MH 027 :: Discussing Phobias and Trauma Counselling Psychologist | Phillip Louw | Moulding Health | KITRIN
In this episode, we speak to Phillip Louw, a Counselling Psychologist based in Hamilton New Zealand. He discusses the topic of phobias and trauma with us, from a counselling psychologist perspective.

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Show Notes on Phobias and Trauma
Welcome to the moulding health show. Our goal is to leverage the wisdom and experience of healthcare practitioners to set you on a path of self-discovery and healing. These insights coupled with a multidisciplinary approach to each area of interest should provide an invaluable resource to everyone looking for a better approach to health.
In this episode of the show, we speak about trauma and phobias with Philip Lowe, a counselling psychologist based in New Zealand, Philip Lowe, welcome to the show. So we’re really, really glad to have you on board. And you’re actually our first international guest. So thanks very much for agreeing to do this.
Could you explain the topic in a bit more detail?
I think that’s a very interesting thing that you said there that sometimes we think that trauma and phobias are kinds of very specific to specific nations or specific areas of the world. That’s funny, I was back in South Africa a couple of years ago about 2019. And I actually did kind of retrained in one of the BWRT levels than just kind of position refresher as I walked in because I know that the trainer while as well because I’m the New Zealand trainer for BWRT. And he said or his wife said, I really New Zealand. Is there any trauma or what happens to be and it’s quite interesting that we have that idea.
I predominantly work with trauma in my private practice. I only see trauma and sexual abuse for returns. And also I work in corrections. And invariably, and it’s the same kind of thing within the prison system, yours in South Africa because I worked here as well, is here to see trauma across the board. It’s something that is kind of, something that humans struggle with. And almost all kind of humans have very different, but also very similar ways of responding to it. Which is, like you said, it’s fascinating.
This is a topic rife with rabbit holes because just, it’s easy to kind of go down different ones because it is so fascinating. And it’s interesting the more you understand the greater impact you can also have in people’s lives. So it’s, it’s yeah, it’s quite a powerful topic overall, I think, kind of, in a broad sense. So yeah, just to speak a little bit. Are you happy with me just kind of jumping in? Yeah. 100%? Yeah. So when you kind of think about traumas, phobias, anxiety, that kind of thing, just to kind of lay kind of the basic groundwork there.
I think the first thing that’s probably the most important thing to recognize is that that’s a completely natural and adaptive response of our brains and bodies. That’s how we got to be so successful, are we’ve got this threat detection system, that when it works, well, it keeps us alive, and it keeps us safe. And it’s interesting, we can kind of get into the nitty-gritty as well. But it’s when that gets overtaxed in specific ways, or we overestimate using a stick at it part of our brain has ways of tricking our early part of the brain to think that things are more dangerous, or threatening. They may they are, and then that’s where that kind of disconnect happens.
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