Flying phobia cure or a flying freak show?

Hypnotherapy is considered to be one of the safest and most effective ways of getting rid of the many phobias that can affect people. There are many different kinds of phobias, but the effects are the same; they may you feel weak and inadequate.

One very common phobia is the fear of flying also known asaviophobia. For some people they may simply live with this fear and keep the phobia at bay by simply never attempting to board an aircraft. They plan local holidays or use another method of transport such as trains or ships to holiday abroad. They are employed in jobs that never require them to go abroad on business and thus live their lives fear free of flying.

Then there are the people who do their utmost to avoid flying but resign themselves to doing it when they have no choice. This may be because they are under pressure from their family to go on a holiday abroad or perhaps they have a family emergency and need to be somewhere very quickly. Whilst family members are planning their break with much excitement, the person with the phobia dreads the holiday ahead and their anxiety levels make them miserable and uptight in the lead up to the much anticipated ordeal. Before the holiday they panic and whilst on holiday they panic at the thought of boarding the aircraft once more to return. The relaxation a holiday should give is ruined by the negative thoughts running through the person’s head.

There are also many people who fly frequently and yet hate every journey with their anxiety levels constantly on a high. They are determined not to let the fear take over their lives and dictate how they live but nonetheless, they would much prefer to feel calm and in control of their feelings.

Despite flying statistically being one of the safest modes of transport, it is still the most feared. There are several reasons for this; any aviation scare or accident is normally headline news wherever in the world it happens. The fact that usually hundreds of peoples’ lives are at risk heightens the drama of it all. Or perhaps the individual has been on an aircraft where there was severe turbulence, a panicked fellow passenger or the landing was bad, these episodes can all contribute to a future fear of flying. TV disaster movies involving passenger airplanes are always filled with drama normally covering every worst case scenario. There is also the hand me down fear; older relatives and friends who are frightened and always talk negatively about flying and this can contribute to someone assuming that all flying is to be feared.

Whatever the reason for the fear, hypnosis is a very successful method of dealing with this very common phobia. Once the hypnotherapist guides the person into a deeply relaxed state they can then work on the unconscious mind, reinforcing how safe flying really is. The fear itself is caused by the negative thoughts in the person’s head. The ‘what ifs’ dominate their thoughts and no reasoning is valid enough to put a halt to their anguish. 

Whether the person remembers the root cause of their fear or not – it does not matter as the therapist is addressing the unconscious mind which will recall this information. They will focus on all the positive aspects of the flight and the purpose of the journey. If for example the person wants to be able to fly to enjoy a lovely beach holiday with her family then the therapist will guide her mind to the positive aspects of this. The hypnotherapist will ask her to imagine how she will feel lying on a warm, sandy beach with the sun on her face, listening to the waves gently lapping nearby. Perhaps they will ask her to think how she will feel seeing how happy this has made her children/partner/friends allowing them all to enjoy happy times together.

If it is a business trip the client is dreading making then perhaps imagining how this will make a difference to her financial situation or help her get promotion will allow her to make the changes required. By reinforcing the benefits of changing this negative behaviour it enables the client to rationalise internally and put an end to that negative voice in their head. Whilst it is acceptable and indeed part of the journey to feel an element of nervousness, it should be because of excitement and not dread that it is experienced.

Hypnotherapy will enable you to look at each journey as an adventure with endless possibilities of what is at the end of the journey to enjoy instead of the dread of what will most likely never happen anyway.

Find a therapist experienced in phobias and feel free to ask for testimonials.

“The fears we don’t face become our limits”. Robin Sharma