As the new covid vaccine is released, millions will be expected to have the vaccine.

But what about those who have a needle phobia, many of them will be wanting the covid vaccine, but will be too fearful to have it, leaving them potentially open to contracting Coronavirus.

one local mindset change therapist is doing her bit to help people beat their fear.

Canvey Island-based mindset change expert Nova Lewis, from Essex-Hypnosis will be offering a program of free online group sessions to help those struggling overcome their phobia.

Many people fear injections to some extent, but once that fear becomes persistent, excessive and unreasonable, then the fear becomes a phobia. Injection phobia is the fear and avoidance of receiving various types of injections, and/or of having a blood sample withdrawn through venipuncture (pricking a finger). This is a specific phobia and is extremely common yet not very well recognised. It is thought to affect between 3.5 % to 10% of the population, but with the new covid vaccine that percentage will drastically increase.

Nova Lewis said " i have been seeing an influx of clients needing to treat their needle phobia since the news broke that a vaccine was being released. Now that the first patients have had their vaccine's there will be an increase in numbers coming forward for help".

The avoidance, anxiety, or distress caused by needle phobia can significantly interfere with a person’s normal routine, occupational or academic functioning, and social activities or relationships.

Studies have shown that facing fears and phobias is often scarier than facing physical pain.

The human brain is built to cause worry, stress, and to make things worse than they really are, which in turn leads to anxiety.

For all of us, we have never experienced the recent events of covid, this has had an enormous impact on our everyday lives, these are unprecedented times, some people may already suffer with low-level anxiety, fears, and phobias, and have found their symptoms have ramped up recently; others might be feeling new physical and psychological strains for the first time.

I have spent years helping people to cope with, and reduce their fears, and phobias. The techniques I teach my clients, whatever the trigger for their condition, can also be applied successfully in this current pandemic. I encourage anyone who has a fear or phobia of needles to make contact, and join my free group sessions.

To some degree we all have a fear or phobia, but usually we can avoid that fear. With the vaccine, if you want to avoid covid then you have to have the vaccine, or take the chance of not catching it by self isolating. By having to face a fear it causes worry, this is how our brain handles problems or potential problems, Nova explained. But it stops being useful if we become stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts about what is out of our control. We should instead focus on those things within our control, and how we choose to respond to them.

This pandemic has many repercussions beyond the actual virus, now that we are faced with having the vaccine, there is an even bigger potential impact on mental health and wellbeing, as people with a needle phobia are now suffering with anxiety to a greater degree.

If I can help ease that stress of having a needle phobia in just a small way, I believe it’s worthwhile trying.

Nova Lewis is a renowned expert mindset change therapist. She has helped to improve the lives of thousands of people.

Nova is not only trained in mindset change therapy, but also clinical hypnotherapy, but she also is an advanced therapist in psychotherapy, mindfulness therapy, and brain working recursive therapy