Specific Phobias: When Fear Feels Out of Proportion but Still Very Real
Phobias can make certain objects, situations, or experiences feel overwhelming or dangerous, even when you know logically that the risk is low. Your body reacts first, and reasoning with yourself doesn’t seem to help.
I provide online therapy for specific phobias for adults across Wisconsin, Illinois, and Nebraska. Therapy focuses on helping you respond differently to fear, reduce avoidance, and rebuild confidence in situations that anxiety has taken over.
Phobias are not a sign of weakness. They are a learned fear response. And they are treatable.
What Phobias Can Feel Like
A phobia is an intense fear response tied to a specific trigger. This might include things like animals, heights, flying, driving, medical procedures, choking, vomiting, or other situations that feel unsafe to your nervous system.
Common experiences include:
Sudden fear or panic when encountering the trigger
Strong urges to escape, avoid, or prepare “just in case”
Physical symptoms like a racing heart, dizziness, or tension
Anticipatory anxiety leading up to situations
Structuring life around avoiding the feared situation
Even when the fear doesn’t make logical sense, it still feels very real in your body. You’re not imagining it, and you’re not overreacting.
Why Phobias Stick Around
Phobias are maintained by avoidance. When you avoid a feared situation, your anxiety drops temporarily, which teaches your brain that avoidance worked.
Over time, the fear can grow stronger and spread, making your world feel smaller and more restricted. This isn’t a personal failure. It’s how the nervous system learns to protect you — even when it’s being overprotective.
The good news is that learned fear can be unlearned.
How Therapy Helps with Phobias
Therapy for phobias focuses on helping your nervous system relearn safety around specific triggers.
We work together to:
Understand how your phobia developed and what keeps it going
Reduce avoidance and safety behaviors
Build tolerance for fear and uncertainty
Practice approaching feared situations gradually and intentionally
Increase confidence in your ability to cope
Part of this work may include gradual exposure to feared situations or cues in a safe, supportive way. Exposure is never rushed or forced. It’s designed to help your brain learn that fear can rise and fall on its own without needing escape.
Any exposure work is always:
Collaborative
Optional
Introduced gradually
Adjusted to your comfort level
The goal is not to eliminate fear completely, but to reduce how much control it has over your life.
What Phobia Therapy Is Not
Therapy for phobias is not about throwing you into your worst fear or overwhelming your nervous system.
It’s not about convincing you that your fear is irrational or telling you to “just face it.”
And it’s not about pushing you faster than you’re ready to go.
Instead, therapy respects how real the fear feels while helping you build skills to respond differently, at a pace that feels manageable.
What to Expect in Phobia Therapy
We’ll start by talking about your specific fears, how they show up, and what you’ve already tried. You don’t need to justify your fear or explain it perfectly.
Sessions focus on:
Clear education about fear and the nervous system
Identifying patterns of avoidance and safety behaviors
Gradual, intentional practice tailored to your goals
Building confidence through experience, not pressure
Progress isn’t about never feeling fear again. It’s about being able to live your life without fear calling the shots.
You Don’t Have to Keep Avoiding
Phobias can quietly limit what you do, where you go, and what you allow yourself to experience.
With the right support, it’s possible to approach feared situations with more confidence and less distress — and to expand your world again.
If you’re ready to explore therapy for specific phobias, you can schedule a free 15-minute consultation.