08/04/2010
Zoo offers hypnotherapy phobia treatment for reptile fears
by William Hobson
People terrified of the reptiles at an Australian zoo are being offered hypnotherapy to overcome their 'ophidiophobia'.
The Australian Daily Telegraph reports that visitors to Taronga Zoo who run scared at the sight of 60cm iguana 'Jub Jub' and the rest of the zoo's cold-blooded inhabitants are being helped through their fear with hypnotherapy.
Warrick Angus, manager of the zoo's Australian Fauna Precinct - where many of their lizards are housed - says that he started the course after the popularity of a previous course. When he ran a phobia cure programme dealing with the fear of spiders (arachnophobia), Angus said that he was deluged with calls.
Whilst reptiles and lizards may seem an unlikely source of terror to many here in the UK, in the arid climates of Australia, people are far more likely to see one in the wild than outside of a zoo. The Aussie Telegraph reports that one woman who entered the phobia treatment programme is so terrified of the blue tongue iguana that she has to ask her neighbour to scour her yard before she can hang her washing up.
In the Zoo's phobia treatment programme people take part in group discussion then undergo hypnotherapy and neuro linguistic programming training to help overcome their natural fear of reptiles. After their treatment, 'graduates' are taken to the Zoo's animals and given the opportunity to put their phobia cure to the test - handling small snakes, lizards and moving on to holding the formidable olive python.
Mr Angus says that many participants are amazed at the success of hypnotherapy in treating their phobias. ''Where they start the program saying it would be a miracle if they could touch a snake,'' he says, they end up with one wrapped around their shoulders with no discomfort.
"There is just joy, absolute joy," says Mr Angus, "They feel there has been a miracle but there have been no miracles at all, it is just lots of hard work and focus. We do it in little steps."
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