually lessens the impact of past memories and reduces ruminating and obsessing quite quickly. It doesn’t however resolve the faulty programme that now causes panic and terror when faced with the real possibility of vomiting. Rewind is however usually a great starting point.
Rewind Trauma Therapy - an evolution of NLP’s Rewind Phobia Therapy - has been developed by former heart surgeon, Dr David Muss, who has recently completed clinical trials at Cardiff University. Preliminary results indicate the process is over 80% effective for resolving traumas, about as effective as far EMDR, but quicker and less distressing.
Dr Muss refined this process to support his patients and he has been using it successfully for 30 years. I was trained directly by him, and I am a member of Dr Muss’ accrediting body www.IARTT.com.
Supportive Complementary Therapies
I am not a great believer that therapy needs to painful to be effective. There’s no doubt that revisiting previous memories, or reframing and re-imagining possible situations involving v*, or situations which have negative associations to v*, would be deeply uncomfortable.
There is a more gentle, painless way.
A fear ladder is a list of all situations that are generally avoided, or must be avoided, along with worst case scenarios. These are scored from 0 (neutral or indifferent) to 10 (abject terror) and ordered from the worst fear, down to lesser related anxieties that are still a problem. This gives us a framework for exposure work, and a benchmark against which to measure progress.
To keep fear-based emotions under control as clients quite naturally move up the ladder, I use the following:
Solution Focused Hypnothetapy
a dedicated emetophobia script
breathing techniques
NLP techniques
mindfulness exercises
affirmations
Rewind Trauma Therapy
EFT Tapping
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions about these therapies.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy has been proven to be highly effective for emetophobia, reducing related anxiety and easing fear responses to normal healthy levels. What clients appreciate most about this approach, is that they don’t have to re-experience any past associated traumas during therapy.
The basic feature of any phobia is a conflict between the conscious and unconscious minds.
“After 8 sessions spread over four months my emetophobia symptoms just faded away. I had to get used to not feeling the symptoms. I found I was just less and less bothered and more focused on enjoying life week by week. Life is much more stress free.” ”
Working at a deep subconscious level, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy helps clients re-programme thoughts about food, socializing, germs, travelling and other negative or fearful associations with being s*.
The Sense-Ability Emetophobia Recovery Programme is a gentle form of exposure therapy. Much of the exposure takes place while you are in an alpha-brain wave state of deep relaxation, and while your sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight, freeze response) is calmed and soothed, and your parasympathetic nervous system (regulating breathing, heart rate and toning your vagus nerve) is activated.
Changing your response to vomiting
Changing your Response to V*
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy steadily dissociates feelings of fear, anxiety and panic from actions and places associated with v*ing. Then, using the imaginative part of the mind, safer and more secure responses to challenging situations are gently embedded.
Hypnotherapy: Safe and Natural
Hypnosis undertaken with a qualified and accredited hypnotherapist is safe, relaxing and natural.
I am trained and accredited to deliver Solution Focused Hypnotherapy which includes guided visualisations and Ericksonian suggestions - not commands - to gently ease clients in to a trance-like alpha brain-wave state where they remain conscious but feel deeply relaxed and are more able to change deeply embedded programs.
Core scripts have been developed by renowned Clifton Practice Hypnotherapy School, and are tried and tested. I also use scripts adapted and written for you too, or I include your own language or affirmations within scripted suggestions.
Descriptions of desired and helpful behaviours elicited from our Solution Focused discussions are often included in hypnotherapy scripts too.
No Analysis or Reliving Traumatic Experiences
Solution Focused Brief Therapy, SFBT, a proven psychotherapeutic approach, is an integral part of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy. SFBT is a talking therapy that works with your Best Hopes, and focuses on now and the future.
There are no tough CBT exercises pushing you to face fears.
“I cannot thank Jane enough for the work she did with me in what was a relatively short space of time, considering how severe my emetophobia was. I feel so much lighter and worry free on a daily basis now compared to how I used to anxiously get through my day. I would recommend Jane to anyone dealing with phobias. She really is fantastic.”
There’s no need to dive in to the past to uncover or analyse the root cause of a client’s emetophobia. The phobia does not need to be discussed in detail. Past traumatic events don’t need to be relived. Clients remember them all too well. Of course they don’t want to discuss them again.
I gently work with clients where they are right now, helping them take steady, incremental steps forward by asking carefully framed questions that help them imagine new ways to feel, new solutions and alternative possibilities even before we begin hypnosis.
How does Emetophobia affect people?
Emetophobia normally develops in childhood and is quite common. It may develop because of something that was experienced, e.g. witnessing someone else being sick, or picking up parents’ or siblings’ fears. Sometimes events connected to these events exacerbate intense feelings surrounding early experiences of v* - a very unwell sibling, rowing parents, anxiety about school - so ving becomes linked to other intensely fearful moments. Then vomiting, the idea of vomiting, or things associated with v*ing, elicit complex feelings of fear, overwhelm or even terror.
Dealing with the Emetophobia Panic Response
Sufferers of emetophobia often experience the classic phobia symptoms of panic attacks: rapid heart rate, churning stomach and breathlessness. The result is that sufferers avoid situations where they might become across vomiting. The condition can affect self-esteem, relationships, social interaction, holidays and careers.
Ordinary phobias are just as intense but are linked to specific objects, animals or insects that are easier to avoid. It’s just not so easy to completely avoid situations where there might be a possibility of someone else ving, or picking up a sb* that causes v*ing. Every event outside the home can feel threatening and overwhelming, and some events in the home too.
Sufferers become hyper-vigilant, fearful and anxious much of the time. So it really is a debilitating condition.
A Cycle of Panic and Fear
The process of being s* is almost miraculous. It’s incredible that our bodies are able to rid ourselves of toxins by being sick.
However, there’s no doubt that being sick is hard work.
V*ing is reversing the normal process of keeping food down and digesting it.
Blood pressure increases, heart rate rises, breathing becomes more rapid. Stomach muscles become more rigid and the diaphragm lowers to help the process. To most people, however, those sensations, although not pleasant, are neither frightening nor distressing.
To a child, being s* can feel overwhelming, especially if they don’t understand what’s happening. Ving might feel life-threatening. Even hearing someone be s* can sound alarming to a child, especially if it isn’t explained. So, before we develop the ability to reason fully, or comprehend that v*ing is trying to get rid of toxins, and make us well, we can embed an intense fear of ever being sick again.
To complicate matters further, v*ing in itself can physiologically induce feelings of panic. Panic and anxiety can make us nauseous. Now we understand how emetophobia becomes a vicious cycle of fear and avoidance.
So we know being s* is hard work. It’s never going to comfortable or easy. But it shouldn’t overwhelm us. There’s nothing to be frightened of, and it’s usually over pretty quickly.
There is also an incredible positive payoff to the discomfort. I write more about that later.
Associated Fears and Phobias
Other irrational fears and disorders associated with, and feeding into, emetophobia are:
a fear of pregnancy or morning sickness
social anxiety
panic attacks
OCD and obsessional thinking and behaviours
travel anxieties and phobias
generalised anxiety
phagophobia- a fear of gagging, swallowing or choking
a fear of germs
a fear of going to the dentist, the doctor or hospital
Associated phobias or complicating factors, like external stresses that induce nausea, or generalised anxiety, may impact on the number of sessions needed.
Why is Emetophobia Different to Other Phobias?
You can recover from emetophobia
As we have established, emetophobia is a complex phobia. That means it’s deeply embedded and involves classical and operant conditioning. It can take a couple of sessions before we really understand what the associations between the fear and v*ing actually are.
Emetophobia is Complex on Many Levels
Ordinary phobias cause distress, fear and panic, but usually only when people come into contact with the thing or situation that causes their fear (i.e. spiders, dogs, needles). The reason emetophobia can feel so crippling is that the fear and anxiety can be continual, pervasive and frequent. The condition can feel like part of the sufferer’s personality and they often struggle to imagine life without it.
That’s why many people suffer in silence, either believing nothing can be done to resolve it, or fearing treatment will involve exposure to v*ing and traumatize them further.
Recover and the Role of Endorphins
Counter-intuitively, people who are rarely sick are more likely to develop emetophobia.
When toxins have been expelled through v*ing, we experience a short-lived feeling of euphoria due to a release of feel good endorphins and a return to homeostasis when we stop being sick.
Homeostasis is a process by which any organism tends to return back to stable state. V*ing itself, by getting rid of toxins so our bodily functions return to normal, is itself a form of homeostasis.
Returning to normal functioning after vomiting means our heart rate returns to normal, our muscles are relaxed and we feel calm, which brings an enormous sense of relief. The return to homeostasis, together with the release of endorphins, creates an immediate sense of well-being where we feel calm, relaxed and ready to sleep.
This helps us cope with the effort and discomfort previously experienced.
If you are never s*; you get no ‘payoff - you have never received or experienced the nice comfortable feelings after all that discomfort - and you are more likely to develop emetophobia. If you aren’t sick often, you don’t know that you will survive v*ing, find it a little uncomfortable like any illness, then actually feel pretty good afterwards.
What is Classical Conditioning?
Classical conditioning means that the object of fear (commonly a spider, a snake or a dog) has been linked to an unpleasant experience (being bitten or a parent’s strong reaction). We can see how that might apply to v*ing too as being sick is, in itself, not particularly pleasant.
Emetophobia is usually reinforced and embedded by repeated experiences. As the first event created a fear, so the sufferer wants to avoid v*ing in future. Psychologists call these behaviours avoidance responses. Avoiding situations lessens the chance of contact with the feared situation, which in turn reduces the fear response. This avoidance response is reinforced because there’s a ‘reward’ in avoiding the situation. This is called operant conditioning.
A pattern of behaviour or programme is laid down that links avoidance of many situations with safety. But avoidance is hard if not impossible, leading to anxiety and hyper-vigilance.
Sounds familiar?
Every case is different and sometimes we find there are associated issues such as generalized anxiety, and further associations with other stressors and bad memories or irrational fears (I thought I was going to die) that were not addressed in real time.
“Jane tailored her approach to me, tackling early traumas, then gently exposing me to fears during hypnotherapy. At first I stopped ruminating and obsessing. Then I started to deal with previously challenging situations. The biggest challenge was when I faced my worst fears but Jane made sure I was ready. It took 8 weeks i but it wasn’t painful. I still don’t like being sick but I am no longer living in fear.”
Fear of Germs or Stomach Bugs and Emetophobia
Emetophobia can also be associated with medical or germ phobias, OCD and or early traumas related to either being ill, or a family member being ill.
When we are sick from a virus or tummy bug, our bodies try to get rid of toxins. To do so, our autonomic responses over-ride normal functions in a seemingly miraculous way.
Our bodies are designed to help us swallow, digest and excrete food. When our bodies want to expel poison many chemical and physiological processes kick in to help us do so. The biochemistry of vomiting is extraordinary and we really can trust our bodies to do the job pretty efficiently and quickly.
However, the first time it happens it can be very distressing, especially when we are children or adolescents. If we were not comforted, or the experience wasn’t explained to us in a way we could understand, we can fear it happening again. If we are already stressed, fearful, hyper-alert or highly sensitive, the normal physiological responses related to feeling or being sick can feel totally overwhelming and the experience gets embedded in our subconscious. We may even interpret it as life-threatening when in fact the opposite is true.
A further complication of emetophobia is that nausea and v*ing activate the sympathetic nervous system which leads to sweating, palpitation and rapid heart rate; so we feel panic rising and we don’t feel in control. In this instance, the feelings aren’t caused by our negative thinking but by our bodies reacting to being sick.
At the same time, when we are unwell, we fee vulnerable and we don’t want to be sick in front of anyone else do we? In my experience, much of the anxiety around being s* appears to be linked to fears of losing control, exacerbated by shame or embarrassed about doing so in front of others.
Dealing with the Emetophobia Panic Response
The intense fear or phobia of vomiting has many components. Dealing with the panic element is often the key to finally resolving the issue. It’s the last piece of the puzzle in resolving this challenging condition.
After a few weeks of therapy, when every day life has become easier and many triggers have been resolved or significantly lessened, we can work on understanding those potential panic feelings and triggers that happen in the worst case scenarios. You can begin to develop the understanding and perspective to realise that these are to be expected. Now you can learn to develop the resilience to deal with the uncomfortable physical and emotional feelings knowing consciously:
they are life-saving not life-threatening
they are perfectly normal
You can trust your body
you are safe
the physical and emotional feelings will soon pass
I Can you can Fully Recover from Emetophobia?
It may seem unbelievable that you can recover.
That’s where the amazing power of the unconscious mind comes in.
The best way to to embed messages that vomiting, while never pleasant or desirable, is essentially safe, is through reframing the experience to something more ordinary and manageable, and adding structured suggestions during hypnosis. By doing this at the right time during the Sense-Ability process, clients can imagine and rehearse accepting, managing and coping with the panic and physical discomfort which can accompany vomiting.
Embedding more Helpful Patterns of Thinking
When clients are in a deep alpha brainwave state of trance, where they remain calm and relaxed throughout, new suggestions and new better ways to respond to triggers can be accepted and embedded. Then you can deal with more and more real life exposure.
As clients notice how they coped so much better than expected with each exposure, they are motivated to keep going. They also use all the strategies they have learnt to help them surf through difficult emotions such as breathing, mindfulness, anchoring and other NLP techniques, and EFT tapping.
I see this part of the process as like military training. Laying down new programmes in the hippocampus - where we store patterns of automatic behaviour - so that in future thoughts and reactions to triggers are quite different and much more helpful. We are, in effect, trained in combat and have built resilience and stamina and have the skills we need to deal with difficult emotions.
At this stage, clients are ready to imagine and rehearse being calm and in control, strong and resilient. They rehearse trusting their body. They trust that physiological responses to triggers will soon settle, and the body and return to normal much more quickly.
As Perceptions Change
As perceptions about vomiting change - it’s safe, it’s short-lived, there’s nothing to fear - clients develop a new found sense of acceptance and understanding that seems to bring back some sense of control around all aspect if vomiting. A client might say something like “Now I feel I could deal with a stomach bug. It might be challenging and uncomfortable, but it’s not life threatening and the discomfort doesn’t last very long at all. Afterwards there will be great relief. Now I know I will be able to deal with it. Now I feel prepared because I know what will happen, I have rehearsed it in my mind, I no longer feel frightened.”
And of course, when a client no longer fears being s*, then they no longer fear anything related to it.
How Long Does it Take to Resolve?
Invariably emetophobia takes longer to resolve than a typical phobia (which are typically resolved in one or two sessions).
Usually we are looking at five to six weeks to see permanent changes that improve your quality of life. Sometimes the condition is resolved entirely in that time. More typically, resolution takes 10 to 12 weeks. Sometimes it takes longer but sessions are further apart - fortnighty or monthly, or even every other month. Of course the process is a drug-free organic process and results cannot be guaranteed but most people do make progress and completely resolve their fear of vomiting.
Complicating factors are generalized anxiety, trauma or new external stressors (change of job, relationship break up etc) and these can affect the length of time it takes to resolve the problem.
Factors that hamper progress are a lack of commitment to the process (not giving it enough time) and the degree to which a person is able to reach the deep alpha-brain wave state of relaxation during hypnosis needed to effect change. Sometimes it takes two or three weeks just to teach your body and mind to relax.
No Need to Re-experience the Fear and Trauma
What clients appreciate most about the Sense-Ability approach to resolving emetophobia, is that they don’t have to re-experience fear and trauma during therapy. Exposure is gentle, and most sessions are relaxing and enjoyable.
What Triggers Emetophobia?
As a complex phobia, emetophobia has a number of possible triggers. Clients report being triggered by TV programmes and Instagram posts, language and images, hearing there’s a sb* going around or entering a room where someone was previously s* (even months later).
Further Triggers
Below is a list of further triggers that can cause a panic and phobic reaction. I am sure there are many more.
• Feeling nauseous or unwell
• Vomiting or seeing people vomit
• Experience of chemotherapy
• Seeing animals v* or be s
• Feeling out of control
• Hearing about ving
• Watching TV or a film with ving
• A visit to the doctor or dentist
• Checking in or visiting hospital
• Fear of germs or infection
• Eating food that might make you s
Some people fear all and any ving, whether caused by alcohol consumption, morning s*ness, medication or a virus. Others’ emetophobia is linked only to infections and viruses only.
What is the Impact of Emetophobia?
“Thank you for helping me recover from emetophobia. I am now rarely triggered, and if I am, I recover within an hour or so. I don’t ruminate, obsess and I sleep well at night. I’ve got my life back.”
Emetophobia can make people nervous about having medical treatment or going to hospital because sufferers don’t like to be around anyone who is s* or who might be s. Sometimes people refuse to go to pubs, clubs and restaurants and are even nervous of eating all or some foods in case they make them s*.
When the phobia is this intense, it can have a serious impact on everyday life. Ordinary activities such as drinking, eating out, travelling, visiting relatives, having children or visiting the doctor or dentist are all potential issues.
Sometimes the disorder results in persistent and intense anxiety and panic disorders. Quite often emetophobia leads to depression and OCD, and in severe cases to agoraphobia, social phobias and more pervasive OCD.
Where Emetophobia is Linked to Trauma
It’s quite common for emetophobia to be linked to early traumatic events. In this case I start with Dr Muss Rewind Trauma Therapy to remove or significantly reduce the impact of any events from the past. This can help clients make rapid progress but it isn’t appropriate in all cases.
Finally free of emetophobia Photo (c) Unsplash
Finally Free of Emetophobia
How long will it take?
Emetophobia is a complex condition that may require several weeks of therapy, a minimum of three weekly sessions, and possibly up to 12 or more when the condition is thoroughly embedded and lifelong.
How will I feel after sessions?
Emetophobia sufferers will usually leave sessions feeling refreshed and uplifted. Each week they will notice general stress levels subside and anxiety about vomiting and related activities lessens. With commitment to the process, most people will resolve the problem for good.
Get in touch
Do get in touch for an informal chat or to book an initial consultation to discuss your experience and to work out a treatment plan.
*Note Harriet Harris and Barbara are pseudonyms. My clients wish to remain anonymous.
Evidence Base and Ethics
You may find medical professionals say there is no evidence that hypnotherapy works for resolving emetophobia!
What they mean is there are no formalised clinical trials. Even if they believe other therapies might be more effective, they aren’t always able to deliver them. Clinical research, especially double-blind studies, are considered the Gold Standard of research.
We know there is growing controversy around psychological research, particularly around studies with self report outcomes. Outcomes are often measured against other psychological therapies and found to be ‘better’ by a measurable percentage. CBT is commonly found to be better than most traditional other talking therapies - which we now know are not generally helpful in treating trauma and trauma-like conditions. These trials have to be funded, and they are expensive to undertake so it’s rare for complementary approaches to be clinically trialed.
Rewind Trauma Therapy for Trauma has been trialled at Cardiff University. The indications are that it is at least as effective as EMDR for treating trauma, but less painful and quicker. The trial has been completed and we are awaiting results.
The Sense-Ability Emetophobia Programme is a complementary approach. I gather direct evidence through benchmarked questionnaires and scaling exercises throughout the process which demonstrate progress has been made. Clients finish when they decide they have achieved the outcomes they want. Almost all my clients report that their problem - whether a fear or a true phobia of vomiting - has been largely or wholly resolved by the end of therapy. I believe this is partly because my clients have actively chosen this approach.
Clinical trials involve recruited patients and strict protocols that are by definition inflexible. I can be infinitely flexible, adapting my approach to meet my clients needs until my client achieves the outcome they want.
If I believe I cannot help a client - or that my client may have a more complex issue such as an eating disorder or a more complex mental illness, or that CBT might work better for them, I will refer them back to a medical professional.
Jane Pendry
Solution Focused Hypnotherapist & Coach
Sense-Ability Hypnotherapy & Coaching
www.sense-ability.co.uk
jane@sense-ability.co.uk
07843 813 883
Wheatley, Oxford, United Kingdom & Online across the U.K., Europe and unregulated US States
*Professor David Veale is a London-based Psychiatrist who specialises in complex phobias and emetophobia. The quote has been taken from his public website. No endorsement of my programme is implied or intended.
References
AnxietyUK: https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/anxiety-/emetophobia/
Professor David Veale Paper on Emetophobia and protocols for treatment
Cognitive behavioural group therapy for emetophobia: An open study in a psychiatric setting. Cited as the largest trial for CBT for emetophobia in 2015. 24 participants indicated CBT may be an efficacious treatment for emetophobia. The conclusion states, “the study design involves several limitations, and further studies should include independent control groups, randomisation, and longer follow-up assessments.” About half of the patients were reported as clinically significantly improved or recovered after treatment, and two thirds were improved or recovered at follow-up.
US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
I think I’m Going to be S*: An Eight-Year-Old Boy with Emetophobia and Secondary Food Restriction: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5510939/
For those who want to read more about the evidence base for therapies for emetophobia, I refer you to Hypnotherapist, Matt Krouwell who had summarised available research to 2018.
Additional Specialised Training
The Clinical Hypnotherapy School training in emetophobia CPD
The Clifton Practice Hypnotherapy Training CPD in OCD with psychologist and SFH Practitioner, Claire Briggs
Photo - woman with widespread arms, @fuuj Unsplash