The Fear Clinic | Preview (Channel 4)

New documentary format in which people with debilitating phobias attend a special clinic in Amsterdam over 48 hours, where they will undergo a new, cutting-edge psychological treatment and face their worst fears.

In the UK alone, an estimated 10 million people suffer with a phobia. From emetophobia (a chronic fear of vomit) to arachnophobia (a fear of spiders), musophobia (a fear of mice), ranidophobia (a fear of frogs) and even globophobia (a severe phobia of balloons).

Often, deep-rooted in past experiences or traumas, these phobias can cause shame, stigma and even ridicule as people suffer in silence, sometimes with wide-ranging, negative impacts on their daily lives.

Filmed on fixed-rig cameras, in each episode of The Fear Clinic (6x60’, w/t), three British phobia sufferers check into the state-of-the-art clinic in Amsterdam, where a renowned Dutch scientist and her team of psychologists will treat their phobias.

Dr. Merel Kindt (Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Amsterdam) has developed a radical treatment method based on 20 years of scientific research.

The Memrec treatment, which has a success rate of 83%, is built on ground-breaking insights into neuroscience. At the core of the treatment the patient is coached to confront their fear by approaching, rather than avoiding it and running away. This new experience creates an opportunity to rewire how the fear is stored in the brain aided by the administration of a single dose of a beta-blocker.

Using these techniques based on the expanding science of memory reconsolidation, Dr. Kindt and her team will attempt - over the course of an intense 48 hours - to free patients from the prison of their phobia. The treatment requires immense courage and determination from the patient as they face their worst fear imaginable. But if they do manage to face their fear, it could change their life forever.

The Fear Clinic opens Tuesday 21st January at 8pm on Channel 4.