This treatment approach is based on original work carried out by David Kraft (see publications).
Agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces or of the market place, and this can occur with various degrees of severity. In mild cases a person may have difficulty travelling away from home but can still manage to get to work and make familiar journeys, where as in sever cases the patient finds that he/she cannot leave their home environment even to go into the garden. Even within the home the sufferer may experience panic attacks.
The person suffering from agoraphobia is terrified of leaving the home but is unable to find any reasonable explanation to account for these fears. They are unaware that their fear of for example the streets, trains, underground, are in fact the outward expression of their inner emotional turmoil.
Even though it may appear that only one family member is suffering from agoraphobia, invariably one finds that other members of the family have also got emotional problems.
In order to successfully treat agoraphobia it is necessary to examine the problems underlying the phobia (psychotherapy) and in addition to use behaviour therapy to enable the person to go out into the environment and travel on public transport. This treatment can either be undertaken in a real life situation (In Vivo Desensitization) or alternatively in imagination using hypnosis. Some patients find that taking antidepressant medication helps them cope with this problem.
Agoraphobia is a complex disorder and requires regular treatment sessions over an extended period of time. However it can be effectively treated with a combination of behaviour therapy and psychotherapy.
David Kraft has treated many patients with agoraphobia and has an excellent success rate.