Review of Phobia Relief
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Eren Hanbury
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Review of Phobia Relief
[Following is a volunteer review of "Phobia Relief" by Kalliope Barlis.]
Phobia relief by Kalliope Barlis is a self-help guide to overcoming your fears and phobias that might be preventing you from living the life you’ve always wanted. It draws on a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) sequence of skills, first coined by one Dr Bandler, whom the author had apprenticed with.
The book is a quick and digestible read and ought to appeal to a wide readership. It’s split into three short parts, the first of which provides an overview of how NLP change work is designed to help you overcome your fears and find your true purpose in life. The second part offers practical meditative-like exercises directed at shrinking your fears, mainly by blinking them black and white, and in so doing gaining control over your thoughts, your emotions and your behaviour. Part three shares a transcript of the author’s session with a client undergoing NLF change work for their fear of clowns. The key premise of the book is simple: change your current thoughts and you’ll control your emotions and master your fears. The focus is on the present and future, not the past. In fact, there appears to be a strong opposition to delving into the who, what, where and why of a phobia’s genesis.
I found the short anecdotal stories by clients experiencing phobias most interesting, and the least judgmental in tone. There are a few interesting observations, I would say, about how fear is a learned behaviour and how our looped thoughts continue to create our reality.
Beyond this, I found myself battling to accept the quick-fix approach on offer. The book promises to provide meaningful change both easily and quickly. Yet the book’s disclaimer – if you manage to decipher its cryptic formulation – leaves me wondering what the point of it all is. If the book is not for phobias that keep you safe, nor for phobias that do not interfere with your safety, pray tell, what is the book good for? The assurances throughout about how NLP change work will transform your phobias into freedom, in the blink of an eye literally, smacks too much of wanting to claim easy victories, after the fact. I’m not about to suggest that you won’t draw inspiration from it, especially when the author claims that so many have. But I would say, take it all with a truck-load of salt, especially when applying these techniques to your own phobias and expecting immediate, easy and meaningful change. Meaningful change often requires substantive work. This little handbook, riddled with one too many errors too, does little to demonstrate otherwise. It earns 3 out of 5 stars only because it's hard not to grant the author some benefit of the doubt.
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Phobia Relief
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Phobia relief by Kalliope Barlis is a self-help guide to overcoming your fears and phobias that might be preventing you from living the life you’ve always wanted. It draws on a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) sequence of skills, first coined by one Dr Bandler, whom the author had apprenticed with.
The book is a quick and digestible read and ought to appeal to a wide readership. It’s split into three short parts, the first of which provides an overview of how NLP change work is designed to help you overcome your fears and find your true purpose in life. The second part offers practical meditative-like exercises directed at shrinking your fears, mainly by blinking them black and white, and in so doing gaining control over your thoughts, your emotions and your behaviour. Part three shares a transcript of the author’s session with a client undergoing NLF change work for their fear of clowns. The key premise of the book is simple: change your current thoughts and you’ll control your emotions and master your fears. The focus is on the present and future, not the past. In fact, there appears to be a strong opposition to delving into the who, what, where and why of a phobia’s genesis.
I found the short anecdotal stories by clients experiencing phobias most interesting, and the least judgmental in tone. There are a few interesting observations, I would say, about how fear is a learned behaviour and how our looped thoughts continue to create our reality.
Beyond this, I found myself battling to accept the quick-fix approach on offer. The book promises to provide meaningful change both easily and quickly. Yet the book’s disclaimer – if you manage to decipher its cryptic formulation – leaves me wondering what the point of it all is. If the book is not for phobias that keep you safe, nor for phobias that do not interfere with your safety, pray tell, what is the book good for? The assurances throughout about how NLP change work will transform your phobias into freedom, in the blink of an eye literally, smacks too much of wanting to claim easy victories, after the fact. I’m not about to suggest that you won’t draw inspiration from it, especially when the author claims that so many have. But I would say, take it all with a truck-load of salt, especially when applying these techniques to your own phobias and expecting immediate, easy and meaningful change. Meaningful change often requires substantive work. This little handbook, riddled with one too many errors too, does little to demonstrate otherwise. It earns 3 out of 5 stars only because it's hard not to grant the author some benefit of the doubt.
******
Phobia Relief
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Send Her Back and Other Stories by Munashe Kaseke
