How do you overcome coulrophobia?

Answer 1

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns. As with most phobias, a good strategy is to face the fear, slowly, in stages, until you can deal with it. One of my Psych professors had a girl in therapy who really, really wanted to be a nurse, but found out she had an overwhelming fear of blood when she actually went into an operating room. So, he worked with her, and eventually she was able to continue and become a surgical nurse, and do what she wanted to do without letting her fear overcome her. There is an article about coulrophobia here, and it actually might be the beginning of a therapy, because there is a picture of a clown on the page, right at the top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_clowns. If you can look at a picture of a clown and remain calm, then you might want to start browsing to other pictures and sites. If you can learn to do that, then you might move on to movies of clowns where they are actually moving around. ... you could have a very trusted friend dress up like a clown and slowly learn to accept that... and finally you could dress up like a clown yourself. Then, maybe going to a circus would be the final stage... sitting in the front row and trying to find humor rather than fear in the experience. If you want to overcome the fear, it is possible. I am not saying it will be easy, however.