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

What is Aquaphobia?

Aquaphobia is the Fear of Water and may encompass fears about swimming, travelling in boats or sometimes washing or bathing – Ablutophobia.

For many people, aquaphobia is associated with early traumatic experiences picked up in childhood, usually with regards to swimming lessons or other water-related negative experiences.

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 and will treat you and your Aquaphobia 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.

Mostpeople who suffer with Aquaphobia 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 Aquaphobia

The symptoms of Aquaphobia 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

Aquaphobia 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!

Aquaphobia 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, Aquaphobia 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 Aquaphobia will find a course of Psychotherapy helps enormously.

Almost every phobia responds well to psychological interventions.

Therapy & Counselling for Aquaphobia

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

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Aquaphobia

If you’re committed to overcoming your Aquaphobia problems then we highly recommend following our Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme.

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.

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

Alternative Therapies for Aquaphobia

Although our preferred form of psychological therapy for Aquaphobia 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.

General Counselling which is less structured but still provides a safe and non-judgmental environment to discuss issues which is therapeutic in its own right.

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 Aquaphobia

We offer all prospective clients a FREE initial consultation to discuss your Aquaphobia 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.