All About Ailurophobia, the Fear of Cats, & How To Overcome it with CBT, Therapy & Counselling in Wolverhampton & West Midlands

What is Ailurophobia?

Ailurophobia is the Fear of Cats and is quite a common phobia.

Some possible situations that can trigger the fear of cats are: hearing purring, seeing a cat in real life, imagining the possibility of a cat touching or rubbing against one, the thought of meeting a cat in the dark, cats in pictures and on television, and cat-like toys and cat-like fur.

All phobias, regardless of what the feared object or circumstances are, cause Anxiety and Stress for the sufferer.

Whilst the feared object or situation may seem, to other people, to be ridiculous or silly, the person who suffers from the phobia knows only too well that the Anxiety that they experience is real enough.

We completely understand this here at Tranceform Psychology and will treat you and your Ailurophobia seriously.

For many years Psychologists have been aware that our minds are more than capable of producing a real biological reaction to any given situation and so as long as the phobic person “believes” that the object or situation they fear represents danger to them, then they will experience real fear.

The majority of people who do suffer with Ailurophobia understand that their fear is “irrational” but continue to experience it regardless of this knowledge. This is why simply being told to “snap out of it” rarely produces a solution!

Symptoms of Ailurophobia

The symptoms of Ailurophobia are very similar to other specific phobias and will often include:

• Anger problems
• Generalised Anxiety
• Social anxiety
• Control issues
• Feelings of depression
• Insomnia & sleeping problems
• Low Self-Esteem
• Low Self-Confidence
• Panic attacks
• Overthinking things
• Paranoia
• Stress
• Avoidance and safety behaviours

Ailurophobia Symptoms are generally automatic and uncontrollable and can seem to take over a person’s thoughts which frequently leads to extreme measures being taken to avoid the feared object or situation, what are known as “Safety” or “Avoidance” behaviours.

Unfortunately, for the sufferer, these safety behaviours have a paradoxical effect and actually reinforce the phobia rather than solve it!

Ailurophobia may be the result of negative emotional experiences that can be either directly or indirectly linked to the object or situational fear.

Over time, the symptoms often become “normalised” and “accepted” as a limiting belief in that person’s life – “I’ve learnt to live with it.”

In just as many cases, Ailurophobia may have become worse over time as more and more sophisticated safety behaviours and routines are developed.

The good news is that the vast majority of people who suffer from Ailurophobia will find a course of Psychotherapy helps enormously.

Almost every phobia responds well to psychological interventions.

Therapy & Counselling for Ailurophobia

Tranceform Psychology can offer a range of different counselling solutions for Ailurophobia which you can read about below.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Ailurophobia

If you’re committed to overcoming your Ailurophobia problems then we highly recommend following a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

The Tranceformental CBT programme is a highly successful & pragmatic psychological therapy course, run over 10 sessions, that will teach you everything you need to know to understand your problems.

It will also help you to identify how unhelpful thinking and limiting beliefs might be reinforcing the issues, and then show you how to make any changes to your unhelpful thinking styles or maladaptive safety behaviours that you may have developed as part of your coping strategies.

The programme is also available as an online self-help CBT programme.

Tranceformental CBT programme is an empirically supported approach used by mental health practitioners around the World.

Alternative Therapies for Ailurophobia

Although our preferred form of psychological therapy for Ailurophobia is Tranceformental CBT we also offer alternative psychotherapies for those who might prefer a different approach.

These include:

Psychodynamic therapy which focuses more on emotional problems and relies on the Therapeutic Relationship to bring about change. Available with Paul.

Hypnotherapy is an alternative form of therapy that can be applied to a very wide range of problems and is available with Joan.

Free Initial Consultations for Ailurophobia

We offer all prospective clients a FREE initial consultation to discuss your Ailurophobia prior to commencing any treatment plans.

The consultation is free and lasts around 50 minutes.

During this consultation we will discuss the various psychological therapy options that are available to you and make a considered recommendation based on your individual personal circumstances.

Initial consultations are also available as part of our online therapy service.

At Tranceform Psychology we recognise the importance of the therapeutic relationship in helping people to bring about effective change, so its important to be able to ‘meet’ to discuss any therapy treatments BEFORE proceeding.

Our policy is to help people make a fully balanced & considered decision about undertaking work with us, including both the financial and personal implications.