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July 2005, Health Section Womans Own

"I was so scared of needles, I couldn't go anywhere exotic."

Louise Moore, 33, from Nottingham, works in public relations. She had a session with behavioural therapist Jim Brackin to try to beat her needle phobia.

The only thing I remember being scared of as a child is needles. I lay awake at night dreading my rubella jab at school and by the time I got to the front of the queue to get the injection, I was hysterical.I've always enjoyed travelling and love going on holiday, but I've stuck to countries where you don't need to have any jabs. The exception was my honeymoon. We were going to Australia but stopping for a few days in Singapore, which meant I needed injections. I was anxious for weeks beforehand, and it took the nurse ages to calm me down on the day. I was a mess.Of course, I didn't feel a thing “ that's not the point. It's the thought of the needle going into my arm that makes me sick with fear.

I really wanted to overcome my phobia, and Jim said I needed to remember what had made me fear needles in the first place, but I couldn't recall anything specific.He then asked me questions while clicking his fingers “ to prompt my unconscious mind to remember why I'd developed the phobia. To my surprise, I found myself saying that it started when I was two. I must have had injections at that time.

After that, he told me to visualise a cinema screen showing a film of the last time I had an injection. I had to watch it at different speeds, and in black and white and colour, with music playing. By the end of the session needles no longer bothered me. I could have had a jab there and then!This year I don't have to worry about where to go on holiday because having inoculations isn't a problem “ we can go anywhere!

The therapist's perspective

Jim said "I used neurolinguistic programming (NLP) techniques to get to the root of Louise's phobia. Once the emotion connected to the source of the of the phobia is gone, there is no fear. It's a very effective treatment."Footnote: Since the therapy Louise has had a number of injections, without any trace of phobia, anxiety or fear.

She is now free to take holidays anywhere in the world...