Successfully treating phobias with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy
Does a phobia – perhaps a fear of flying, dogs, or public speaking – stifle your love of life? Do you feel embarrassed, since you know this overwhelming fear is irrational? Actually, your reaction is caused by a problematic neural pathway and can effectively be treated by BWRT®. Read more about this neuroscience-based psychological model, simple versus complex phobias, and Terence Watts’ invaluable BWRT self-help guide. This article appeared in the July 2023 edition of ‘Rooi Rose’ magazine.
The moment you notice the dog in the garden you’re about to enter, your heart starts racing, your palms grow clammy, and your legs refuse to cooperate.
By this time, your partner is familiar with this reaction. “It's a completely harmless doggy," he says impatiently. "It won't hurt you. Let’s go!"
On some level you know you’re overreacting, but you remain paralysed. And with good reason: at this moment, your common sense is not in control. Your reptilian brain has taken over.
The good news is that a dog phobia - as well as other fears and phobias - can now be treated effectively. BrainWorking® Recursive Therapy or BWRT® is a fast, safe and cost-effective psychological therapy that creates new neural pathways and enables a different response to a troublesome stimulus. The therapy targets the reptilian brain where the fear response originates, "freezes" the fear pattern, and replaces it with the desired response.
Phobia free in one of two ways
There are two ways to free yourself from a phobia completely and permanently: you can consult a BWRT® practitioner in person or online, or you can read the self-help guide, BWRT: Reboot your life with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, written by Terence Watts, the man behind BWRT®.
Terence is a British therapist, author and innovator with numerous psychotherapy-related books and approaches to his credit. In 2013 he started offering BWRT® training worldwide.
His research partner, clinical psychologist Rafiq Lockhat, is South African, and In South Africa alone 1500 psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, and other mental health experts have obtained this qualification.
Read more about Terence Watts’ body of work here.
Listen to Rafiq discussing the origin, advantages and uses of BWRT® with Mariette.
Clinical psychogist Mark Eaton offers sensible advice on solving insomnia and other sleep problems using BWRT®.
What does a phobia entail?
Let's take a closer look at phobias before considering the treatment. A phobia can be described as an extreme, irrational fear of anything ranging from public performance, a plane ride, spiders or blood, to the buttons on clothes - yes, really. A phobia usually develops in childhood, teenage years or in young adults, due to a frightening or stressful experience.
When you suffer from a phobia, the reptilian complex in your brain regards the dog, spider or other object as highly dangerous and creates an escape route instantly and at all costs. In BWRT: Reboot your life with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, Terence explains that the reptilian complex cannot “think” logically; neither can it distinguish between a real and an imagined danger. As soon as it perceives the object associated with the phobia, it triggers an overwhelming fear response that makes rational thinking impossible.
In response to a phobia, an individual may have an anxiety attack and hyperventilate, sweat, or gasp for breath; blindly start running around, screaming; freeze, faint, burst into tears, or become nauseous. (The reaction is not necessarily this dramatic.)
Others may find such a reaction strange and wonder why the person doesn’t simply control it. However, no-one in the throes of a phobia decides to behave in this way. They are in the grip of an ancient survival response and have no access to their "thinking brain". The latter part of the brain is only around 2.5 million years old, while the reptilian complex has enabled humanity to survive for hundreds of millions of years. In order to completely overcome a phobia, the change must therefore take place in the reptilian complex.
Am I to blame for my phobia?
There is no reason to feel ashamed, guilty or embarrassed about a phobia, writes Terence. You are not to blame. Often it is a conditioned response.
Take, for example, a phobia of spiders. If the adults with whom you grew up instantly killed every spider they come across, your reptilian complex probably learned that spiders are life-threatening. Even a reaction like: "Leave that earthworm alone, it carries germs and will make you ill!" could repeatedly trigger survival fear, although, of course, different individuals react in different ways.
The difference between simple and complex phobias
In BWRT: Reboot your life with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, Terence distinguishes between simple and complex phobias. The crucial difference lies in the degree of actual risk involved.
A simple phobia is a deep and irrational fear of something that is unlikely to cause real or lasting physical harm, for example mice, earthworms, cats, dogs, and public speaking.
A complex phobia is a deep fear that can be just as acute as in the case of a simple phobia, but which involves an actual risk of harm, however slight; for example a fear of flying, driving, the sea, stairs, escalators, lifts, and ladders.
Because a complex phobia contains a recognisable risk that cannot be refuted, it is at least partially rational. However, the anxiety it creates is significantly greater than the actual danger.
Statistically, the chance of dying in a road accident is much greater than dying in a plane crash, but because the reptilian brain cannot reason in a logical way, awareness of these statistics will never cure a phobia of flying. As Terence puts it: In a battle between logic and the imagination, the imagination always wins.
In addition, complex phobias are often linked to more than one issue. In BWRT: Reboot your life with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, Terence explains that the threat does not necessarily have to do only with life or death, but also with the fear of shame, embarrassment, or exposure.
Amaxophobia or the fear of driving - especially in heavy or fast traffic or on motorways - is apparently driven by the fear of getting into a collision and dying. However, hidden triggers can include the following fears:
Someone could lose control and crash into me.
Someone could cause an accident right in front of me and I might not know what to do.
Someone else could cause an accident and I could be blamed.
I could lose control and cause an accident.
I could make a stupid mistake and damage my car.
I could do something wrong and be apprehended by the police.
The car might suddenly perform in a way I don't understand.
The first three fears are connected to the actions of others. The others are linked to the person's own (perceived) incompetence, but these scenarios could all take place while the person is driving. This is what triggers the irrational anxiety.
It’s important to understand that the BWRT® protocols for the treatment of simple and complex phobias differ. In his self-help guide Terence furthermore explains which issues should preferably be addressed by a trained practitioner, and exactly what the differences between professional BWRT® and the self-help version involve.
How does BrainWorking Recursive Therapy work?
Until BWRT: Reboot your life with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy was published in 2022, only trained therapists and clients knew how this psychological model worked. Now anyone can read the self-help guide. The techniques are too comprehensive to explain in a few paragraphs, but the book explains everything clearly so that readers know not only how, but why the therapy works.
Lees ook ‘n Afrikaanse artikel oor Brainworking® Recursive Therapy.
The guide includes practical self-help exercises for, amongst other things, phobias, stress, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and guilty secrets. There are also exercises that help prepare you for major life changes, strengthen your immune system, and boost your performance in various areas.
When you understand that the brain's involuntary response to a traumatic stimulus – say, a spider - first takes place in the reptilian complex, the effectiveness of BWRT® makes perfect sense. The original response happens approximately one third of a second before the person becomes aware of the triggered emotion - for example, acute anxiety - or of the triggered action, such as the urge to run away. Terence has found a way to freeze the original response and replace it with the response that the person prefers - for example, to respond calmly. A specific technique is used to capture the new reaction neurologically so that the change is permanent.
BWRT® involves a natural process: no special equipment, hypnosis, touch, or medication is needed. The trauma for which the client is seeking help does not need to be discussed or re-lived in detail. The associated emotion is indeed recalled, but it is soon replaced by the emotion the client prefers.
Old fears and insecurities are replaced by more desirable yet realistic responses. When the therapy is applied to different aspects of your existence, it can turn your entire life around – offering you a reboot, as the title of the self-help guide suggests.
Phobias respond particularly well to the therapy and are usually cured within one to four sessions. The change is immediate and permanent.
Wouldn't it be great if your brain considered your next plane ride or encounter with a dog completely safe?
Where to find Terence’s self-help guide
BWRT®: Reboot Your Life With BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, essentially a consumer version of the BWRT® process, was published by Crownhouse Publishing in 2022.
More information at https://www.bwrt.org/pages/self-help or https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/search?q=BWRT - Kindle versions available from Amazon.
Where to find a registered BWRT practitioner
In South Africa:
BWRT® is regulated by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). Visit www.bwrtsa.co.za and go to Find a practitioner to find a BWRT® practitioner in your area, or book an online therapy session.
Internationally:
Go to https://www.bwrt-professionals.com/pages/practitioners and click on Home > Find a practitioner, then scroll down.
How can BWRT® be used to address anxiety in young children, teenagers and adults? Clinical social worker Morag Scordilis tells us here.
Counselling psychologist Doreen Hofmeyr explains how BWRT Level 3 targets chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases, and chronic pain.
Heinrich Benjamin explains how to recognise PTSD and how BWRT® can provide fast, cost-effective relief - the English counterpart of the Afrikaans episode mentioned below.
About Terence Watts
Terence Watts is a writer, innovator and trainer from Essex in the United Kingdom, CEO at The Terence Watts BWRT Institute, The Essex Institute of Complementary Health, Member of the City & Guilds Institute, Freeman of the City of London and Fellow with the Royal Society of Medicine.
He has immersed himself in the world of therapy since 1989 and is the author of 24 books and training manuals and the creator of more than 20 advanced training courses for professional therapists: read this short summary.
Websites: http://www.bwrt.org/
https://www.bwrt-professionals.com/
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Terence Watts and Rafiq Lockhat
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Thumbnail image: Pexels
Photographs of Terence Watts and Rafiq Lockhat: supplied
Other images: Unsplash