Driving test confidence

Over the last day or so it was reported in the news of the Women who has spent over £5000 on driving lessons and has had 250 lessons over a period of 14 years, and she is clearly frustrated and is determined to pass her test! She says she lacks confidence in her driving.

Confidence when learning how to drive can affect many people and the confidence they lack can be based around different things, such as approaching roundabouts, reversing, busy roads or being nervous about being in the right gear etc. It could be they have had a bad experience that maybe or maybe not was their fault.

I have come across learner drivers that believe when they hear another driver in a car peep their horn, they are convinced that it must be them that has done something wrong, even if they are nowhere near the driver in the car that’s peeping the horn!

Sometimes, a learner drive can be confident in all but one area of their driving and the one thing they feel lacking in confidence in, can really spoil the experience of learning how to drive. Lets say, for example, it’s a fear of reversing. They could be doing really well in the lesson but they know soon the instructor is going to ask them to reverse the car.

They start to worry and build up a big picture in their mind of what they fear will happen; Reversing into a brand new car, maybe, and as they think about it the fear becomes bigger and bigger!

How can hypnotherapy help?

Hypnotherapy can be very helpful with a person’s confidence when learning how to drive. Once it has been established what the fear is based around, a more positive outcome can be visualised under hypnosis; Focusing on what the learner driver wants to happen rather than what they don’t. So, if the fear is based around reversing - visualising themselves reversing smoothly and confidently. Sometimes it’s the driving test itself that people fear, and possibly the examiner, believing that the examiner has already made their mind up to fail them. However, with hypnotherapy helping them think differently - they are able to realise that the examiner is just a person doing their job and that they do actually want the learner driver to pass!