Etai | Psychotherapy & Solution-focused Hypnotherapy

Stop Shrinking Your Life Around Fear.

If you've been shrinking your life to avoid certain places or situations, you already know that logic doesn't help.

A phobia bypasses your rational brain entirely. You know you're safe, but your heart races, your throat tightens, and your instinct to run takes over.

That isn't a sign of weakness. It's a protective mechanism that has become a little too good at its job.

Think of it like a car alarm set too sensitively. You want the alarm. You want your system to warn you when something is genuinely unsafe. But right now it's going off every time a leaf lands on the windscreen. We don't remove the alarm. We retune it, so you keep the protection and lose the overwhelm.

How I work

I don't believe in feeling the fear and doing it anyway. We go gently, in three steps.

First, safety. We never dive straight into the fear. We start by calming your system with breathing and somatic grounding, so you feel steady before we begin.

Then the Rewind Technique, a gentle method that lets the brain update the old fear memory without you having to relive it. It's like watching a film from a safe distance.

Then we soften the physical reaction with EFT tapping, which disconnects the feeling of panic from the thought, so your body learns that the thought is safe.

What I work with

Fear of flying. Driving and bridges. Heights. Social anxiety and public speaking. Medical settings, needles and dentists. Choking or swallowing. Animals, including spiders, dogs and birds. And phobias that trace back to something that happened.

If yours isn't on that list you're still welcome. Retuning the nervous system works regardless of the trigger.

What to expect

You won't be asked to face your fear directly. We work with the pattern underneath, so the fear softens on its own. Exposure is never forced.

If your phobia connects to something traumatic, we use methods that avoid retelling the event. You stay grounded and in control throughout.

The first session isn't a form-filling exercise. We talk about what's happening, what you've already tried, and what you want to be different. Most people notice something shift straight away.

I'm in Raglan and I work online with people across New Zealand.

Etai Gilad
DHypPsych (UK)