EMDR Therapy for Water Phobias
Aquaphobia - “The Fear of Water”
Aquaphobia or the fear of water is a specific phobia experienced by large percentage of people worldwide. Aquaphobia occurs when the person experiences increasing anxiety when exposed to or anticipating water or water-related activities. Common symptoms of aquaphobia include anxiety, excessive thinking, worrying/panic, and nausea. This contributes to the individual’s avoidance of common water related activities including swimming, boating, water sports, etc.
Where does the fear of water originate from?
This fear of water is commonly sourced in some form of earlier childhood trauma or experience where a person’s safety was compromised. The traumatic experience commonly contains a water component but that is not always the case. What is more important relating to the experience are the feelings and beliefs that were created as a result of the trauma and the unconscious beliefs that were developed afterwards. Common feelings related to aquaphobia include the anxiety surrounding the vastness/depth of the water, feeling out of control, powerless/helpless, or alone.
Recommended Treatments for Water Phobias
There are three recommended psychotherapy treatments for water phobias. They are:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; In-Vivo Exposure Therapy; and EMDR Therapy.
The first approach, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), takes the strategy of working with the client’s beliefs at the cognitive (thoughts) level of the brain. The therapist works with the client to challenge unhelpful beliefs surrounding the fear of water and replaces them with more rational (logical) beliefs. Several limitations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for phobias have been cited including that it only addresses the person at the cognitive or “thinking” level and does not address the emotional response of the individual. Clients find that when it comes time to face the water - the deeper “fear-based” emotional centers of the brain light up and sound the panic alarm causing the hard work of therapy to be pushed aside in that moment.
A second approach, and one that is evidenced-based for phobias, is In-Vivo Exposure Therapy. This therapy involves the client slowly exposing themselves to the phobia, in this case water, in a mild progression. The therapist first instructs the client to start with a smaller body of water for example and increases the amount of exposure over time. This approach has been found to be effective, but difficult on the part of the client. In-Vivo exposure requires the client to face their fear in real time, although in small increments, in spite of overwhelming feelings that are pushing against them. The point of exposure is also done in “the outside world” without the therapist there to guide them safely through these difficult feelings. This barrier causes many clients to drop out of treatment before completion.
For the above reasons, a third evidenced-based approach called “EMDR” is now being used to treat specific phobias like aquaphobia. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or “EMDR” is a trauma therapy that uses bilateral stimulation to target the deeper “emotional” centers of the brain and clear out the fear/phobia at its source. It does this by targeting the unconscious beliefs formed at the time of trauma. The client undergoes emotional processing using eye movements and other forms of bilateral stimulation until the trauma/anxiety is cleared out.
EMDR processes out the clients fear of water in the therapy office allowing the client to emotionally heal from the trauma without the need for outside exposure. Once completed, clients can usually walk out of the office with little to no anxiety towards water or water related activities.
Conclusion
Taking the first step to reach out for help can be hard. Avoidance is a common way to cope with aquaphobia and contributes to a vast majority of people with aquaphobia not seeking the help they need. This unfortunately only creates more anxiety and unnecessary hardship over time.
Increased knowledge that there are treatments available for water-related phobias gives individuals hope that they too can live a life free from aquaphobia.
Mendel Toron is a psychotherapist specializing in EMDR therapy for aquaphobia. Schedule a free consultation through this link to learn more.