Draw a friendly spider to cure arachnophobia

DRAWING pictures of spiders can help people overcome arachnophobia, a Harley Street hypnotherapist has said.

Adam Cox encourages clients in his art therapy sessions to draw brightly coloured, smiling spiders with “big eyes” to reduce their feelings of anxiety towards the arachnids.

With an estimated 12million UK adults admitting to arachnophobia, Mr Cox’s techniques could become increasingly sought after as the autumn marks the start of spider mating season.

Mr Cox’s therapy workshops involve an average of 10 to 15 participants, all of whom have been able to touch a tarantula or help capture and release a house spider afterwards.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: “The art therapy is partly down to desensitisation but mostly by creating new associations. We encourage the participants to draw them with big eyes, a smile, give them a name and use bright colours.

“In the four-hour workshop, we use a varied approach, which includes hypnotherapy, NLP [Neurolinguistic Programming] art therapy, education and desensitisation alongside immersive therapy where they hold the tarantulas, capture and release a house spider and hold a house spider.”

Art therapy is seen as a treatment that causes far less distress than traditional remedies based on persuading patients to confront spiders.

Mr Cox warns that as the fear is often learnt from parents, it can easily be passed on to a child who can then develop general anxiety disorder. He helps arachnophobes face the creatures in the “Spider Courage Experience”.