Year 12 and 13 Psychology Trip to London Zoo

Year 12 and 13 Psychology Phobias Trip to London Zoo

Forty-Five Year 12 and 13 Psychology Students at Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School visited London Zoo on Tuesday 16th February. We were lucky to enjoy warm and sunny weather while visiting various animal enclosures including the tiger, monkey, penguin, lion and gorilla enclosures and also the Reptile House to consider why some non-dangerous animals cause phobic responses. The highlight of the trip was two talks by John Clifford, a Clinical Hypnotherapist, on the causes and treatments of phobias. John gave some interesting anecdotes on patients he has successfully treated for spider phobia including a woman who broke her leg jumping out of a first floor window to escape a spider that was between her and the door and then began to move in her direction. Also a young girl who tried to dive out of the passenger seat in her Dad’s car, which was travelling at 70 mph, when she spotted a spider running across the dashboard but who fortunately could not undo her seat belt fast enough to be successful. The students then had the opportunity to take part in a group hypnosis session to rid themselves of their irrational fear of spiders and then many were willing to hold one of London Zoo’s habituated tarantulas. A very enjoyable and informative day!